TV
"Suspicion": The American version of "Doubles" took a great idea and threw it in the toilet
What was so effective about "Doubles" is that despite the seemingly unfounded conspiracy at its core, there was a sense that it could all really happen.
"Suspicion" almost goes out of its way to make the whole occurrence unfounded and forced, and its characters regularly cross the line between normative and boring
Ido Yeshayahu
05/02/2022
Saturday, 05 February 2022, 15:00
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Trailer for the series "Suspicion" (American "Doubles") (Apple TV Plus)
In just two weeks, two new high-profile Israeli series have appeared in the United States.
The previous one was "On the Spectrum" ("From Our Perspective" in the foreign adaptation) on Amazon Prime Video, while last Friday's Suspicion (hereafter "Suspicion"), Apple's Plus Plus' version of the huge success of "Doubles", starring Uma Thurman.
In both cases there are remakes that fall far short of the original.
Keshet's "Doubles" (which also produces the adaptation) tracked down five ordinary civilians who suddenly found themselves at the center of an international kidnapping affair.
This is what also happens in "Suspicion".
The Israelis are being replaced by the British, the foreign country is the United States (instead of Russia originally), and instead of the Iranian defense minister - the abducted personality is the son of a high-ranking public relations woman named Catherine Newman (Thurman), who is expected to be appointed US ambassador to Britain.
At the time of the incident, five Britons happened to be (or were not) at a hotel near the abduction site before returning to their homeland, making them the main suspects.
U.S. Detective Agent Scott Anderson (Noah Emmerich, "The Americans") arrives in London and hooks up with a British crime agency agent Vanessa Okoya (Angel Colby, "Merlin"), who is investigating the affair and the suspects.
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The series tries to convince us that all this is fascinating.
Uma Thurman and Noa Emrich, "Suspicion" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
Throughout its eight episodes (all sent for review, the first two came up last Friday and the rest will arrive weekly) "Suspicion" marks a number of Vs that can be identified from the Israeli source.
Also in the development of the plot, in the character design and even in some of the names - this time too Natalie (Georgina Campbell, "Black Mirror") is the one who is stopped during her wedding, and Sean Tilson (here played by Elias Gable, "Scorpion Team", "Game of Thrones" ") Is still the skilled and mysterious killer responsible for most of the action.
As in "Doubles", here too it takes time for the series to start, even over a longer period of time.
Only in the fourth episode does it feel like she came out of some drowsiness and the story really begins.
But even then "suspicion" just doesn't work.
Her big, huge problem is that from the first moment the world she creates is completely unfounded.
Security videos showing the kidnapping incident, in which the suspects are wearing masks by the British monarchy, are going viral around the world.
Beyond the silly idea that English citizens committing such a crime would wear masks to hint at their identity, "Suspicion" tries to take this virality and turn it into memes and jokes that various characters in the series watch with eagerness and pleasure.
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Boredom.
"Suspicion" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
These musty memes are a symbol of the most fundamental problem of "suspicion," the nucleus from which grows the faint atmosphere of everything that happens next.
When the kidnappers demand that Katherine Newman reveal the truth or that she kill her son, we are expected to believe that the same ridiculous virality is evolving into a wave of demonstrations and vandalism sweeping New York and London, demanding that Newman tell the truth.
When there is a press conference or an interview of interest, suddenly all the occupants of the cafe are captivated by the huge TV screen above them as if planes had crashed into the Twin Towers.
As if the series is subconscious, and with some pathetic desperation, trying to convince us that this whole thing is fascinating.
Look, the world is stopping a queen in favor of the story!
Meanwhile, throughout the season the almighty kidnappers manage to break into any screen anywhere all the time to place their claims - which also seems like an unconscious metaphor for the series' longing to capture our attention.
However, in stark contrast to what worked so well in "Doubles" - it is difficult to buy the reality that "Suspicion" is trying to sell us, and this is true from the first moment to the last.
Depending on the rickety shell, even the details inside it creak.
Quite a few of the sentences put in the mouths of the various characters sound like Hollywood replicas.
"It will work," someone says.
"I pray to God you are right," she replies otherwise dramatically.
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No sense in telling you now - I'm a Raj from The Big Bang.
Conel Nyer, "Suspicion" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
The protagonists of the series also do not save her (in addition to the above, the suspects are played by Konal Nayer, he is Raj from "The Big Bang", Elizabeth Hanstridge from "Agents Shield" and Tom Reese from "White Lines"). "Suspicion" She wants her protagonists' normativeness to evoke sympathy in us, but time and time again she crosses the line between the ordinary and the heavenly. In a certain way, they reveal things that were hidden in the police investigation for no logical reason, ones that might actually strengthen their credibility. Why? Maybe to create another fake drama, who knows. The situation is not much better in battle. Law enforcement; Anderson - Okoya's relationship is one we've seen dozens of times before.
What was so effective in the Israeli source is that despite the seemingly unfounded conspiracy at its center, there was a sense that it could all really happen.
Clearly, as Israelis with the fresh memory of the assassination affair in Dubai, which was a clear inspiration for the "doubles," it is easier for us to connect to such a scenario.
But even without him, the series created by Maria Feldman and Amit Cohen (who are also among the producers of the adaptation) was simply better written and more convincing, and even in its less successful moments - that is, the second season - exhausted the concept well.
In contrast - and truth be told, even without comparisons - “suspicion” wastes this excellent idea and turns it into a shallow, ridiculous and unreasonable product.
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