Summary
Prime Target offers serviceable conspiratorial thrills, but it’s fatally hamstrung by an awful protagonist and some leaden dialogue.
Apple TV+’s Prime Target is a show about maths, and a bit of history, and a lot of international espionage and conspiracism, but on a deep meta level its greatest mystery is how it manages to make Leo Woodall, who was so charismatic and compelling in Season 2 of HBO’s The White Lotus and in Netflix’s One Day, one of the most boring and off-putting men to ever live.
Woodall plays Edward Brooks, a brilliant Cambridge postgraduate mathematician who’s working on a theory that prime numbers contain the secrets of the universe. You can tell he’s close to the truth because it quickly becomes apparent that people would kill to keep his research buried. Who, and why, form the essential dramatic questions of this miniseries as Ed’s cosy academic world is turned upside-down across six pacey but aggravating episodes.
Why aggravating? Ed’s to blame for a lot of it. He’s one of those abrasive academics that TV shows love, his social ineptitude written off because of his unbridled genius. But the balance feels off. Ed’s more awful than he is brilliant; other characters have to keep reiterating how smart he is, but he shows how horrible he is every five minutes, so that becomes the central aspect of his personality.
Because of this it’s difficult to care when Ed finds himself in the midst of a dangerous conspiracy. It doesn’t seem like he cares much either. When his professor, Robert Mallinder (Neil Morrissey), finds out what he’s working on and promptly disappears, Ed is only concerned about getting his research notes back. The only person Ed seems to have any affection for is retired professor Raymond Osborne (Joseph Mydell), who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, but even then, only because he feels he has thus been saddled with a lesser tutor thanks to his former mentor’s ailment.
Leo Woodall in Prime Target | Image via Apple TV+
This extends to his personal life, too. When his “friend” Fiona (Daisy Waterstone) tells him she’s turning 23, the boring sod just says, “That’s a prime number.” He has a one-night stand with one of Cambridge’s bartenders, Adam (Fra Fee), and then curtly throws him out the next morning, acting like his presence is an inconvenience. But he was perfectly happy to seduce Adam in the first place. He wants to have his cake and sleep with it.
Prime Target isn’t confined to Cambridge, which is a mercy. A riveting opening sequence set in Baghdad is what really kick-starts the plot, leading to the unintentional discovery of an ancient chamber that could hold the secrets of Ed’s prime number theory. Mallinder’s wife, archaeology professor Andrea (Sidse Babett Knudsen), is asked to consult on the find, which is how Ed gets wind of the hidden numerical patterns on the vault’s domed roof. In Episode 2, some of the action shifts to a picturesque coastal commune in the South of France, where NSA surveillance agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell) is keeping an eye on Mallinder and his algebraic doodling through various hidden spy cameras. In an almost exclusively digitized world, boffins are the biggest threat of all.
Good Will Hunting meets Enemy of the State is a fine elevator pitch, but it’s overselling Prime Target. The second episode injects some pace and excitement that power the remaining installments, but the show never quite gets a grip of its characters, especially Ed, whose surly demeanor is pitched wrong from the very beginning. And the fact he’s our primary avenue for understanding the intricacy of his discoveries makes them hard to buy into even on an academic level. He makes everything boring.
Taylah is a more energetic bright spot. Her early scenes feel like transplants from a different, more exciting show that remembered to be a thriller. But by the time she and Ed are forced on the run, it’s too late. You already don’t care.
