Prodigal Son Season 1 (Sky) TV Show Review

Hannibal meets Sherlock, offering some hopeful life support for the outdated procedural

by Casimir Harlow
Movies & TV Shows Review

3

Prodigal Son Season 1 (Sky) TV Show Review

Procedurals used to be a dime a dozen, but nowadays it thankfully takes something extra to keep these episodic shows going, with Prodigal Son afforded a hint of Sherlock/Hannibal secret sauce in the Tom Payne/Michael Sheen lead duo.

Although the age of 10-episode single-story dramas has led to plenty of padding (Netflix are notorious for taking a 6/8-episode arc and spinning it out over 10-13), that's still largely better than 22-24 forty-minute crime-of-the-week procedurals, a la CSI, with one or two loose overarching - that only get a minute or two airtime per episode - dragged out over the entire season.

These days it takes a little bit more to keep a procedural going, as was more than evident in the appalling Sky TV adaptation of Jeffery Deaver's  book series, Lincoln Rhyme: The Bone Collector (to be fair, the books have been spinning their wheels for what feels like the last decade). Indeed, after Lincoln Rhyme, which has, in a rare example of TV justice, actually been cancelled after one bad season, it would be easy to dismiss this similarly themed serial killer procedural, but it's actually not too bad, capitalising on a strong enough premise, and giving us a decent lead, who has excellent - albeit sporadic - support from the ever-reliable Michael Sheen.

 

It would be easy to dismiss this serial killer procedural, but it's not too bad, capitalising on a strong enough premise, and giving us a decent lead  

Former FBI Profiler Malcolm Bright has one big fat skeleton in his closet - his father, the serial killer. Recruited by his surrogate father / mentor to consult for the NYPD, Malcolm soon finds his impressive deductive talents and unique perspective highly valued in the team, although as the cases get more challenging, so too does the elephant in the room loom closer: Malcolm's estranged dad, whose valuable input into the cases may come with too high a price to his still-damaged psychological state.

Prodigal Son

For starters, they got the casting right for once. The Walking Dead's Tom Payne (a Brit actor some might remember from Waterloo Road) is a pretty compelling lead. Some might say that Michael Sheen - the heavyweight Hopkins / Lector of the piece - doesn't get enough screen time, but Payne does a great job as a quirky, eccentric lead, following in the footsteps of Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in their respective Sherlock incarnations. Sure, he's a lovable know-it-all, but he's also Martin Riggs-like crazy at times, which gives the potentially by-the-numbers show a hint of an edge (particularly after Clayne Crawford was booted from Lethal Weapon).

The fact that his police teammates are even tolerable is a plus too, even if they are cookie-cutter 'types' utterly interchangeable in these kinds of productions (the geeky nerdy, awkward ME), and having Lou Diamond Phillips on hand as the Lieutenant / mentor helps no end. Of course the sister character is - thus far - utterly superfluous, but at least Bellamy Young's part as the mother-of-a-serial-killer gets a bit more meat, and really, it's Sheen who does all the heavy support anyway, despite bare moments of screen time every episode. It's not worth watching for him, but it's certainly a better watch with him in it.

 

In the days of binge watching single-story arcs, Prodigal Son may not persuade audiences back to the procedural format, but it does prove the exception to the rule  

Prodigal Son is still a procedural at heart, but it does its best to play both sides, trading quite heavily in Malcolm's damaged background, impressively volatile nightmares, fractured memories of childhood traumas, and toxic relationship with his parents - even just three episodes in there's more here than many old shows would have covered across the first season, although still it's hard to see whether this has the legs for a 20-episode run.

In the days of binge watching single-story arcs, Prodigal Son may not persuade audiences back to the procedural format, but it does prove the exception to the rule. It's a stale formula, but there's just enough Sherlock meets Hannibal in here to make the otherwise CSI clone work, with enough of a compelling lead to keep you interested in just whose arm he's next going to cut off / who he is next going to throw off a building. On the first few episodes alone, it edges an optimistic 7, let's just hope it lives up to it.

Scores

Verdict

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7

7
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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