Alex Rider Season 2

 

The first Alex Rider series was an impressive adaptation and while it was slow to get started packed quite a punch when it did. With an interesting idea, strong cast and central performance as well as several key set pieces it was a welcome addition to the current overwhelming number of TV shows around right now. Season 2 dropped at the end of last year, not sure if Channel 4 will be buying it, but you can stream it on Amazon. It retains much of the style of the first season and utilises both Alex’s improved skills but also the after effects of what happened to him into a plot that ramps up the threat considerably.

Like the first, this second season largely eschews the fast cutting and noisy contemporary music soundtrack you might expect instead pitching itself in the style of `serious` drama. Much of the incidental music is moodily electronic while the directorial style favours wide tracking shots of conversations. The editing of action scenes is not like some series which are so quick you can’t really tell what’s going on yet they remain excitingly realised. Narratively there are richer character moments than in the novels which is unusual as often with adaptations it’s the other way round. It would be wrong to say there are no surprises yet neither are there many moments to make you gasp. The minutae of the espionage world, as in many similar dramas, becomes too detailed to follow at times though luckily the action side of matters cuts through this soup of agents, organisations and hidden traps. Its an impressive production on any level. Although ostensibly set in the real world, the series has its own fictional world in which the US President is female and a shadowy organisation called Scorpia lurks in the background.

Visually the series is such a class production and you can tell how much care has been taken with even the most straightforward scene. From the colour palette to the cinematography and the filming it has the style of a movie something some tv series never manage. Bristol does a good job of providing some interesting locales with enough CGI to convince us we’re in London. The move was prompted by Covid restrictions and amusingly when Alex asks why they department moved he is told “health and safety” !

I also need to mention the excellent title sequence which uses a song called `The World Is Mine`. It was released as a single by UK born singer and rapper Samm Henshaw in 2019 around the time the first season was being filmed. Though not directly related to the story- or indeed to espionage- the feel of the song and lyrics that reference the Cosa Nostra and “nothing in the rear view but wasted time”  convey something of a James Bondesque approach and suit the opening credits so well. Framed in the stylised A of the series’ logo the title images take the moving tunnel approach as we see both stills and moving images from the show before it ends with a pull back to that logo itself.  Incidentally there’s also a great promotional video Henshaw made three years ago to accompany the single which depicts a number of scenarios involving a runaway couple each of which turns out to be a miniature version inside the next one! It’s excellent!  The singer said on Facebook: “I used to read a few of the books as a kid and loved them, now my song is the theme song. For those who haven’t checked it out yet it is an incredible show, so honoured to be a part of it.”

Alex Rider as written here is a curious character who seems preternaturally equipped to operate in this dangerous world even though, in the books at least he is supposed to be just fourteen. His age is never specified in the series but I’d guess you can add a couple of years on to that. Twenty four when he filmed this Otto Farrant looks far younger but not that young! His age though allows him to bring a steel gravitas to parts of the role that surpasses the idea of a moody teenager and suggests much more. We have yet to learn what happened to his parents or indeed the full story of his Uncle whose murder sparked the first series and Alex’s entry into the espionage world.

Even in season one Alex seemed fully versed in all manner of hand to hand combat and knowledge of basic techniques for picking locks, getting past codes and pretending to be someone else. At the same time though he appears to have had no foreknowledge of his uncle’s work. He clearly has a sense of right and wrong but it is not so plain where this originates from. The early season two scenes where he visits a psychologist never get past basic `tell me about it` levels, an opportunity missed I feel to delve a little more into what makes the character tick. Having been so adept at his first mission and then having this trauma afterwards is an interesting paradox but nobody seems to remark on it. I am not sure Alex as a character connects with the viewer in the way he should or could. Kids, especially should see themselves in that role yet it feels Alex has little to learn. In that sense he looks like a boy but acts like a man. Perhaps the third season will look into this more? There are hints at the end of this one that might happen.

However because Otto Farrant is so good in the role it covers up most of these narrative omissions which I admit I only thought of afterwards. The actor really owns this part and the transition from the more hesitant Alex of the first season to the proactive one in this story is well played. If Alex’s behaviour is sometimes more like that of an adult, Farrant ensures the character retains an air of the eager teenager.

