Main cast: Nancy McKeon (Dawn Wilder), Barclay Hope (Ken Wilder), Lori Hallier (Sherri), Jill Frappier (Mimi Rasmussen), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: Mitchell Gabourie

New Dawn is a story of two unlikable twats that, sadly, don’t die or anything by the end.

On one side of the ring there is Dawn Wilder, a rather desperately clingy type that tries very hard to gaslight her husband into thinking that he will lose everything if he would ditch his lawyer career and be an artist like he wants to.

On the other side is Ken, the husband, who immediately becomes annoyed by how Dawn no longer fits into his world the moment he becomes a successful artist. The wife doesn’t know anything about art, and is a flop at fitting in with his new friends, and they find her so easy to mock and make fun of.

On paper, Ken sounds like the bigger douchebag, but Dawn evens the score by constantly clinging even harder to Ken, trying to isolate him from his friends and even career while continuously trying to tell him that he must give up his art and “come home” with her.

In other words, here are two horrible people in a dysfunctional relationship that truly deserve one another. When dead bodies start to pile up and Ken becomes the suspect, it’s easy to guess the identity of the actual killer. Who else will be delusional and psychotic enough to think Ken is worth clinging on to?

Still, this episode won’t be so bad if its only sin is to be predictable. Unfortunately, the cast, especially Nancy McKeon, all seem to reading aloud their lines for the first time, straight out of cue cards, and the whole thing has a desperate “I’m only here for a paycheck, and I can’t get any better roles, so please don’t judge me!” vibe to it.

Is this episode better than the last few? I’d say, yes, to a degree. The script is better, but at the same time, the acting is abysmal. One step forward, two steps back.