#Who killed nick in clickbait netflix series#
#Who killed nick in clickbait netflix tv#

#Who killed nick in clickbait netflix series#

The choice to avoid real companies (the characters use “subports” instead of subreddits, for example) isn’t an insurmountable challenge to its credibility in and of itself - but combined with Clickbait‘s arm’s-length approach to the issues it purports to investigate, it only adds to the sense that the series has no idea what it’s talking about. The series relies on references to #MeToo, doxing and catfishing to add a sheen of relevance, but its exploration of those topics goes about as deep as an Urban Dictionary entry.

Still, this blandness could perhaps be excused if Clickbait had at least something insightful to say on the topic of the internet, which is ostensibly its core thematic concern. Though the character’s lines are as generic as anyone else’s, Gabriel allows us into the intense emotions roiling beneath her fragile calm as she struggles to absorb every devastating new twist in her husband’s ordeal. (Kazan throws herself into Pia’s ragged desperation, but I too grew sick of “the whole goddamn Pia show,” as another character puts it.) The rare exception is Sophie, which is more a feat of acting than writing. Few of the characters ever manage to transcend the archetypes they begin as, and some become grating in their repetition. Everyone in Clickbait has secrets, but that’s not the same as having personality or interiority.

#Who killed nick in clickbait netflix tv#

Meanwhile, Clickbait offers precious little of the rich characterization or world-building that justifies the long hours spent on other TV mysteries, like Big Little Lies or Mare of Easttown.

After a couple of episodes of incremental reveals and obvious red herrings, the temptation to just skip the rest and search for spoilers on Twitter becomes overpowering. The ultimate reveal of what’s really going on isn’t actually all that complicated or all that shocking Clickbait has simply decided to take six hours to solve a mystery that a feature film (or Black Mirror episode) could wrap up in a fraction of the time. The structure theoretically allows for a more comprehensive view of not only the mystery and the people involved in it, but of the digital culture it’s steeped in.īut the show’s problems start with the fact that, well, it’s doing this over eight 45-ish-minute episodes. Cast: Adrian Grenier, Zoe Kazan, Betty Gabriel, Phoenix Raei, Jessica Collins, Abraham Lim, Daniel Henshall, Camaron Engels, Jaylin Fletcher, Ian Meadows, Becca Lish, Motell FosterĬould Nick really be guilty of the crimes he’s confessed to? If he is, does the punishment fit the crime? If he’s not, who’s framing him, and why? Can Nick’s family stop the video from reaching 5 million views? What does it say about the internet’s dark id that some people seem downright eager to see Nick torn apart? How complicit are all of us in a situation like this, one that requires the indifference or active participation of millions of total strangers?Ĭlickbait tries to address those questions, and many more that arise along the way, over eight episodes of 45-ish minutes, each of which focuses on a different individual connected to the case: Nick’s hot-headed sister, Pia (Zoe Kazan) his devoted wife, Sophie (Betty Gabriel) Roshan (Phoenix Raei), the ambitious detective assigned to the case Ben (Abraham Lim), the ruthless journalist pursuing the story, and so on.