"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Suspicion: Excellent Start, But Is It Four or Five?



Just saw the first two episodes of Suspicion on Apple TV+.  Looks to be a top-notch crackling whodunnit, with all the trimmings.

Here's the crime: four people in a big New York midtown hotel, wearing British royal family masks (the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and Kate) kidnap the son of the biggest American media operation.  (For some reason, the promotion for the show talks about five suspects not four -- Wikipedia says "Five people - three men and two women - have their lives turned upside down after being identified by London police as suspects in the kidnapping" -- and the above picture shows five.  I have no idea why.  Maybe that's part of the mystery?)  The FBI and their British counterparts soon discover four Brits living not too far from one another in London were in New York the very night of the kidnapping, in the very hotel where the kidnapping occurred.  Three protest their innocence and are convincing, at least to me, under intense questioning.  The fourth, Sean, is apparently not only one of the kidnappers, but definitely a murderer, blowing up his girlfriend on a boat offshore in his smooth and so far successful attempt to elude capture.

So the question is: who among the other three are also guilty?  All three?  That would be an Agatha Christie move, but I'd say unlikely.  But I'd say it's equally unlikely, though not impossible, that none of these three donned a royal mask and helped kidnap the kid in New York.   So the question is which one or two?  And the narrative is doing a fine job at this point in not giving us a clue.

About the acting, all of that is good, too.  Among the actors I know, Uma Thurman plays the kidnap victim's mother, but so far we've barely seen her on the screen.  Noah Emmerich plays the American FBI agent.  First time I've seen him since he did a great job in the same job on The Americans, and he's off to an excellent start here.   The London scenes work well.  All we've really seen of New York after two episodes is the hotel.  But there's clearly a lot more to come, and I'll be on top of this series, adapted from the Israeli False Flag series (which I haven't seen), with weekly reviews after every showing.




 

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