The second season is an adaptation of the book Eagle Strike though probably due to Covid, Alex’s holiday break is in Cornwall rather than the South of France and he meets Sabina for the first time. In the book, which was the fourth in the series, they already know each other. In the book Damien Cray is a pop star  as well as a games magnate but thankfully the tv version has dropped the former attribute though there is something of the show off pop star in Toby Stephens’ portrayal. The title of the novel refers to Cray’s plan to hijack Air Force One to enable him to launch nuclear missiles at countries where drugs are rampant. There are reasons for this seemingly reckless behaviour rooted in the shock death of his elder brother years ago of drugs overdose.

Episode one, `Surf` employs a similar slow build to the first season yet its looser and takes a different tack with Alex. Now he’s suffering from post traumatic syndrome and it’s a measure of the script’s care and Otto Farrant’s acting abilities that this works better than you’d expect. Alex keeps thinking he can see assassin Gregorovich trailing him but it’s in his imagination. There’s an early scene where he runs from nothing more dangerous than a man with a phone. So  Jack packs herself, Tom and Alex on holiday to a blustery Cornwall (cue some neat POV surfing shots). Here, yet again imagining he spots Yassan the assassin, Alex literally runs into Sabina Pleasance and her father. He’s working on a book about games entrepreneur Damien Cray whose video game The Feathered Serpent (I like to think this is a nod to the Seventies TV serial) is occupying Tom and, it seems, most teenagers right now. The Pleasances are renting an expensive house to which Alex goes to `borrow` some coffee. The episode glides along with Alex and Sabina striking up a tentative friendship- both young actors excel in the casual banter of teenagers- until a sudden jolt spins the episode off in another direction.

Cos, of course, Gregorovitch really is here pretending to be an internet engineer but soon after Alex spots him in the van- we and perhaps he thinks this is an illusion- the house explodes. The way this is presented, in the distance, is very well rendered and then after Alex has rescued Mr Pleasance the questions start as the police are convinced it was a gas leak and not a bomb that did the damage. When Alex gives them Mrs Jones’ number out of frustration it seems he has been totally abandoned by the department. He goes back to where their base was last season to find an empty building.

As an exercise in building up interest this opener works even better than last year now that a number of things don’t need introducing. With simple close ups and looks, the director  Rebecca Gatward manages to convey Alex’s traumatic feelings and Otto Farrant paces it well without going full on crazy. The scenery of course is great and fully exploits the rugged Cornish coast, the lively waves and gorgeous landscape.

Episode 2 sees Alex doing his best to find Blunt and the department as they seek out the man they think is responsible for hacking the Pentagon six months ago. A sign perhaps of a large budget this time is an opening scene where we see this happen. We’re properly back into the spyworld this episode with stakeouts, hacking codes and a look at the department’s new headquarters in an old warehouse. Its larger than the previous place but with the same dim lighting that will ensure good business for the government’s opticians in future years! Moody red and blue are the chosen colours so I suppose it could double as a night club when they go home.

Its great to find Stephen Dillane and Vicky McClure back in their shady world and we also have a new character in the form of the visting head of the CIA JO Byrne played with a no nonsense approach by Rakie Ayola. Dillane remains excellent as the slippery, implacable Blunt who later lies outright to Alex about the whereabouts of Gregorovitch. Its good in this season too that the human side of the department is presented a little more notably as Alex covertly shares information with Smithers outside the office. Given more than just the usual interpretation of data Nyasha Hatendi’s character becomes the warmer (well warmish) side of the operation recognising Alex’s skills. There’s a great scene when Alex goes to see Sir David Friend, whose son he pretended to be last season to gain entry to Point Blanc. This is a well written scene and shows how Alex has matured

The two storylines meet when Alex tracks Blunt’s car to the stakeout and recognises the man they are after as the same person who tried to break into the hospital room where Sabina’s father now lies in a coma. You might raise your eyebrows at this level of coincidence but this is the food of spy stories and actually they pull it off well enough. I’m not sure though why Alex doesn’t actually tell them he saw the character at the hospital as it’s a more tangible link between the cases. Also you do wonder why nobody in the middle of a big operation noticed Tom’s very noticeable camera stuck to the front of one of the cars.

