Strangely, all his recent achievements, including his marriage to Sarah (Charly Clive) and his work successes, have been undone yet he seems to be the only one who’s noticed. The dynamic range from quiet moments to loud, impressive set pieces is handled well.In The Lazarus Project, Paapa Essiedu stars as George, a seemingly ordinary guy who is left reeling when he wakes up one day to find he’s reliving a day from many months beforehand. It’s pacy and exhilarating without suffering from loud, bangy attention deficit disorder. Well-directed shoot-outs, car chases, punch-ups, sniper attacks and on-foot pursuits… the action is good, meaty and regularly delivered. The Lazarus Project is a big, robust sci-fi thriller with proper action scenes. Episode two’s time loops will test anyone not blessed with the power of logic, but even if you lose track of which iteration we’re on, the characters will guide you in like runway landing lights.Įither that, or you’ll be so diverted by the action you won’t think too hard about the time loop stuff. It’s a good job the main characters are written and performed as emotionally accessible as they are, because the chronology is – for want of a better word – a headache. Barton’s speech here foregrounds character over situation, and is always ready with a leavening, humanising touch. A bolt of real-world irreverence is shot through even the most solemn exchanges, undercutting what could in other hands be extremely ‘I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond’ dialogue. Given the intensity and gravity of the subject matter, it’s astonishing that the four episodes available to preview never become suffocating. The world being what it is right now, care has clearly been taken here to lift what could be an onslaught of real-life trauma, though that being said, episode three still contains one of the most harrowing sequences on TV in years. The project was originally titled ‘Extinction’ but renamed to avoid feeling too bleak. The next masterstroke is how creator Joe Barton ( Giri/Haji, The Ritual) pitches his scripts’ tone. Add in Charly Clive and Brian Gleeson and it’s a strong ensemble. Tom Burke ( Strike, The Souvenir) and Vinette Robinson ( Boiling Point, A Christmas Carol) entirely steal later episodes as the show’s focus pivots from character to character. Rudi Dharmalingam is unrecognisable from the sweetly nerdy character he played in BBC One’s The Split, and here is the darkly tormented Shiv. Vigiland Bodyguard’s Anjli Mohindra is a cool customer as George’s recruiting officer into Lazarus. If Essiedu is great, then the rest of the cast is equally well chosen. Can he slot in among them? And what will be the human cost of knowing what he knows? Everyman George has stumbled upon an earth-shattering secret that throws him into a heightened world of apocalyptic threat and super-villains. Something Else is going on and the Lazarus Project is behind it. Is George losing it, or is Something Else going on? Even more inexplicably, nobody else appears to have noticed. That’s how it goes until the day George wakes up to find the calendar has inexplicably rewound six months. He’s an easy-going plodder who shares a flat with girlfriend Sarah ( Charly Clive) and, were he not the lead character in this ambitious series, would likely contentedly tick off life’s milestones until his final breath. The quiet parade of continual threats to mortal life that make collapsing into bed at the end of each day a victory if you only let yourself think about it…Īpp designer George Addo ( Paapa Essiedu) until now, has never let himself think about it. Instead of distracting from the world’s problems, it brings them into focus: Pandemics. With its top-secret organisation, globe-trotting car chases, shoot-outs, time-loops and kick-ass agents saving the world, The Lazarus Project may sound like the stuff of James Bond or Fox TV, but this Sky series is no escapist romp. This The Lazarus Project review is spoiler-free and based on episodes one to four of eight.
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