Fear the Walking Dead’s Lennie James’ Save Me Too a huge hit

Fear the Walking Dead star Lennie James (Morgan Jones) has a resounding hit on his hands with his second season of British thriller Save Me.

Written by and starring Lennie James, Save Me Too was released for streaming this week in the UK on Sky Atlantic and Now TV, and is already a massive hit with both viewers and critics.

The series sees James as Nelly Rowe, a sofa-surfing, ladies-man who becomes consumed with the search for his missing estranged, teenage daughter Jody. In doing so he finds himself caught up in the horrific world of sex trafficking and the dark web.

James created Save Me under the working title “Gone” back in 2017, when he was approached to create a multi-season drama. He both wrote and starred in the first season which aired in the UK in February 2018. A US airing on Starz followed later in the year.

The show boasts impressive supporting actors in Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack, Dr Who), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire, This is England) and Kerry Godliman (After Life), with season two adding Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Maleficent) to the cast.

With the success of the first season solidified on both sides of the Atlantic, it seemed a second season was inevitable – especially with the cliffhanger ending of the season leaving viewers begging for more. Now it seems that James has made an even greater success with the second season.

Critics seem unified in their praise of the second season. The Guardian describes Save Me Too as “a gripping thriller with emotional heft”, giving it 4 stars and praising James’ choice to never take the easy path in his writing whilst The Independent also gives it 4 stars and says James’ script “truly takes the breath away”, describing his performance as “electrifying”.

Season two begins with Nelly’s 50th birthday party, 17 months after the events of the first season when Nelly failed to find his daughter, but did rescue another girl destined to be sex trafficked. Nelly is still wearing his identifying bright yellow puffer coat, swearing to not take it off until he finds his daughter, but its sorry looking state reflects Nelly’s own dwindling hope.

However, it seems the search for Jody will go on as a third season is already confirmed.

Fans of Morgan Jones, though, shouldn’t be afraid that the success of Save Me spells out Morgan’s fate at the end of season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead,  as James has successfully been balancing his UK and US work successfully for 3 years, so there’s no reason to think he can’t continue to do so.