For anyone who has been missing Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the eight long years (how has it been that long?) since she slayed her last, the news of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s TV comeback was like Christmas.

Ringer is the story of a Bridget, a recovering addict and former stripper, who, after witnessing a murder, flees to her long estranged sister Siobhan. After a terse reunion with her identical twin and some horrendous special effects on a yacht, Siobhan commits suicide – or so the writers would like us to think. Naturally with no other choice, Bridget adopts the presumed-dead’s identity in a ploy to deceive her assailants. Yet the privileged life of her glittering sister has a few secrets of its own; it turns out Siobhan isn’t as squeaky clean as her uptight bun would have you believe.

The draw of Gellar was always going to be one of the main attractions of Ringer, and she doesn’t seem to have changed one bit. Ever the manipulator of the innocent eyes and feisty comebacks, it quickly becomes clear that Gellar is far better as Bridget than as her twin – the character is essentially Buffy, ten years on. The few scenes where the sisters interact with each other are uncomfortable to watch, with Gellar having absolutely no chemistry with herself and thus suggesting the director purely utilised the scenes to show off the less-than-impressive special effects. It appears two Sarah Michelle Gellars may not be better than one.

The cast is littered with other famous names. Ioan Gruffard stars as Siobhan’s temperamental husband in a role far below his acting ability as he spouts lines such as “I don’t like it... I love it. I just don’t believe it.” Lost’s Nestor Carbonell fairs slightly better as the FBI agent initially tasked with keeping Bridget safe until her testimony, and now on a mission to track her down. He is impressively debonair in a fairly boring role.

Although the dialogue can be stilted and melodramatic, the tightly packed plot is compelling. Full of swapped identities, clandestine affairs and camp exchanges, Ringer certainly has potential. There remains something undeniably captivating about watching a person trying to fake their way through someone else’s life, and it remains to be seen whether the concept hinted at - that each of us has a “dark side” to our soul - will be further developed.

Noirish and intriguing, Ringer has the plot to make it an addictive thriller. However, the acting and directing needs to be improved before it starts to ring true.