FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE YET TO SEE THE LOST SYMBOL, THIS IS A NON-SPOILER REVIEW.

  • ASHLEY ZUKERMAN, SUMALEE MONTANO and RICK GONZALEZ in The Lost Symbol. Courtesy of Peacock.

Let’s start off this review by saying that I have never read any of Dan Brown’s novels following Robert Langdon.  I was first introduced to the character when Tom Hanks suited up to play him in the wildly successful The Da Vinci Code film.  Although that movie has its flaws, I still think it is a ridiculously entertaining rollercoaster ride full of conspiracies, puzzle-solving and adventure.  (As someone who grew up on National Treasure… I’m a sucker for this sub-genre.)  Unfortunately Ron Howard’s next two installments Angels & Demons and Inferno, left much to be desired.  

As the films dwindled in their box office receipts, it seemed like this franchise was doomed to be over.  But, now Grazer and Howard have moved this franchise into the television format, for a pseudo-prequel series based on another of Brown’s books. In this series we follow the early adventures of Robert Langdon, who finds himself pulled into a series of deadly puzzles when his mentor is kidnapped.  The CIA forces him into a task force when he uncovers a chilling conspiracy… And while the idea was a sound one, The Lost Symbol suffers from many of the issues that the films did.  While the puzzle solving and wild goose chases are interesting, this character and the world around him fails to be captivating.

HOW IS THE CAST IN THE LOST SYMBOL?

  • ASHLEY ZUKERMAN in The Lost Symbol. Courtesy of Peacock.

Particularly when I watched Angels & Demons and Inferno, I couldn’t help, but think that the filmmakers had somehow made the legendary Tom Hanks lack any sort of charisma.  And unfortunately for Ashley Zukerman (who just showed up as Nick Goode in the Fear Street films) he is no match for Robert Langdon’s droll and zestless approach, as well.  The actor flounders in many scenes, mostly due to the overly-complicated and silly dialogue.  Many of the other performers fail to impress either, making for a bit of a lackluster ensemble.

WHAT ARE THE POSITIVES?

  • Still from The Lost Symbol. Courtesy of Peacock.

But, the one saving grace for this series is the reason why we watch these stories to begin with.  The mystery and the intrigue.  Although I do think there are so many puzzles to solve that it just doesn’t make much sense… Any time a new artifact was found or a new clue needed to be solved, I found myself invested again.  There’s also a brilliant action scene in the first episode involving being closed-in to an ancient room by moving walls, which I found very exhilarating.  The villain in the series also has enough unique attributes about him that I’m curious as to what his motivations are.

HAS THIS SHOW PROVEN TO BE WORTH YOUR TIME?

  • EDDIE IZZARD in The Lost Symbol. Courtesy of Peacock.

Unfortunately, The Lost Symbol after three episodes just hasn’t found its groove yet.  And I feel that for a series like this to succeed, the showrunners needed to hook us by the pilot episode.  After three, I’m struggling to find many reasons to keep watching.  Although the puzzle-solving  is fun, you can only do it so much until it becomes tiring.  The lead character of Robert Langdon just lacks any sort of gravitas to make you care about what comes next for him.  I do think fans of this type of historical and religious mystery solving might get a kick out of it. But, I just don’t think the showrunners have proven (so far), why this franchise needed to continue at all.

The Lost Symbol premieres its first episode on Peacock Thursday September 16th.

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