hard, over suspension to write a new series of Apple TV+ without giving away everything that makes them exciting. The series is structured in such a way that after the first episode you can’t guess what will happen in the second episode and so on, up to the eighth and last episode, which then again brings a new twist with it that you didn’t have see it coming. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that the final twist is great. But she comes as a surprise.
The thriller series is being sold as a new series starring Uma Thurman. That’s because she’s the only big name in the ensemble, but she has a rather small role. A small, important role. She plays Katherine Newman, the head of a powerful New York PR firm with a lot of influence in Washington, and the series begins with her son being kidnapped. A couple of strangers wearing masks of the English royal family beat the man in his early 20s in the hallway of a large Manhattan hotel, packed him in a suitcase and disappeared with him. Then they ask the mother to tell the truth in bizarre video messages that are posted worldwide as memes and are accompanied by a huge echo in the media.
The truth about what? And who are the kidnappers?
Suspicion quickly falls on four people from London, who were all staying in the Manhattan hotel at the time of the crime. Back in England, they are interrogated by the police. They don’t seem to know each other. Or is there a connection? There are many inconsistencies. A two-man international investigative team, consisting of a commissioner from the English National Crime Agency and an American FBI agent, is entrusted with the case. And these two are a huge problem for the series in their interaction, because nothing happens between them at all.
“Suspicion” is based on the Israeli series “False Flag” about a true kidnapping case
suspension is the adaptation of an Israeli series, False flag (2015). This, in turn, was loosely based on a true case: in 2010, Mossad agents kidnapped Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh from a hotel in Dubai and used the passports of uninvolved citizens to disguise their identity. In False flag It became the story of five ordinary Israelis who one morning learn that they are suspected of kidnapping Iran’s defense minister. In suspension now four, later five, Londoners are suspected of having kidnapped the son of a powerful American woman, whereby the tension is said to be fed to a large extent from the clash of two very different investigative styles.
The English woman relies on sensitivity and intelligence – the American would rather use cowboy methods, true to his cliché. Hell, it’s about a human life, every means is fine with us, according to this school. That should actually cause friction, but it doesn’t. This is where the series gets stuck suspension very powerful. Above all, the FBI agent (played by Noah Emmerich, who is known as a neighbor of Jim Carrey from the truman show knows) seems like a mere assertion. He’s been credited with making a sort of smacking noise during interrogations that annoys some suspects insanely, but that’s about all the script gave him as a character, and that, too, is forgotten as the series progresses. He doesn’t even bother. He is simply superfluous, traipses like ordered and forgotten next to the credibly portrayed British colleague (Angel Coulby), and you don’t know why. Dramaturgically, his character makes no sense.
Otherwise the production is solidly well done, if not a revelation. It’s the genre where placemarks whir at the bottom, investigators can observe every corner of the world via security camera or satellite, and the plot can constantly rotate – and you can still switch off at any time and you’ll be able to fall asleep right after, yes is not always a disadvantage. In any case, this series is only suitable for binge-watching with a lot of good will.
An internationally successful adaptation has already been made of an Israeli thriller series, viz homeland. This time things seem somehow less important, rocked down a bit too professionally, something like soul is missing. Some actors are good, others just seem like they’re in a series. Uma Thurman plays her small but important role with a lot of gravitas and extremely controlled temperament. Anyone who has already gone through all the new thriller series will feel satisfied with this one.
suspension, on Apple+.
You can find more series recommendations here.