5 Reasons Why You Need to Start Watching 'Rectify'

Between binge-watching Orange Is the New Black, finishing off the last few episodes of 24, and getting ready for another season of Under the Dome, discerning television viewers probably feel like their plates are full.

Well, make a little more room, because this week, the best show you’re not watching is back — Sundance TV’s Rectify.

[Photos: 'Rectify' Season Red Carpet Premiere]

Maybe you heard about it (it was on basically every TV critic’s 2014 best-of list), but it’s likely you didn’t watch the much-lauded first season last summer. For one, Sundance TV isn’t a prevalent channel; it’s not even measured by Nielsen. Second, the show has no name-brand stars, unlike other cable shows such as True Detective.

But there’s a reason why Rectify was included among the best of last year — it’s just that good. Beautiful, lyric writing combines with powerhouse performances to create a haunting, gripping drama.

Watch a sneak peek of the new season:

Here are five good reasons why you should catch up on Rectify, then watch Season 2:

1. The birth was hard; the toddler years are even harder.

In last year’s pilot, Daniel Holden (Aden Young) emerged from death row after nearly two decades when his conviction was overturned. When he left prison, he was essentially a newborn babe.

It’s just like when a bawling baby first comes into its parents’ lives: “Everything is illuminated by Daniel’s return — for the best and the worst,” Young told Yahoo TV over breakfast last week.

And viewers follow along Daniel’s journey as he tries to make it in this alien world. Those first few days of wonder and awe and confusion are cut short, though, when he’s savagely beaten by the brother of his ex-girlfriend (whose murder Daniel was tried for). Now, Daniel has to figure out how to grow up.

"He wants to live and he wants to explore what it is to be alive," Young said, "but unfortunately, like any adolescent, doesn’t realize there are consequences to things."

[Related: 'Rectify' Is One of 14 Summer TV Shows We Can't Wait to Watch]

2. It’s brother versus brother.

Rectify has many fascinating characters, and a lot of complicated and fraught relationships. But perhaps the second-most interesting character, after Daniel, is Teddy Jr. (Clayne Crawford), the petulant and possessive stepbrother.

In Season 1, his resentment — about Daniel’s re-entry into their lives, about Daniel’s growing connection with Teddy’s wife, Tawney (Adelaide Clemens) — simmered over, and Daniel had to put him in a chokehold. Teddy never confessed that to anyone, and there’s a moment in the Season 2 premiere where it seems that buttoned-up Teddy might break.

"He’s just vulnerable and so insecure," Crawford told us. "He’s terrified of losing what he has. He thinks this situation is going to rip the carpet out from under him — his business is going to be gone, his wife is going to be gone."

And if Teddy learns just how much Tawney is drawn to Daniel, well, we don’t foresee any brotherly love developing between him and Daniel.

[Related: 'Rectify' Cast Defends the Show's Slow Pace]

3. You won’t be able to take your eyes off Abigail Spencer.

Spencer is pretty much good in everything she does — remember her from Mad Men? Have you ever seen Suits? — but she’s particularly incandescent as Daniel’s sister Amantha in Rectify.

Now that Daniel is out of prison, and as he begins to recover, what will a life that doesn’t revolve around exonerating her brother be like for Amantha? And can she make her relationship with lawyer Jon Stern (Luke Kirby) work?

"Jon and Amantha are going to have to figure out who they are outside of Daniel being on death row, and who they are outside of him — are they anything outside of him?” Spencer told Variety. “Hopefully we’re going to see why they’re fighting for their relationship, because I really do believe they’re in love.”

4. There are more flashbacks to Death Row.

Daniel spent 20 years in prison, and that experience will continue to be a huge part of Rectify. Already in the first three episodes of Season 2 there are significant flashbacks and dream sequences involving Daniel’s fellow inmate Kerwin (Johnny Ray Gill).

Their interactions provide illuminating insights into Daniel’s psyche, his way of thinking, and whatever it is that propels him forward. Their scenes are among the most beautifully written and shot on the show. That’s when Rectify seems to move beyond television into art.

5. Daniel’s guilt or innocence will be addressed.

Season 1 took place over the span of about a week, so it was all about Daniel’s acclimation to his new life. Season 2 will delve more into the central question: Did he actually murder his teenage girlfriend, Hanna Dean? It’s a question that Daniel himself has been thinking about for these last 20 years.

[Related: 'Rectify': Aden Young Talks About Daniel's Innocence … or Guilt]

"Daniel’s been in that f—-ing room for 20 years, thinking, ‘What happened that night?’ He’s been through what is love, what is hate, what is violence, what are the games people play, why did I give in that night and say ‘I did it’?" Young said.

"We see a bit more of that; we begin to understand how you can crystallize your hate, your desire into something that’s pure, as violent as it might be."

Rectify Season 2 premieres Thursday, June 19 at 9 p.m. on Sundance TV.