It has been a while since I watched anything, let alone a show, and I wanted to review it. It wasn’t my intention to review this show, but after watching it, I wanted to share my thoughts and opinion on it as I feel 50/50 about it. I also wanted to dust off the cobwebs I have, as I haven’t written a review in nearly a year. When watching it, there were times when I wanted more and times when I felt like the show lacked what it needed to wow me as an audience member, and times when it gave me some hope of what it could be and the potential it had to be a great show.
Treason is a British television miniseries created by Matt Charman, made for the streaming platform Netflix. It stars Daredevil’s very own Charlie Cox, Olga Kurylenko, Oona Chaplin, and Ciaran Hinds, to name a few. It consists of only five episodes.
Charlie Cox plays Adam Lawrence, the newly appointed Chief (C) of MI6, after Ciaran Hinds’ character, who was the original Chief, is poisoned. This then sets in motion an entire chain of events that will uncover some deep secrets in Adam’s past; and how he got to the position he is in. Adam, married to Oona Chaplin’s character, Maddy and father of two children, appears to be a devoted family man – until the events that occur leading him to become distant and closed off. Adam shares a complicated history with a former Russian spy that used to feed him helpful information for the better part of Adam’s career. The spy in question is a woman named Kara, played by Olga Kurylenko. She is also the former lover of Adam – and is the catalyst to why Adam’s life is the way it is and is also about to be turned completely upside down.
From beginning to end, the show felt like it was in a rush to tell the story, get the plot out, and piece everything together. With only five episodes, it makes sense as to why it feels rushed. From the very first episode, I could sniff out what would potentially end up happening by the end of the show, correctly guessing who the antagonist was in the show.
Charlie Cox did a great job in the character of Adam, but I believe he was outperformed by the performances of Oona Chaplin (Maddy) and Olga Kurylenko (Kara). I felt more towards those characters – where I felt complete annoyance for how Maddy was portrayed in the show, I understood why she was the way she was. With Kara, you are initially sceptical about her for how she is portrayed, but you will end up rooting for her, and she will be your favourite character in the entire series.
For a 40-minute show, everything was managed to fit in – although some parts felt lacklustre. Some parts felt dragged out, and others seemed to be missing. I honestly believe Treason wasn’t what I hoped it would be. I initially had high hopes for it, comparing it to the likes of The Bodyguard, which was a massive success. Those high hopes fell flat for me.
The conclusion felt unnecessary and seemed as if it was set up to produce a Season 2 – which is something that I am not 100% for. Many series these days have hopes of being a massive hit. Production companies chuck millions into the creation of the series, hoping for it to be the next Stranger Things, the next Wednesday, the next Breaking Bad, hoping for it to break records, without ensuring that there is a solid foundation first.
The popularity of series these days causes companies to neglect and forget the main factor as to why these shows get as big as they do – the fans. They don’t allow the viewers to grow organically; instead, they hope that everything is a major hit straight away, which is why I feel Treason didn’t grab me as much. Treason felt like a victim to one of those tropes, a show that, if fleshed out properly, could have the potential to be something bigger with spin-offs that would be better than itself. Unfortunately, it was not.
As I always say, don’t let what I say deter you from giving it a watch because there were some parts that I did enjoy, I won’t lie. The main factor I liked was the detective aspect of trying to find out ‘who did it’. With that said, it isn’t a show that I would go back to watch again – I think it is a one-and-done viewing for me.
Rating: 2.5/5