This article was originally published in The Courier on 3rd November 2018.
THE LITTLE DRUMMER
GIRL: Sunday,
BBC One
THE FIRST: Thursday, Channel 4
A
six-part adaptation of the spy novel by John le Carre, THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL is a disappointingly flat affair.
In
something of a coup for the BBC, it’s directed by the highly acclaimed South Korean
filmmaker Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden;
The Vengeance Trilogy) and stars the
great American character actor Michael Shannon (he of the tombstone visage and
imposing screen presence). With that much talent involved, how could it possibly
fail? Well, simply put, it’s boring.
Chan-wook
has opted for a muted approach, which in theory at least suits the Cold War-era
source material. However, instead of coming across as an intensely slow-burning
thriller steeped in downbeat, chilly atmosphere a la the BBC’s classic
adaptation of le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Spy, it ends up feeling lifeless.
In
episode one, I never got the impression that Chan-wook was particularly interested
in the subject matter. As you’d expect, it’s elegantly shot, but as a piece of
drama it’s curiously remote and unengaging, a glacial exercise in spy thriller
style. We are expected to sit through six hours of this.
I’m
all for Europe-trotting Cold War confections in which characters have grave,
clandestine conversations in dimly lit rooms, but only when a strong story supports those familiar genre tropes.
In
The Little Drummer Girl, the
meandering plot involves Charlie, an idealistic fringe theatre actress (promising
TV newcomer Florence Pugh) who, after what felt like an eternity, was
eventually recruited by Shannon’s Israeli spymaster, Kurtz. Shannon delivered a typically arresting, subtly detailed performance, but he overshadowed everything around him. His character is more interesting than the plot.
Kurtz is in pursuit of
a Palestinian terrorist. Charlie doesn’t know how she can be of any help.
That’s supposed to provide a magnetic layer of intrigue, but The Little Drummer Girl suffers from a
fatal lack of tension.
Momentum
only built in the final scene, when Charlie was abducted by an enigmatic German
member of Kurtz’s team (Alexander Skarsgard). By that point, however, it was too little too late.
The
first episode of a TV thriller has one basic job: to set the wheels in motion and draw you in.
In this instance, the wheels whirred far too lethargically.
An
Anglo-American co-production, eight-part science-fiction drama THE FIRST burns slowly to far more
compelling effect.
Set
in the near future and partly inspired by the Challenger space shuttle
disaster, it began with a tragically aborted human mission to Mars. Sean Penn –
looking for all the world like a kindly, careworn couch – stars as a former
astronaut tasked with comforting the grieving relatives of a doomed team of
cosmic pioneers.
His quietly convincing performance is matched by the excellent
English actress Natascha McElhone, who plays the conflicted CEO of the company
responsible for sending these astronauts to their death. Penn’s character will,
inevitably, lead another mission to Mars, but I’m looking forward to seeing how
that pans out.
Framed
through a prism of hand-held pseudo-documentary realism, The First is a humane, understated drama. It’s essentially the
polar opposite of The Little Drummer Girl
in that, quietly, gently, it establishes a mood of queasy intrigue. It hooks
you in. The
Little Drummer Girl is nothing more than a series of loosely-knitted, drab
occurrences.
Suffused
with potent melancholy, The First presents a pair of potentially interesting protagonists and a strong ‘what if?’
scenario. It arrived on TV with very little fanfare last week, but it deserves
your attention.
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