Apple Streaming recently launched a new drama “Suspicion” starring big-name movie stars. It stars Uma Thurman, along with a slew of old American TV acquaintances.
The story begins with a puzzling case.
Leo, the son of American PR tycoon Katherine, was carried away in a suitcase by four masked thugs at a New York hotel.
The four gangsters all wore British royal masks, and the surveillance video of the whole process was posted online, which instantly became popular.
The FBI quickly identified five suspects: Natalie, a financial manager, Tara, a college teacher, Aadesh, an unemployed cybersecurity expert, Sean, a professional killer, and Eddie, a college student. They are all British.
These people don’t know each other, and their lives seem to have nothing to do with each other. Except for Sean, the other four seem to be ordinary people living ordinary lives. So how did they do this kidnapping together?
If it wasn’t them, why would the police think they did it?
This type of story has a certain set of routines, and while none of the four suspects appear to be the real murderer, each of them has an untold secret.
As the truth is discovered, these secrets will naturally be revealed slowly.
Natalie was arrested at her own wedding and arrived at the police station in her wedding dress.
She knew that her mother owed a lot of debt for the wedding, so she was still quietly dealing with the debt on the wedding day.
She had just been to New York to celebrate her upcoming wedding and had been to the hotel where the hijacking took place.
Tara, a social psychologist, was born in an ordinary family in the United Kingdom and finally became a teacher at Oxford University by her own efforts.
After the divorce, Tara lived with her daughter, and had recently traveled to New York for a conference and had been to the hotel where the hijacking took place.
Aadesh has a lot of professional skills but has not been able to find a stable job. He lives at his wife’s house and is ridiculed by his parents-in-law and brother-in-law all day long.
Aadesh expects to use his professional expertise. He also went to New York for a job opportunity and visited the hotel where the hijacking occurred.
Sean is a professional killer who also went to New York for work and went to that hotel.
On the other hand, Katherine is naturally not a simple character.
The kidnappers posted the process online, all they wanted was to attract public attention. And their specific purpose, of course, is as big a mystery as this kidnapping case.
Katherine is a powerful person with a lot of connections at the top, and she’s just been appointed as the US ambassador to the UK.
The client Aadesh is meeting in New York is related to Katherine, and the meeting that Tara is going to attend is also related to Katherine.
The relationship between these seemingly unconnected people seems to be slowly starting to emerge.
The story itself should be a very time-critical issue. A large living person is stuffed into a suitcase, and the most important thing is of course to be able to find the person while he is still alive.
But in this show, that sense of urgency is completely lost, as if neither the law enforcement agencies on the show nor the audience outside the show care that much about Leo’s life and death.
A very critical issue is that, at least from the first few episodes, Leo is a character who passes by in a flash, and naturally he will not let the audience have any feelings for him.
And the same goes for his mother, Katherine, who doesn’t seem to be a specific person, but a symbol, a powerful and rich man, and such a symbol certainly doesn’t make the audience care.
Of course, the biggest problem with “Suspicion” is that the level of law enforcement agencies in the play is too low.
The reason for the arrest of these four people is that the gangsters all wore masks of the British royal family, and these four British people happened to be in the hotel at the same time, and they had more or less contact with the victim, that’s all.
As a viewer who has watched countless crime dramas, the police interrogation process in this film made me want to roll my eyes countless times.
They don’t have any substantive evidence in their hands, all are circumstantial evidence, and any third-rate lawyer can immediately choke back.
Especially in one of the passages, Aadesh and Sean happened to enter the men’s toilet one after another, and the policeman asked incredulously, “You two didn’t speak in the toilet at the same time? Asked if you knew this person, but you said you didn’t?”
My God, who would pay attention to strangers who go to the toilet at the same time when a normal person goes to the toilet, and is even less likely to talk to strangers, and certainly not remember strangers who only have a relationship in the toilet.
The police of this level actually came to solve such a big case that has attracted so much attention. We can’t criticize the police for being too poor, and it should be said that the level of screenwriters is really not good.
So the film spent a lot of time on these suspects, portraying the police as incompetent and even a bit like villains.
Although it’s funny to watch TV and think that you can solve a crime, the police in American crime dramas really shouldn’t be so incompetent.
Although the four kidnappers are wearing masks, countless American TV shows have the technology to calculate their height.
It stands to reason that these four people will either be cleared of suspicion immediately, or there will be further evidence that can be used to force them to tell the truth, but it will not be the level of interrogation that is so hard to pull in the play.
Of course, the point of “Suspicion” is to elicit something more important from a seemingly confusing mystery.
What secrets does Katherine have, and to what extent privacy can be violated in a society where surveillance is pervasive.
Suffice it to say that the intent was good, but the level of storytelling was a bit out of step.
However, looking at the comments, the level of the later episodes of “Suspicion” has improved significantly, which is still attractive to watch.
Related Post: “Suspicion”: Apple’s New Thriller Series Starring Uma Thurman Releases Official Trailer.
