The Australian-produced Netflix series promises one thing but delivers on another. It’s the old bait-and-switch.
Depending on who you ask, clickbait can mean a few different things. One definition is the bait-and-switch – promise one thing, deliver another.
Netflix miniseries Clickbait is that kind of bait-and-switch. It’s sold as a drama that traffics in grand ideas about the dark side of the internet – of trolls, murky identities, duplicity and the horrific abuses committed behind the shield of anonymity.
And while Clickbait does explore those notions, it’s merely skimming the surface of a well that’s been more effectively pumped by the likes of Black Mirror or The Social Dilemma.
In that sense, Clickbait works much better as a gripping, bingey thriller than commentary about the rot of online culture. If you can reconcile that from the beginning and not expect it to be some incisive statement about our world, then you’ll have a much better time with it.
As a thriller with a propulsive central mystery, Clickbait delivers. Each episode ends on a cliffhanger, a revelation with enough to juice to leave you inert, letting the next episode roll on.
Filmed in Melbourne but actually set in Oakland, California, the story kicks off with the kidnapping of Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier), a seemingly devoted husband, loving father-of-two and popular colleague.
His sister Pia (Zoe Kazan) and wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel) don’t even realise he’s missing until Pia sees an online video. It’s Nick and he’s been beaten. Staring at the camera, he’s holding a sign that reads “I abuse women” followed by another that promises he’ll die when the video reaches five million views.
Clickbait is hinged on the mystery of who has Nick, but also who is Nick. Is he the man he presented to the people in his lives or is he someone who harboured a darker side of himself he only unleashed on the internet?
Curiously, because the episodes are structured as telling the story from the different perspectives of the people involved in the case – including Pia, Sophie, Nick’s oldest son Ethan (Camaron Engels), Detective Roshan Amir (Phoenix Rai) and ambitious reporter Ben Park (Abraham Lim) – Nick remains the most elusive character.
We only have other people’s impressions of him, a deliberate choice given the narrative demand to keep his character mysterious, but it does mean the investment in Nick and his fate wavers.
If the series was longer than eight episodes, that would’ve become a real dragging point.
Elsewhere, the level of performances is uneven, but the MVP is Gabriel (Get Out) as Sophie, who slowly breaks down her character’s restrained demeanour. Sophie’s concealed emotions are in a battle against the extraordinary situation she finds herself in and Gabriel expertly enlivens that arc.
Australian actor Daniel Henshall, who pops up in the later episodes, is another one of these standout performances.
Despite Clickbait’s hybrid Australian-American genesis, it most closely resembles British crime dramas in its sombre tone. Its vibe is contained and grounded, in part due to the production’s repeated use of sets such as the Brewer house and the police station, but also in its ominous score, composed by Cornel Wilczek.
And the plotting is tight – except for one or two beats that stretch too far – but the multiple perspectives structure mostly works to move the story along without repetition, and the shifts are seamless.
While Clickbait isn’t quite the series you were expecting, its lack of thematic and character depth doesn’t detract too much from what it is, a more-ish thriller that’s engaging in the moment but ultimately forgettable.
Clickbait is streaming now on Netflix
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2021-08-25 12:00:30Z
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