Facing children’s mockery and adult indifference, he wonders if his music is even worth hearing, until an old woman and her caretaker stop by just for him.
Rather than bounce back and forth between both plots, as is the typical sitcom format, “The Shadow” plays them sequentially, giving each all the room they need to resonate, while allowing their quiet thematic ties to unite them under one half-hour block.
This kind of simple yet effective break from the norm occurs time and time again in “Central Park” Season 2, and it’s largely thanks to co-creators Loren Bouchard , Josh Gad, and Nora Smith, as well as showrunners Sanjay Shah and Halsted Sullivan, cutting back on the serialized structure driving their first season.
While getting caught up in the preservation of Manhattan’s largest park via Bitsy’s business machinations and the Tillermans’ heroic public service can certainly be exciting, it turns out Apple’s sweet series doesn’t need that ongoing suspense to keep you hooked.
Molly’s main plots involve trying to find her artistic voice while struggling to fit in at school — via her own episode told mostly in black-and-white sketches — going through an awkward search for her first real bra with her overwhelmed father, Owen , and dreaming up an alternate life outside of New York in an inventive eighth episode.
Daveed Diggs kicks things off with a thumping, lyrically rich rap on “Weehawken”; Episode 4’s “Why Bother” is a winding ear worm featuring Keith David; “Down to the Wire” develops into a punny power ballad elevating the climax of Episode 5; “That’s How It Happened” is a tender, uplifting duet.
Anyone coming in with “Bob’s Burgers”-sized expectations may still not feel as close to the Tillermans as the Belchers; the parents have a ways to go toward becoming sharp, specific individuals , and the Bitsy/Helen balance of the Upper East Side subplots hasn’t quite found its strongest stride.