TV: Oddballs in Paradise on ‘Lodge 49’

Aug. 12; amc.com

Last season, AMC conjured up some critical love with Jim Gavin’s “Lodge 49.” The modern-day fable stars Wyatt Russell as Dud, a sunny former surfer in Long Beach, Calif., whose mojo tanked after a snake bit him in Nicaragua and his father vanished into the Pacific.

Then serendipity landed Dud on the doorstep of the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx, where companionship and alchemy (yes, alchemy) gave him a new lease on life. At least until a shark took a chunk out of him in the finale.

More whimsy — prophecies, unicorns, encounters with the departed — ripples through Season 2 as Dud, his twin sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy), and his mentor, Ernie (Brent Jennings), go in quest of fulfillment. For Dud, that means restoring the lodge to its former glory by putting the rightful ruler on the throne, as well as reclaiming his place cleaning the pools that were once the domain of his family when all was right in their oddball world . KATHRYN SHATTUCK