X
- 2024
- TV-MA
- HBO
- 2024
- TV-MA
- HBO
Summary North Vietnam spy The Captain (Hoa Xuande) ends up living in a South Vietnamese refugee community in Los Angeles and finds his loyalty tested in the limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel of the same name.
Created By: Park Chan-wook, Don McKellar
- 2024
- TV-MA
- HBO
- 2024
- TV-MA
- HBO
The Sympathizer
Season 1 Premiere: Apr 14, 2024
80
5.6
Summary North Vietnam spy The Captain (Hoa Xuande) ends up living in a South Vietnamese refugee community in Los Angeles and finds his loyalty tested in the limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel of the same name.
Created By: Park Chan-wook, Don McKellar
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
80
84% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
14% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
80
84% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
14% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
A complex and deeply moving drama that may well shift your perspective on the Vietnam War.
Come for the stunt, to marvel at the versatility of Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr inhabiting multiple extravagant roles, recalling Peter Sellers' tour de force in Dr. Strangelove. Stay to get immersed in the suspenseful saga of an unnamed half-Vietnamese, half-French antihero. [22 Apr - 12 May 2024, p.4]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 61 User Ratings
5.6
49% Positive
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
18% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
33% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 61 User Ratings
5.6
49% Positive
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
18% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
33% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
A stylish yet profound satirical examination of cultural appropriation, the **** of Western culture, colonization through capitalism, and the identity struggle of a man torn between his loyalties and his convictions. Hoa Xuande, Park Chan-wook, and Robert Downey Jr. shine in this fun yet very dark show.
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I've tried hard with this one but something just isn't clicking for me. I think part of it is the horrible contacts people are wearing, couldn't they have edited out the clear edges of the contacts? They're especially noticeable in 4k. Then there is the story, it's rather chaotic and could have used some better editing, how many times in one episode do we need to cut between like 3 different time frames? Sheesh. Episode 1 successfully hooked me, then episode 2 lost me, I'll give episode 3 a go still but if it doesn't hook me again I'll probably drop it. I will say at least the acting is quite good, though it's a bit hamfisted at times (lookin' at you RDJ). Overall if I'm being brutally honest it's a bit disappointing for an HBO production, the last few years in particular HBO has kind of lost its midas touch. I blame Dumb and Dumber ruining the Game of Thrones ending, I swear that was the turning point for HBO, like their internal quality control took a blow that it still hasn't recovered from.
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The Captain holds it all together, in a remarkable turn by Xuande, as our lead tries to pinpoint his own identity among the disparate pieces of the parts he’s forced to play.
Those fiddly shades of gray — the series’ best — necessarily recede as the plot progresses. The last episodes are inferior to the first three (which Park Chan-wook directed). That’s not a condemnation. It was probably inevitable that this show’s extraordinary visual and narrative confidence would falter as it tried to square the ideological schema in which its characters operate with the wonderfully messy story about them it produced.
It’s not just Apocalypse Now and Platoon that are dissected here, but the jingoistic, exploitative and unrepresentative nature of so many war films. However, the truly exceptional attribute the show has is that while it excels in this, it is also a detailed, evocative and emotional character study, which really gets under the skin of its protagonist.
There’s going to be a lot of quirky characters, a lot of stylistic filmmaking techniques used, and a very solid sense of place and time that permeates the entire narrative. That tends to be a good thing, and it will serve this narrative well. We just hope that The Sympathizer doesn’t get distracted by its gimmicks and focuses on Captain’s story.
Overly complicated, overly stylized and often boring, Park and co-creator Don McKellar can't coalesce the series' shifting timelines, disparate characters, cartoonish costuming and moral ambiguity into a story that pulls you in. It's a whole lot of stuff shoved in your face with very little resonance to show.
I'm just not feeling it. I get RDJ gets to play around with multiple characters, but he's not in it much. All the weight is on the Vietnamese(?) lead. Not a bad thing, as he's great, but the story is really muddled. Got that fever dream vibe like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, only not funny or insightful.
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Production Company:
- A24
- Rhombus Media
- Team Downey
- Moho Film
- Cinetic Media
- A24 Television
Initial Release Date: Apr 14, 2024
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
Gotham TV Awards
• 2 Nominations