At the end of Season 2 of Alex Rider, the mysterious assassin, Yassen Gregorovitch (Thomas Levin), tells Alex (Otto Farrant) to “find the Widow, find Scorpia” if he wants to learn the truth about his past and his father. Based on Anthony Horowitz’ wildly popular YA book series about a teenaged British spy, Season 3 is based on the fifth Alex Rider book, Scorpia.
The series opens with Alex, his best friend Tom (Brenock O’Connor) and hacker extraordinaire, Kyra (Marli Siu), in Malta looking for the Widow. They are staying with Tom’s brother, Jay, an extreme sports athlete. When Alex finally finds the Widow, Julia Rothman (Sofia Helin), he realises she is the head of the criminal organisation Scorpia, and is planning the usual dastardly deeds, this time launching a secret weapon that can kill at the press of a button, dubbed Invisible Sword. Nile (Jason Wong) is Julia’s ruthless muscleman who unquestioningly does what he is told.
Alex also learns to his horror his father worked for Scorpia. Alex goes to Scorpia’s assassin school after Rothman reveals some unpalatable facts about his father’s death and the Department of Special Operations’ hand in it. Will Alex be turned? Will he become an assassin for Scorpia like his father? What is Julia’s end game?
Julia plans to hold Britain to ransom. Her heartlessness is revealed when she cold-bloodedly orders the execution of Max Grendel (Kevin McNally), an associate who develops a conscience. Alan Blunt (Stephen Dillane), the head of the Department of Special Operations, his deputy and Alex’s handler, Mrs Jones (Vicky McClure), John Crawley (Ace Bhatti), the chief of staff and Smithers (Nyasha Hatendi). the gadget guru, are scrambling for a way out even as Julia shows a demonstration of the Invisible Sword’s power on an entire football team.
The Department is not helped by the self-serving, sneering Home Secretary Laura Kellner (Shelley Conn). Alex’s guardian, Jack (Ronke Adékoluejo), has started a new job and feels it is time the Department backed Alex considering how much he has helped them.
All comes to a satisfactory climax at a church with a ticking clock, the fear of an imminent, painful death, and death-ray machines pointing into the sky. All that we love about James Bond minus the sex and sadism is present in the show, from shadowy organisations to megalomaniac, flamboyant villains.
In fact, Season 2, which was based on Eagle Strike, even had Bond villain Toby Stephens (he played Gustav Graves in Die Another Day) as the evil tech billionaire Damian Cray (he wanted to destroy the world for the best of reasons though).
Alex Rider is the ultimate escapist fare with the episodes hurtling past in a breathless rush of action and quips. The acting is on point with Farrant leading the way, sporting the right mix of youthful determination, vulnerability, silliness and hormones.
While Season 3 has been quoted as the final iteration (the cast having aged well beyond their teen protagonists), with 10 more books in the series, we can hope for a recast and reboot. Till then we can enjoy popcorn thrills as Alex takes on the bad guys with his besties and frenemies to an explosive soundtrack — starting with the title track, Samm Henshaw’s ‘The World Is Mine’.
Alex Rider S3 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Published – November 25, 2024 06:30 pm IST
World cinema
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English cinema