Episode three, `Mirror` brings the tension in spades. It is well titled as  much of the developments spring from people being watched either through computer screens or CCTV. As the department search for Smoking Mirror, aka Simon Marriot. Alex actually helps them but his involvement is being watched by the man everyone is looking for leading to a scene that demonstrates just how little we may actually be in control of the tech in our homes. All the devices in Alex’s house and even the lights fall under Marriot’s control as he makes clear he knows what the teenager is up to. If you think this sounds far fetched then have a look at anything online about the Internet of Things.

It’s interesting the way Alex is far more proactive in this story, approaching Smithers to get some information or setting up the meeting with Marriot. Taking place in an old aircraft hangar this meeting ends when who else but Gregorovitch showing up having already slaughtered several people at the place Marriott was hiding in. This is not entirely unexpected but adds lashings of jeopardy because we’ve seen last season and this how lethal this assassin is. The ensuing chase is filmed to make the best use of the location full of metal stairs, walkways and balconies and director Rebecca Gatward keeps it fluid throughout. There is an intriguing conclusion in that when Gregorovith has a real chance to shoot Alex he hesitates having not realised whom he was chasing. As hinted at last season there is a connection between him and Alex’s uncle which will play a crucial part later.

It’s a very well composed episode that makes good use of everyone (the scene in the café between Alex and Smithers is well written in particular) and also introduces Damien Cray to the story. Played by Toby Stephens, Cray’s plan to release the latest version of his best selling game `The Feathered Serpent` is clearly a front for some fiendish plan or other that will “change the world.” He could be based on any one of several well -known tech big names people whom for one reason or another everyone seems to dislike. I suppose making him the villain is a little obvious in a way but this comes from the original book that was written before the current backlash against the Zuckerbergs and Musks of the world. Stephens downplays him thankfully not so far drifting into James Bond villain mode.

The fourth episode sees Alex way ahead of the department albeit with some under the counter help from Smithers which allows him to gatecrash the private launch of the new game posing as the enigmatic K7, who tops the leader board. I don’t know if companies of this type do private launches especially ones they broadcast to millions but the top players in the world are here to try their hand at Cray’s latest. The whole set up is a bit odd as the new game seems to be mercilessly interactive and despite having little knowledge other than a three hour cram on the basics courtesy of Tom Alex soon becomes so skilled Cray ends up turning up the heat.

To non gamers it all seems a little weird especially once Alex starts receiving electric shocks from `lightning`. It also takes a mighty long while for any of the other gamers watching to look even slightly perturbed. As the current game is simply on a screen why does Cray imagine these gamers will have the skills to physically rebuff attacks in an interactive way. I can see why they did the sequence but I don’t think it quite works as it should and sort of breaks the un-written rule that the show has established which is that anything we see could be possible.

Better is the chase around the building afterwards which takes us back into spy mode. Here Alex receives text help form the real K7 who turns out to be Kyra from season one, a neat surprise. The core of the episode though is Alex’s frustration that nobody will believe him when he tells them what is happening. This includes Sabina who in an excellently written and played scene comes to view him as crazy as everyone else thinks he is and tells him to stay away. Another scene essays a similar conversation between Alex and Jack.

In part five, Kyra manages to cut the power to a sizeable chunk of London allowing her, Alex and Tom to use the school’s computers to analyse the game. This may be another unlikely feat as surely there would be hundreds of engineers and some back up system to restore power in less time than a couple of days. This is the amount of time the trio plan to spend in Amsterdam in pursuit of Cray’s game launch. Money does not seem to be a problem for the Rider family!

The episode has some great scenes in it opening with a flashback to the young Cray when he found his older brother dead from a drugs overdose. Weirdly his large country pile seems unchanged since then as if he is keeping the same décor to remind him of the terrible event. There’s also a confrontation between Blunt and Alex, the former warning the latter to back off which of course elicits some of Alex’s sneaky behaviour. This season there’s a sense of one upmanship between both parties. When Alex arrives he goes through security protocol which is just a front to plant bugs on his possessions but he knows this and tricks the department later on!

