Netflix's new conspiracy thriller is light on thrills.
Note: this review discusses basic story and character details for Paranoid, now available on Netflix in the US, but avoids any major spoilers.
The only way Paranoid could be more of a cliched conspiracy thriller is if one of the characters actually uttered the line "This conspiracy goes all the way to the top!" It cycles through just about every other trope in the book over the course of its eight episodes. But even if the series did offer a compelling narrative, the thoroughly obnoxious cast of characters would still make slogging through those eight episodes a real chore.
A joint venture between UK network ITV and streaming juggernaut Netflix -- it aired in the UK earlier this fall before its recent debut on Netflix in other parts of the world -- Paranoid is a crime drama that unfolds simultaneously in the fictional British town of Woodmere and Dusseldorf, Germany. The series opens with a respected doctor being stabbed to death in broad daylight. This being a conspiracy thriller as well as a cop drama, it's not long before our plucky detective heroes discover that there's far more than meets the eye to this particular murder.
Team Paranoid.
The plot largely centers around three detectives - Nina Suresh (Game of Thrones' Indira Varma), Alec Wayfield (Now You See Me 2's Dino Fetscher) and Bobby Day (Hustle's Robert Glenister), as well as their German colleague, Linda Felber (Generation War's Christiane Paul). The cast of characters also includes Lucy Cannonbury (Scott & Bailey's Lesley Sharp), the primary witness to the murder, Dr. Chris Crowley (The White Queen's Michael Maloney), a psychiatrist with ambiguous ties to the murder, shady pharmaceutical executive Nick Waingrow (The Constant Gardener's Danny Huston) and a rogue informant nicknamed "The Ghost Detective" (Downton Abbey's Kevin Doyle).
It's not a bad cast, all things considered, but Paranoid gives its actors frustratingly little to work with. Lousy writing is at the heart of this series' various storytelling woes. The series is slow, plodding and formulaic to a fault. It takes entirely too long for Paranoid to start shedding light on the full scope of its conspiracy, and once the "sinister pharmaceutical company" subject is broached it becomes pretty darned obvious where everything is heading. A good conspiracy thriller should keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Paranoid's weak, meager plot twists utterly utterly fail to hold your attention.
Also bizarre is how small and unremarkable the scope of this conflict feels. Despite the story unfolding in two countries, it rarely feels like more than a tiny murder investigation where the same handful of characters are doomed to pop up again and again. Every character is linked in an implausibly convenient web of connections and shared histories. Picture a Law & Order episode where every single incidental character the police interview just happens to be a family member or close friend.
The dialogue and characterization are the biggest sticking points, however. Writer Bill Gallagher manages the impressive feat of crafting a show where each character is more annoying and unlikable than the last. The three main detectives are utterly perplexing. They seem to lack even the most basic ability to keep their professional and private lives separate. Nina is bipolar, constantly interrupting the investigation to verbally harangue colleagues or whine about being dumped by her boyfriend. Bobby seems to suffer from some unexplained case of PTSD and is constantly plagued by panic attacks and moments of exceptionally poor judgment. All three detectives seem to suffer from genuine forms of mental illness, which might actually be interesting if the series ever acknowledged that fact or attempted to explore their troubled psyches in any real depth.
The forced romantic drama doesn't help, either. Nina and Alec have a will-they-won't-they dynamic that changes as often as the former's mood swings. It's never quite apparent what Alec sees in his aggressively unlikable co-worker, other than perhaps as a Band-aid on his severe mommy issues. As for Bobby, he's quickly drawn into Lucy's orbit. As a devout Quaker, Lucy's scenes generally boil down to her smiling and staring knowingly off into space. And then there's the obnoxiously perky Linda, who's defining character trait is her strange compulsion to discuss sex at the most inappropriate times.
Huston's Nick Waingrow is the one character on the show with some redeeming qualities. Huston is able to bring a subtlety to the role that the rest of the characters lack. And for a while, the series seems content to treat Nick as an ambiguous character, one who could either be friend or foe to the crusading detectives. But ultimately, Nick's character arc proves as disappointing and unfulfilling as all the rest.
On top of all these flaws, Paranoid also suffers from some genuinely atrocious dialogue. At one point one of the detectives complain that about an interviewee, saying, "Everything he said sounded rehearsed." I'm not sure how they would know when so much of the dialogue is bizarre or downright nonsensical. Here are a few of the more egregious examples:
- "He's gone from being an unknown unknown to a known unknown."
- “I keep chasing it round my head but can’t catch it.”
- “Those pages mattered to him, so we have to make them matter to us. Like bright lights stapled to our foreheads.”
- “The biggest cop - the cop that’ll get you - is the cop in your head.”
Finally, while the show attempts to create a sense of paranoia and unease in its visual presentation, with various shots of darkened warehouses and hooded figures lurking in the bushes, it rarely stands out in that regard. If anything, it's better at showcasing the quaint beauty of the English countryside than exploring the dark, seedy realms where conspiratorial killers roam.
The Verdict
With the wealth of terrific original content on Netflix these days, it's pretty tough to recommend a series as dull, formulaic and poorly crafted as Paranoid. The trope-heavy conspiracy plot is bland, but it's the obnoxious characters and insipid dialogue that truly drag the series down. True Detective: Season 1 this isn't.
Editors' Choice
→
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire