- Title: Alex Rider – Episode One
- IMDb: link
Going for a less over-the-top feel than the 2006 film, the opening episode of Alex Rider introduces us to the talented teenager who discovers his recently deceased uncle (Andrew Buchan) was actually a secret agent. Otto Farrant is well cast as the series lead as Alex looking into his uncle’s “car crash” leads to the discovery of a secret world he’s first invited, and then later blackmailed, into becoming a part of. “Episode One” also lays the foundation for the season’s villains in the evil teenager (George Sear) who kills his father and the mention of a private school which will no doubt be Alex’s eventual destination.
Other than his guardian (Ronke Adekoluejo), and a school chum (Brenock O’Connor), Alex doesn’t have much in the way of help heading into dangerous waters for an organization that’s already shown him that Alex is nothing more to them than a means to an end which they will leverage in whatever way suits them. The early scenes not only showcase Alex’s skills in a more normal setting (breaking into school to retrieve a phone) but also, with the murder of his uncle, help ground the story before diving headfirst into the larger spy story. Certainly less goofy than the previous film adaptation, but still drawing from the same source material, Alex Rider’s adventure has just begun.