Posted in: Fox, Review, Trailer, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, drama, fox, michael sheen, murder, Mystery, preview, prodigal son, Review, seriel killers, streaming, television, thriller, Tom Payne, trailer, tv

"Prodigal Son" Trailer, Preview Tread Familiar Ground in Interesting Ways [REVIEW]

FOX's Prodigal Son appears to be a hybrid between NBC Hannibal's Will Graham and Dr. Gregory House from… well… you know… with psychopathy playing its beautiful violin front and center. At the core of it all is a dysfunctional family most of us can relate to – ok well, maybe minus our father being a serial killer named "The Surgeon".

At a young age, a father should serve as an idol for his son… someone to identify with and look up to. Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne) gets the pleasure of asking his father through bars why he killed approximately 23 people. Fast forward several years later, he questions just how alike or different him and his father truly are.

https://youtu.be/26C6JqBdb20

From Emmy Award-nominated executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter and writers Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver, "Prodigal Son" is a fresh take on a crime franchise with a provocative and outrageous lead character and a darkly comedic tone. Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne) has a gift. He knows how killers think, how their minds work. Why? Back in the 1990s, his father (Sheen) was one of the best, a notorious serial killer called "The Surgeon." That's why Bright is the best criminal psychologist around; murder is the family business. He will use his twisted genius to help the NYPD solve crimes and stop killers, all while dealing with a manipulative mother, annoyingly normal sister, a homicidal father still looking to bond with his prodigal son and his own constantly evolving neuroses.

https://youtu.be/JYH4uohfLi8

Initially watching the official trailer, I got a much darker sense of the show – with a focus on a man carrying the burden of shedding his father's legacy and repenting for him by helping the NYPD find and put away brutal killers. With the recent release of the sneak preview for the freshman series, I find myself more intrigued by the fact that it's a dark humored procedural with family (as screwed up as it might be) at its core.

It has it all: an overbearing intrusive mother, a sociopathic father trying to build a relationship with his son, and a sister who fears her brother is walking a thin line, one too close to his father's footsteps. Throw in a couple of NYPD detectives – each one with their own unique agenda and perspective on Bright – and you got yourself a winner.

The show's biggest challenge? Not that it's covering territory that's been covered before – that happens all of the time – but can it find unique and interesting ways to tell those stories in a way that will make us care about Bright, Dr. Martin Whitley (Michael Sheen), and the others.

"Dad, why did you kill all those people?"

"I'm not sure I know the answer to that son. Maybe we can figure it out together"

I'm looking forward to the exchanges between Bright and Whitley (Michael Sheen) – and being a lover of the psychology behind serial killers and bloody crime scenes, this series is very much in my wheelhouse.

Stemming from Emmy Award-nominated executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (Riverdale, The Flash) and writers Chris Fedak (Deception, Chuck) and Sam Sklaver (Deception, Bored to Death), Prodigal Son stars Payne (The Walking Dead), Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Sheen (Masters of Sex, Frost/Nixon), Bellamy Young (Scandal), Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips (Longmire, Stand and Deliver), Halston Sage (The Orville), Aurora Perrineau (The Carmichael Show), Frank Harts (The Path), and Keiko Agena (Dirty John).

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