It doesn’t make sense to compare Showtime’s “American Gigolo” with the cult film of the same name—the new series borrows the basic premise of Paul Schrader’s extraordinarily stylish neo-noir with some characters, then committing them to a rote crime scene. turns into drama. Where the original “American Gigolo” Capturing the excesses of the 1980s while presenting a captivating portrait of loneliness, its sequel struggles to find purpose or even settle on a tone in its first three episodes.
So, thank God and/or casting director Wendy O’Brien for placing Jon Bernthal, who has already turned in an extraordinary kinetic performance this year, at the center of this otherwise murder mystery. The “We Own This City” actor leads the series as Julian Kaye, a sex worker who is wrongfully convicted of murder, imprisoned for 15 years, and all but one in the hour-long series premiere. left in. It also recounts the film’s narrative with some changes, but it differs from the character of Julian Kaye Richard Gere (and not just because he suddenly has an “e” at the end of his last name). Bernthal’s Julian is more clearly injured; A cover-up doesn’t unravel his life, it’s been a long time since he’s undone. Now he has to rebuild it, which may actually happen a second time.
If ever an actor was tasked with upping the material, it’s Bernthal, who has to go through multiple timelines and deaths (at least two of which are murders) to find the essence of his character. It would be an undertaking for any role, but ‘American Gigolo’ Disrupts his star by jumping back and forth from the present day, where Julian is considering returning to sex work, and the past, where he has fallen in love with Michelle Stratton (Gretchen Moll). Rather than poignant or revealing, the flashbacks are intrusive—they’re positioned so indiscriminately that they obliterate little of the momentum it takes to assemble the story.
But Bernthal still finds a way to deliver, even when the show around him is overwhelmed with its choppy pacing and by-the-numbers plotting. His Julian is a unique creation – a man who always knows how to separate fantasy from reality. Like his predecessor, Julian acknowledges his talent for giving pleasure, but refuses to be defined by it. These traits elicit different reactions from those around him; They fascinate Michelle, her boyfriend in the past, and enrag her present-day pimp Isabel (Lizzie Brocare). Bernthal’s coiled physicality typically charges her every scene, but here, it becomes a sloppy stature, a clear sign of what Julian already endures.
Apart from an opening credits sequence recreating the opening montage of Schrader’s film, Julian remains in that jumbled, defensive mode for most of the three episodes shown to critics. And who can blame him – although he’s newly released, it hasn’t taken him long to be implicated in another investigation. Why and by whom he was framed 15 years ago is also a small matter. He gets some help in that department from Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell, taking over for Hector Elizondo), who has a similar knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.
Several suspects quickly emerge, as well as a questionable B-story about Michelle’s 15-year-old son, possibly intended to echo the trauma Julian experienced as a teenager, but in execution, just as grisly. comes to the fore. New “American Gigolo” So much is concerned with building mystery upon mystery that it leaves the characterization entirely up to the cast. Mole flashes with Bernthal in flashbacks, but Michelle’s current story leaves her with much to do beyond looking agitated in a bad wig. It would take at least one more episode for Richard Stratton (Leland Orser), a tech mogul, to rise to the level of a stock character.
“The Chi” artist Yolonda Ross has a minor role as Julian’s landlord Lizzie, who initially takes more issue with his previous sexual act than his murder sentence. But the start of a discussion about the ongoing stigma (and criminalization) of sex work is a small obstacle in the way Julian actually starts. The show doesn’t really know what it wants to say about the subject — it seems to be against any kind of glamorization, instead intending to draw a straight line from childhood abuse to sex work.
This approach is at odds with the series’ sometimes esoteric tone, which is also significantly less hesitant about featuring other forms of violence. Here we have another crime drama driven essentially by dead women, who are catalysts and complicators in the stories of others, but not characters in their own right—at least, not in the first act of the season.
With Seven Episodes Undiscovered, There’s Still Plenty of Opportunity for “American Gigolo” To grow into something more compelling than a run-of-the-mill mystery thriller. Bernthal’s performance certainly provides a solid foundation. But it’s hard to tell if the show has anything meaningful to say about any of its story or themes, or if it even has Wants To. Perhaps the show’s most positive appraisal in its early stages is also the most damaging — it could really go anywhere from here.
New episodes of “American Gigolo” are available on demand and streaming on the Showtime app on Fridays, and airs on Showtime on Sunday nights.
