Pilot Viewing: Prodigal Son

This is a series of checking out initial episodes of tv shows that hit streamers and seeing if they pique my interest to keep watching.

Cops, crime, and law have been done every way you can imagine. We have had defective detectives, criminals posing as cops, and out of touch with reality lawyers. Whether serious or silly or outright boring it has likely been done before. So a lot of these shows have to come down to a hook, and a good casting to get you interested. Moreso than any other type of show this is the genre that must throw everything at the wall to get you interested.

In Prodigal Son we open with the revelation the main character's father Dr. Whitly is a serial killer and he's been finally caught, but he's marked his own boy as the same as him. We flash forward to that same boy as an FBI Profiler who is clearly a bit detached from reality, not in the way Monk is socially inept but in the way during a tense moment before the FBI moves in to raid he wants to discuss cicadas chirping as predatory defense.

Bright is played by Tom Payne, who I don't recognize from anything but it is a good casting he has the look of a man not quite right in this. He isn't a coward though as he charges in himself, gets caught by the serial killer they are hunting and then tries to get in the serial killer's head because he understands the killers point of view. Dexter Morgan somewhere is turned on watching this show.

Bright's rogue actions get him fired, we see the guy has tremors and largely is pretty unstable having to handcuff himself to the bed because of his night terrors. The man barely sleeps, food makes him mostly sick, he is walking death. Bright's sister is a reporter, and his mother's tanking alcohol and pills trying to forget. This family is kinda broken and it would not shock me if the sister flipped serial killer since she keeps going on that she was only 5 and can't remember into conversation like you're trying really hard to sell your alibi.

Then suddenly Lou Diamond Phillips shows up and offers him a profiler job with the NYPD as he needs help. Turns out that's because the killer on the loose is a copycat of his father so yeah that makes sense to recruit this guy. I had to think about it and this might be the only time I've watched a show where Lou Diamond Phillips is playing a good guy. Anyway Bright uses his skills to lead us to a dominatrix (is it still called that if it's a guy?) named Nico. They instead find Nico strapped to a chair with a bomb attached to it, and Nico looks crazed and cuts off the guys hand so they can save his life. Nobody questions this...like at all until much later and only then its a very in passing comment. Weird.

So if Nico wasn't the guy who is it? Nobody knows but Bright has a night terror at the police station after he passes out and attacks the female "I'm laid back and chill detective". Lou has concerns (only now?!) and doesn't know if this will work out. Bright is determined and is heading to see his serial killer father after ten years. Now the hook of the show comes, borrowing from The Blacklist it looks like to get his son back the doctor has been creating copycat killers that they can hunt together. Earlier the father really liked discussing murder with his son, comparing it to sports.

Bright just goes along with this, they track the killer down who gets the drop on Bright and Cool Detective. Then instead of just relating to the killer, Bright offers to off himself letting the copycat killer kill the son of the original killer, this will let Bright finally be free. It's a dark moment and if this were a series finale I can totally see this going thru.

After this is all done Lou Diamond Phillips assures the other detectives unsure if they can work with the son of a serial killer that Bright is one of the good guys. Bright as a child found his fathers victim and called the police. Lou as a beat cop showed up and was offered tea but Bright warned him it was poison and saved his life. We are seen Bright leaving the crime scene having a green candy, just like Lou gave him when he was a child telling him he was a hero.

Before I forget the killer daddy is played by Michael Sheen who I thought was the guy that played Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) from Suits. They should do a DNA test they might be related.

Verdict
I looked and this show only ran two seasons, I'm not sure what legs this show actually could even have. Either the son becomes a killer, the sister flips killer, or they just dick around for two seasons as Dr. Murderman somehow in isolation is creating new copycat killers...somehow. I think I would watch maybe one or two more episodes, the premise and pilot were solid but I can't see this having much legs. A short run isn't an instant no either, Limitless was a very short run but one that was highly entertaining but it had a formula as a hook that would keep it interesting. What does the son need of his father if he is such a dynamic profiler? The only strengths his father has is knowledge of his own murders, the son already knows about serial killers. Maybe the dark offering of discussing murder like sports? Is that appealing? I do not know.