Alex Rider's uncle is the most boring man on the planet. Or so the 16 year old believes, until his uncle dies in a car accident. The authorities claim that Rider Senior was speeding, something that Alex knows he never, ever did. And with a little teenage ingenuity, he sets out to prove it.
Of course, sometimes learning the truth has unexpected consequences. So while Alex learns his uncle was a spy, his uncle's former employers learn that Alex is smart and resourceful ... and as it happens, they do so just at a time that they really need an teenage agent. What a narratively convenient coincidence!
So as you might imagine, Alex finds his most pressing concerns in life changing from 'does that girl I like also like me?' to 'am I about to die?' in fairly short order. Because whether he wants to be a spy or not, spying wants him.
So as you might imagine, Alex finds his most pressing concerns in life changing from 'does that girl I like also like me?' to 'am I about to die?' in fairly short order. Because whether he wants to be a spy or not, spying wants him.
This is the second attempt to adapt the Alex Rider novels to the screen, after the not especially well received film Stormbreaker. Critical reception of this 8 part series was much more positive, but I can't say it worked for me.
The principal issue I see is that the show has an identity crisis. On the one hand, it's got a very po-faced, "spying is a dangerous business" grimness to it. But on the other, this is ultimately a series about a 16 year old spy trying to defeat a Nazi super-science plot. And that's not something I could take seriously even if plot wasn't practically the same as the evil scheme from S Club: Seeing Double.
Be serious or be silly, show. You can't do both.
Be serious or be silly, show. You can't do both.
(Hint: Be silly. I have no interest in a 'serious' show about a schoolboy spy)
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