My Step-Sister's Dormitory review

The setup

On arrival day, the resident advisor greeting the new residents is Riley Reid, who also happens to be the narrator's stepsister. He is the lone man on her floor, a detail she somehow forgot to mention, and she clearly considers it his good fortune. The tour doubles as a roster: an activist in one room who adopts causes and people at the same speed, a quiet neighbor in another, flagged as dangerous. Riley announces that her stepbrother is staying all week, then claims him for a private welcome in her own room first.

Episode 2

Riley's room is comfortable, and her crack about making their parents proud lands with a smirk. Then the floor pushes back: a neighbor arrives with a formal complaint and wants him gone by nightfall. He offers to decamp to a hotel. Riley reminds the complainer of her own speech about experimentation, the complainer clarifies she meant personal growth, and Riley offers an experience instead. Within seconds the objection softens into a request for assistance with an unnamed project.

Who's who

• Riley Reid: his stepsister and the floor's resident advisor, making up house rules as she goes
• The stepbrother: the lone man in the hallway, mostly along for the ride
• The neighbor: a resident with a formal grievance that survives about thirty seconds

Verdict: 4.8 out of 10

Riley carries this with breezy authority, and the roster format has potential: each neighbor gets a one-line identity, like a sitcom pilot. The trouble is that the pilot never really starts. Episode 1 is mostly introductions, and episode 2 resolves its only conflict, the complaint, in a few lines. The stepbrother is a passenger in his own story. As setup it works; as drama it is thin. Whether the paid episodes appeal depends on how curious you are about the rest of that hallway.

Episode guide