Alex Rider Season 1 (2020) Review

There was an attempt many years ago to try and make Alex Rider a film franchise but it failed and now Amazon have taken a chance and looked to launch a TV series with the same character and here is the review for the first season. The premise of the season sees after his uncle is mysteriously killed Alex Rider is recruited by a shady organisation to infiltrate a school and find out there intentions. 

Main Character

Pretty unknown actor Otto Farrant plays Alex Rider and the best thing I will say is that he is functional in the role. He is fine in pretty much everything, fine in the action scenes, fine in making you care and fine in keeping you interested. But that is it, he is just fine, there is nothing remarkable about him at all and it is hard to buy him as this spy because he spends no time training and you just aren't given a great reason to overly care about him. 

Supporting Characters

Brenock O'Connor who played Olly on Game Of Thrones plays his best friend and he does a decent job here. You buy into their relationship and believe that these two would be friends, he plays the geeky sidekick which we have seen before but he does it well here. Stephen Dillane who played Stannis Baratheon also on Game Of Thrones is here as the head of the organisation and he is fine in his role, you don't learn too much about his character but he is good in the role and you want to learn more about him. But the rest of the cast aren't so interesting, the villains are generic and the rest of the good guys don't have much about them and again it doesn't give you enough of a reason to care. 

Story

The story actually has some interesting moments to it, the premise of being in this school is great as you aren't exactly sure what is going on but when it is all revealed it is actually a good reveal that will suprise you. It's just there is too much going on in the background, the stuff in London isn't that interesting and I felt like the finale was weak and the show could have actually ended the episode before and that would have set up a more interesting second season. 

Script

The script is okay, it builds the suspense and tension really well, by hiding the true motivations of the story it leads to interesting reveals in the later parts of the season. But overall, the drama and humour isn't there to a high enough level making the characters less interesting for sure. 

Style

This show has some impressive set pieces too it with good action scenes here. But there aren't enough really, plus the pacing of the show lets it down. It just takes way too long to get going and this season could have been 6 episodes long which I think would have made it much better and more exciting.

Overall

Overall, this is a very average show, there is nothing insultingly bad about it but also nothing particularly memorable about it. I would say avoid this one unless you are a fan of the books or are a huge spy fan it might be okay but there is better out there. 

Rating - 5/10