Ever since his stellar success in 24, Kiefer Sutherland has pushed to be obtained by audiences in different exhibits.
While Touch, The First Lady and (Quibi sequence) The Fugitive had single seasons, a minimum of Designated Survivor made it to a few.
Now he’s again in an motion position as personal espionage agent John Weir in Rabbit Hole, on Paramount+.
Rather than kicking off with explosions and presidential assassinations, Rabbit Hole takes its time to determine the again story of its main man with flashbacks of a boy whose father was both knee-deep in espionage or paranoid about spies – which finally led to his mother and father’ break up and father’s dying.
It all quantities to grownup John continually trying over his shoulder within the current, whereas forging a profitable profession as a go-to personal agent.
One of these on his case is homosexual, FBI agent Madi (Enid Graham) who follows him on metropolis streets ready for him to slide up on no matter surreptitious mission he’s enterprise.
“I do know you assume that you just’re Robin Hood however you’re not,” she warns him.
Aiding John is his small staff of merry women and men (together with Aussie actress Jorja Cadence) who plot away in a warehouse behind screens that aren’t CTU, for these of you who keep in mind.
John can be estranged from his personal spouse and pleased to hook up casually with bar patrons akin to Hailey (Meta Golding), if satisfied they’re a plant secretly employed to destroy him. ‘Trust no-one’ as Fox Mulder would possibly recommend…?
The opening episode lurches alongside till John is lastly tasked with a mission (thank god) to border a high-ranking Treasury official with a company CEO, but it surely’s unclear who’s behind this agenda. Nevertheless, the cat-and-mouse framing, executed with clockwork precision like a scene from Sneakers, is sweet enjoyable. If solely it may spend money on extra of this motion.
By episode two, when John reconnects along with his dalliance Hailey, their pairing is reaching for some sexual stress / screwball comedy that by no means fairly lands.
Action, flashbacks, comedic touches -it all makes for a fairly uneven drama providing.
Yes, writers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra do drop twists which are so excessive they really feel like they’re whiteboard author room concepts to consciously U-turn the viewers… versus being organically pushed by character. There’s additionally an inclination for characters to be speaking at one another, reasonably than to one another, and by my calculations flashbacks of John as a boy are about 10 years too junior to match grownup Kiefer.
Tense, whispery Sutherland works with ease with materials, hell he most likely is aware of the style higher than everyone else round him and whereas Rabbit Hole has its moments, it’s arduous to disregard the sensation that I’d a lot desire Jack Bauer to John Weir on my display screen.
Rabbit Hole premieres Monday on Paramount+. (Episode 1 9:15pm tonight on 10).
