David Duchovny’s new Prime Video streaming series is taking a somewhat malicious beating from critics.
Malice season 1 premiered on November 14, and its initial Rotten Tomatoes score of 46% indicates that the new revenge thriller series is far from a critical darling. Just 13 reviews have been compiled as of this publication, so the show’s score could still recover.
The show’s synopsis reads, “Adam Healey, a charming manny, infiltrates the brash, wealthy Tanner family, in order to destroy them.”
X-Files and Californication star Duchovny plays one of the brash, wealthy Tanners, while Bad Education‘s Jack Whitehall plays the charming manny out for revenge.
Critics of Malice take issue with the show’s writing, calling it contrived and creaky, with eye-rolling dialog. The characters are bashed for being inconsistent in their behavior, a flaw that’s made all the worse by the story’s less-than-thrilling twists, and over-reliance on exposition.
The show is given credit for subverting expectations with its lead character, a male nanny, but is criticized for failing to find the story’s hook. Whitehall’s against-type portrayal of Healey gets good grades, however, with critics noting his effectively menacing performance.
ScreenRant’s own Malice season 1 review goes somewhat against the critical grain, calling the show “one of the most effective takes on the family infiltrator genre yet,” while praising the cast for their “elegant” performances.
“The slow burn keeps us guessing all the way to the end, while the gripping performances and dark sense of humor underlying certain sequences kept me glued to the screen to the point of wanting much more,” the review continues.
Other positive Malice reviews praise the show for being well-paced and fun, though even the good write-ups note the story’s implausibility.
Series creator James Wood talked recently about Malice’s slow-burn approach, while addressing the key mystery that drives the story (via Metro Philadelphia):
It’s not so much a who done it. But hopefully if it works, the audience will really want to know why this guy hates this family so much. Plotting the mystery elements was huge fun. And it just sort of takes time.
Malice star Whitehall talked recently about the challenge of playing a charming sociopath after mostly doing comedy his whole career. (via TV Insider):
Adam presents as this sort of very affable, charming, very useful person that comes into this family’s life. But I think from relatively early on in the first episode, you get that there’s a kind of edge to him and he’s maybe not all as he seems. And it was really, as an actor, a great character to be able to play as those characters that are sort of being deceitful have lots of layers.
On comic actor Whitehall playing a psychopath, Wood noted that in addition to being scary, the character must also be charming, in order to convince the audience that he could really infiltrate the family against whom he seeks to unhatch his violent designs (via Express):
I know [Whitehall] fairly well and we wanted the family to really believe in Adam as a ‘manny’, and Jack is incredibly charming and funny and presents as the perfect ‘manny’.
Malice season 1 runs for six episodes, with all six now available on Prime Video. All episodes were written by series creator Wood, with directorial duties split between Mike Barker and Leonora Lonsdale.