Part six is brimming with tension – there’s less action but more breaking and entering as Alex, Tom and Kyra are in Amsterdam to steal the hidden game code while in the UK the department are preparing for the arrival of the US president at Cray’s English mansion. Its good fun to have Tom and Kyra along; her deadpan responses to more or less everything plays well with his jokey demeanor. For Kyra this is a serious business whereas Tom likens it to a heist movie! It is the case though that Kyra’s hacking skills seem to know no bounds; after last episode shutting down a portion of the London power grid, this time she accesses a terminal with little problem and finds this hidden code in hardly any time. The situation though does become more tense due to the amount of time it will take to copy, one of those archetypal hacking storyline things.

So to episode seven. There are thrills aplenty in this episode much of which focuses on Alex and Kyra’s escape from the Craystar building. And why go to the trouble- fictionally or production wise- of having lots of guards running around just missing our heroes when you can pursue them with a drone. In an extended action piece Alex and Kyra have to run from this machine which is being remote controlled with some enthusiasm by Cray and fires seemingly endless supply of bullets at them. Toby Stephens really lets his inner mad villain out for this one! There’s probably another drone with the camera on it as we swoop across fields and through a plant propagation house that seems to be the size of Wales! It’s a cracking sequence.

To enable their escape both Tom and, in London, Jack have to take part as well; the latter losing her job over her unexplained vanishing act during an important meeting. I was wondering where the lawyer/ charity work plot was going and it is indeed a cheeky script writing ploy to bring it in just to get to this moment. However Ronke Adekoluejo can always be relied on to bring a warmer feel to the adult cast most of whom are hard edged people whichever side they’re on.

Of course despite Alex handing over the game to Mrs Jones there’s a sting in the tail as Cray engineered Sabina’s kidnapping in exchange for the mysterious phial Alex took from the Dutch office. It all leads into a superb final episode where Cray’s plan is laid out, enacted and very nearly accomplished. Its an episode packed with well mixed ingredients of action, technical trickery and edge of the seat countdowns. Considering the intended audience there are not many punches pulled and you get a real sense of the scale and danger of Cray's plan as well as the method it uses. Much of the action occurs on Air Force One, the US president’s plane. Cray’s plan turns out to be that if enough people log into the new game it creates a super computer which enable Cray to hack into the Pentagon nuclear codes and launch nuclear weapons on all the drugs hot spots in the world. Cray though, like many villains, doesn’t really think about what would happen after this feat. Surely the US president for one would stop taking his calls!

The confined but brightly lit interior of the plane is a perfect place for a dangerous game of hide and seek and its where Alex sort of saves at least part of the world. Yet Gregorovitch has a vital part to play. We’d already seen how he seems unwilling to kill Alex, despite otherwise not even flinching at any collateral damage he causes. this culminates in a big revelation – for Alex at least, we guessed from the photo in season one – that he and Alex’ late uncle Ian were friends. Well friends at least till Gregorovitch shot him dead! This mystery is taken a step further almost as if the writers are aware of the issue I’ve had which is that Alex is a character without a lot of context. Before that reveal the tension is ramped up by countdowns and a well placed series of developments. Though seemingly mortally wounded Gregorovitch manages to get away (though surely he’d leave a trail of blood judging by the mark on the floor?) leaving Alex with an ongoing mystery of “who you really are.” Playing the assassin with a casually ruthless air, Thomas Levin is a real presence every time he's on screen.

It’s a particularly well assembled season finale with a few little throwbacks to things we’d almost forgotten about showing the thoroughness of the overall story. If Cray’s aims seem extreme at least there is time taken to explain the origin of them. The story revels in modern tech only to wonderfully have it all switched off just as the missiles are nearly ready to launch leaving Smithers to rely on good old analogue.

Will there be a third season? There better had be! There are some ongoing narrative reveals to be followed up . There appears to have been nowhere near as much publicity for the second season as there was for the first with Anthony Horowitz and Otto Farrant seemingly absent from what publicity there was. IMDB has a third season to debut at the end of this year so let’s hope it does!