The Sympathizer

I had high expectations for The Sympathizer but it didn't really pan out like I hoped it would.

Robert Downey Jr. Puts in an Emmy-bait performance, playing multiple roles, but they all seemed to be the same guy with just slight variations. There's a story-based reason for this if you stick it out till the end but it still did not come off well, watching a parade of cliches march through the story in lieu of well-rounded characters.

Another major mistake was casting an actor who is obviously 100% Vietnamese as a Eurasian character, which necessitated silly things like awkward looking blue contact lenses and white makeup that must have been stolen from Michael Jackson's cosmetics case.

The actor who played Bon was good though. The story always came alive when he was in a scene. The best episode was the one dealing with a zany movie about the Vietnam War and shot in Napa (??? Must have been a cheap quickie, not something Coppola or Scorsese would have stooped to).

The Vietnamese refugee community was fun, especially the demented General. But the lead character was always lying and being evasive, running away from himself, not even sure who he was. I guess that was the point of the story but when you have an unappealing lead character, it drags down the story.

Worth watching, but only just barely. HBO's glory days of prestige productions seems to be waning. Under Zaslav, I don't expect even productions of this caliber. Zaslav thinks HBO is a good brand to slap on a Harry Potter series.

I was really looking forward to watching this, especially after reading the source material and its sequel. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as great as it could have been. I thought the creative liberties taken were welcome, but what I thought was missing through the series was The Captain's thoughts on capitalism, imperialism, and what it is like being Asian in the U. S. A. His thoughts were touched upon, but never examined with the level of depth the book did.

The story is ultimately about how The Captain lost sight of which side he was fighting for, and that he couldn't be a part of what he hoped to. That wasn't conveyed as clearly as it could have been.

The show felt more interested in showing the General as paranoid, yet intimidating and RDJ as the deceiptfulness of white America / imperialism.

I do not know what book the reviewer who claims the novel is set in France read but The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen takes place in America. That is the whole point of the story. The main character is a communist spy undercover as an aide to a South Vietnamese military commander who escapes to the United States of America at the conclusion of the war in Vietnam. Once in America, the narrator is then is a sleeper agent and a wry observer of American culture. His commentary on American life and capitalism offers a fresh perspective not offer seen and allows us, as readers, to see the war and its aftermath from a different and much needed viewpoint.

I had hopes for this show especially with Park Chan Wook involved. It was interesting to see RDJ play different roles but no one would be surprised with his versatility in acting skills. The show started off decent but felt the show just wasn't executed in the best way possible. The story felt dragged out each episode with only a seven episode count and although it was nice to see some Asian representation, I just didn't care much for any of the characters. They might've been better off with doing a 2 hour movie. The satire tone worked on some parts but really was overdone throughout the show. I expected something more to keep me engaged and feel some type of emotional attachment but it never delivered. Considering that Hoa Xuande was playing a Vietnamese communist spy, I wanted to see more scenes that made you want to empathize more for the character so by the time the ending came, you'd feel satisfied with the outcome of his character.

Excellent casting and all brilliant actors. Fun, intense and with some slightly surreal twists and a nice touch of dark comedy in addition. A nice and fresh take to the usually fairly cliche spy genre. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for a second in fear of missing a point or quirky twist of events. Robert Downey Jr is brilliant in 4 (or is it 5?) slimy roles, and he does each one brilliantly. But every single actor, main and others, are so well cast and brilliantly portraying their characters. I haven't read the book and don't intend to, so I've had the pleasure of being entirely unprepared, hence free/unbiased and able to just lean back and enjoy the ride. This is the best I've seen in a long time.