Imagine ‘The Bourne Identity’ crossed with ‘Good Will Hunting’ but without the character depth
Maths also underpins new numbers-focused thriller miniseries Prime Target (Apple TV+, episodes one and two from Wednesday, January 22). That title wouldn’t look out of place on a cheesy 1980s action blockbuster.
Prime Target aspires to be a sort of brainy action blockbuster. It has fights, shootouts, explosions, chases – on foot, in cars, on motorbikes, even on bicycles – and eye-catching locations: Cambridge, Baghdad, the South of France.
It also has maths. Lots of maths. Imagine The Bourne Identity crossed with Good Will Hunting, but with Leo Woodall instead of Matt Damon.
The 28-year-old Londoner is on a red-hot career streak at the moment. He exuded equal parts charm and untrustworthiness as the Essex wideboy con artist Jack in season two of The White Lotus.
He set hearts fluttering and loins tingling (so I’m told, anyway) as Dex in Netflix’s smash-hit romantic drama One Day. Dex could be a bit of an arsehole, but at least he redeemed himself in the end.
Leo’s latest character, on the other hand, Cambridge undergraduate and maths genius Edward Brooks, is just an arsehole, full stop. He’s an incredibly smart guy. Possibly even the smartest guy in the world. But he’s also impossible to like, especially when he casually reminds people of how smart he is.
When someone asks why he does ultra-complex calculations in his head rather than using a computer, he says it’s because computers “are too slow”.
“I know he’s brilliant,” says Brooks’ long-suffering tutor, Professor Robert Mallinder (Neil Morrissey), “it’s just sometimes I want to punch him in the face.”
Mallinder’s wife Andrea (Sidse Babett Knudsen), an archaeology professor investigating a newly discovered underground chamber in Baghdad that might hold arcane number codes, is appalled. You can understand how Mallinder feels, though. Brooks is completely insufferable.
This could be sympathy, or it could be indigestion. He’s so emotionally detached that it’s hard to tell the difference
He’s surly, superior, humourless, moody and petulant. He might, as Mallinder says, be brilliant, yet he has no time for anyone he thinks isn’t, and that includes Mallinder.
The only person he seems to respect is his former tutor and mentor, the retired Professor Raymond Osborne (there are a lot of professors as well as a lot of maths here), played by Joseph Mydell. Poor Osborne has Alzheimer’s.
Whenever he displays signs of his sad mental decline, it elicits a little wince from Brooks. This could be sympathy, or it could be indigestion. He’s so emotionally detached that it’s hard to tell the difference.
He’s rude, too. And boring. When a woman makes a move on him during someone’s birthday drinks, he asks her how old she is. When she tells him she’s 23, he says: “That’s a prime number.”
Brooks is so self-absorbed, you wonder how he can muster up enough interest in someone other than himself to spend the night with Adam Mellor (Fra Fee), who works behind the college bar. The next morning, Brooks – who says he’s not gay and “not anything” – brusquely tells him to get out, he has work to do. A real charmer, this bloke.
Under normal circumstances, people would cross the street to avoid Brooks. But some people are interested in him: shadowy types who want to know about his work, which is trying to find patterns in prime numbers. If he succeeds, he’ll have found a way to access every computer system in the world.
When Mallinder finally persuades Brooks to reveal what he’s working on, he’s appalled and implores him to drop it. We learn through flashbacks that Mallinder has good reason to be terrified.
Also keeping a close eye on Brooks is Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell) an operative with America’s National Security Agency. The NSA has installed spy cameras in the homes and workplaces of the world’s top mathematicians to monitor whether their work represents a world threat.
When people, including one of Sanders’s colleagues, start getting killed, she fears she and Brooks will be next. The pair go on the run while trying to find out who’s behind the conspiracy.
Prime Target is fast-paced and has a few twists, but the lack of character depth and the presence of a protagonist it’s hard to care about makes it feel by-the-numbers.
