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Murder as well as Exhaustion: "The Snake" turns a suspense story about a serial killer into an awkward smear
Netflix's crime drama, which traces the story of serial killer Charles Subarge and the chase after him, includes all the elements for an intriguing and suspenseful work.
But here comes into the picture lazy editing, bad writing and terrible acting, which make it almost numb like the man at its center
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Netflix
bbc
TV review
Ilan Kaprov
Sunday, 11 April 2021, 00:00 Updated: 00:01
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The evolution of the true crime genre is much more reminiscent of a random imagination, that of social networks.
What began as a deep dive into horror stories, or at least severe trauma, evolved with the threshold of impossible excitement and numbness of the senses for real entertainment.
Just last February, SNL women marveled at a brilliant song about the phenomenon: the Guilty Pleasure to which we flee at the first opportunity left alone at home, with dismembered body parts and atrocities consumed against the backdrop of multitasking in a feed, folding laundry and face-time with mom.
Not coincidentally, one of last year's biggest hits - "Tiger King" - quickly turned from a story about murder, exploitation and animal abuse, to an obsession with Joe Exotic (to the point of being imitated in "Wonderland") and a performance by his great nemesis, Carol Baskin , In the American "Dancing with the Stars".
The preoccupation with what all this says about us belongs to another column, perhaps even to a series of columns, but the result of this evolution is that series from the genre can no longer be content with just atrocities or high corpse numbers.
They have a commitment to be first and foremost entertaining, even if not necessarily in the funny sense of the word: well-crafted and creative editing, building the various characters - good and bad - in a way that will make us connect with them or at least understand them, Will also bring the big twist right at the climax.
Without getting into feature spoilers, "The Serpent" - the BBC's crime / mystery / suspense mini-series co-produced with Netflix, where it also recently surfaced - fails in each of these entertainment criteria.
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Chemistry does not exist.
Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman, "The Snake" (Photo: Netflix)
"The Snake" tells the story of Charles Subrage (Tahar Rahim, "Prophet"), a French scam artist with a mysterious past, who introduced himself as a diamond dealer.
Between 1963 and 1976, Arb Subraj attacked Western tourists who roamed the so-called "hippie route" in South Asian countries, robbed them, murdered them and stole their identities while using their documents to move unhindered between countries and borders.
The name of the series is also the nickname attached to Subraj, due to the ability to scold and evade the various law enforcement authorities, leaving behind more and more unsolvable murders (one of them by an Israeli tourist, Ebony Jacob, in India, 1976).
His accomplices in the crimes were his girlfriend, Marie-Andre Leclerk (Jenna Coleman, "Doctor Who," "Victoria"), a secretary of Quebec descent who met Subraj during a vacation in India and fell under his spell, and Ajay Zawdhuri (Amash Adirvira), a young Indian who served As he does his word.
Subraj's actions would probably have remained unknown, had it not been for a gray and junior official at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok, Hermann Knippenberg (Billy Hall), began to pursue him following the murder of two Dutch tourists in the country.
With his partner, Angela (Eli Bamber), by his side, the two try to harness corrupt and destitute local police, diplomats and other allies from Subrage's acquaintances, to try and arrest him.
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Two options: a stunned look or a seductive look.
Jenna Coleman, "The Snake" (Photo: Netflix)
Already as a source material in itself, "The Snake" is a particularly complex and ramified story.
It features a respectable array of characters, countries, victims, personal history, upheavals and twists.
But the creators of the series, screenwriter Richard Warlow and director Tom Shenkland, have decided that all of this is not enough for them.
And so, right from the first episode, "The Snake" takes one of the most dubious script clichés - time jumps accompanied by "So and So Weeks / Months / Years After / Before" subtitles - and turns it into a way of life.
In fact, the series looks like someone just threw the footage in the editing room at random, and decided that his challenge was to connect the different scenes - whatever.
Even before we start talking about every other detail in the series, this frustrating narrative approach cuts off any chance of it producing any momentum or emotional connection.
Not only will in many parts you find yourself wondering “wait, what year are we in now?”, The ability to produce some coherence between the different parts of the story, becomes almost impossible.
This means that "The Snake" actually forces its viewers to move from one random murder to another, another stroll here and another couple there, all looking quite similar to each other, almost all devoid of any significant background story, eight years ago and then three years later, in Bangkok or In Nepal.
Everything seems numb and unimportant like the SNL girls song.
And if the atrocities have no context they also become much less shocking, certainly when each of the eight episodes lasts a full and full hour in this horrible conduct.
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Thanks for them.
"The Snake" (Photo: Netflix)
On this exhausting base layer, "The Snake" places layers of horrible accents, mediocre to awkward acting and insulting writing.
The best way to illustrate the tone of the series is an encounter between a Turkish telenovela and an Indian film.
Over-drama that meets cheap doing, comes parody.
Characters go through a dialogue between French and English in a terrible French accent, even though no one has joined the conversation, but what is particularly jarring is the physical conduct of the characters.
Rahim in the lead role at times looks like a parody of "Tough Man": huge glasses, blindfolds and unfounded head references that make him look really ridiculous.
Coleman, on the other hand, moves between two main reactions: a stunned look or a seductive look - both exaggerated and completely unreliable.
Her contribution to the plot more or less amounts to being a source of caresses for Subrage, and although the relationship between the two is supposed to play a key role in the plot - the terrible gameplay and non-existent chemistry between them, eliminates any chance that something of this dynamic will interest anyone.
The only main rib that saves the series for episodes, is Howell in the role of the gray but obsessive-case Kneenberg.
The deep shock he goes through as he becomes acquainted with Subrage's actions, along with the horror that the killer casts on him, produce an interesting and evolving character who manages to carry on her back the few moments of suspense that the series provides.
All of these are of course very few, but there is a glimpse into why the "snake" could have been if its protagonists had received nothing but investment from its creators.
In the hands of a creator like David Fincher, these are materials that could have easily become a "zodiac."
By the time the series gets to deal with Subraj's past at the end, he's already so disgusted and intriguing that his life circumstances leave zero impact.
Something that could have been easily solved with a more correct construction of his plot line.
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Like a parody of a tough guy.
Tahar Rahim, "The Snake" (Photo: Netflix)
Along with her many other weaknesses, "The Snake" is also far too long - certainly given her minimal investment in relationships and deepening in characters.
Thus, for example, at no point is it explained to us what the source of the connection between AJ and Subraj is, although the series leaves no doubt that it is deep and meaningful.
At the same time, the maximum we get is casual lines like "I left my family for you" to fill the void.
And because the characters themselves fail to interest themselves, and the acts repeat themselves in more or less the same way, the pursuit of Subraj turns from a hunt to a turtle race.
The sense of urgency is lost within the night of times and the random victims' faces, and the question of whether he will indeed eventually fall into the net becomes less and less interesting as the plot progresses.
Much has been written and said about Netflix's tendency to store low - level series, just to fill the repository, and on the assumption that someone will already find them entertaining.
That may well be true, there may be some who will find pleasure in exaggerated seventies fashion, too tight pants and Bollywood papers, but all of these will not make "The Snake" a series that justifies its screen time.
Netflix's catalog alone is full of much better options for both Guilty Pleasure enthusiasts and fans of complex puzzles and the hunt for criminals.
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