Prime Target Review

There are a number of mental leaps one needs to make whilst watching Prime Target, the new thriller from AppleTV+, but the chief one is that a young maths graduate student at Cambridge would not only be able to deduce the proper theorem that could, ostensibly, be used as a key to unlock all digital locks that exist in the world of computer science (which, after some Googling, could be a reality*), and that he could do so not only under duress from various government and black ops agents who want to catch him or kill him, but that he and another very young NSA analyst could continually evade and outsmart all of those same agents throughout the course of the series – especially after we’re repeatedly told just how the government is able to spy on people of interest without them knowing. It’s like if A Beautiful Mind, The DaVinci Code, and The Bourne Identity had a child that was an unevenly written television series with a cast of supporting actors so incredibly stacked that you spend your time waiting to see just why so many heavy hitters opted to sign onto the project.

*While an understanding of the mathematics and computer science underpinning the central MacGuffin in the story isn’t necessary – the series does try to explain just what this particular piece of mathematical brilliance would do to the world, whether it does so successfully is up for debate – it does appear to be plausible, if highly unlikely, that someone could come up with this information. What’s incredibly implausible? That this particular person could do so, while in these scenarios, and with this amount of international intrigue.

Our two young, intrepid lead characters are Edward Brook (White Lotus season two’s Leo Woodall, still in his smoldering eye acting era), the Cambridge maths genius who also appears to be coded as either somewhere on the autism spectrum or just anti-social (as all great geniuses are), and Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell, who is given almost no real range to play in a very one-dimensional character), a surveillance analyst for the NSA tasked with spying on various European mathematicians (mostly through cameras implanted in their smoke detectors). One of those mathematicians happens to be Edward’s advisor (played by David Morrissey, the first of our great supporting actors), who also used to work in the field of prime numbers – which just so happens to be the area Edward wants to do his dissertation in. You see, the field of prime numbers sets off alarm bells in the NSA (and other government agencies around the world) because that is how all digital locks are coded (or something like that). And trying to crack prime theory could be the key to unlocking all of that complex encryption. It’s why the NSA is watching the mathematicians. And it’s why Edward is told, in no uncertain terms, that he cannot research the topic.

The seriousness of this research topic – and the acknowledgement of Edward’s particular skill in the field – comes to the forefront when an ancient temple is discovered after an explosion in Baghdad. Heading up the research team from Cambridge looking into it is Professor Andrea Lavin (the great Sidse Babett Knudsen – who you might remember from the excellent Danish series Borgen), who is married to Edward’s advisor. Turns out, that temple? Well, it has writing on the walls that could break prime theory wide open – and Edward wants to get there to see just what secrets he can learn.

Without getting into the entire plot, at some point Edward and Taylah meet up, as adversaries and eventually reluctant partners to try and figure out why the NSA needs this information and just who else might be after Edward’s brilliant mind. Along the way we meet the rest of the stellar cast, including Harry Lloyd (doing a sensational American accent) as a smarmy NSA director, Martha Plimpton (who is far and away the best part of the series and makes a real case for future roles in thrillers as a no-nonsense spy master) as Taylah’s NSA handler, and Fra Free (who is so darn charming while also making you question everything about his character) as a potential love interested for Edward.

Now you might be thinking, hey, this sounds kind of silly but fun! What’s the problem? Well, it is kinda silly and sometimes fun (like I said, any time Plimpton was on screen, I was really digging the series), but boy, is the writing a major disappointment. Our two central characters are wholly defined by two facts about them (for Edward, it’s his genius preventing him from seeing outside of his blinders, and for Taylah it’s a traumatic incident in her past), and the series makes no attempt to build their characterization beyond that. In fact, in the case of each, we are repeatedly reminded of those two personal facts time and again – often in direct lines of dialogue – telling us rather than showing us how those character beats impact who they are today. The series also doesn’t quite know what it wants to be in terms of its scope. Is this a thriller about one man and his attempt to outwit a couple of adversaries to solve a problem or is this a thriller about a historically hidden piece of information that could spark an international arms race. It feels both shockingly small and impressively worldly in a single instance.

And then there’s the narrative itself. When you have a cast this strong, I fully understand the desire to get them on screen as much as possible. But that only works if you actually have enough of a story to tell. Here, the character of Professor Lavin is only necessary to the plot in terms of how her knowledge and proximity to Edward serves his story. But the narrative keeps trying to offer her character mini arcs, which are fine, if only they ever went anywhere. Instead, they start and then get dropped as the story focuses back on Edward and Taylah. Which is disappointing. Similarly there’s tension between Lloyd and Plimpton’s characters, but again, it goes nowhere. And, with those two in particular, you really wonder what might have been as they are such compelling actors in the series.

So, if you’re in the mood for a pretty empty thriller with some really great actors trying to make the most out of a little, Prime Target is worth a look. But you’ll probably find yourself disappointed at the time spent and wishing for more.

Prime Target premieres on AppleTV+ on January 22. All eight episodes were provided for review.