The Sympathizer

Didn't quite live up to the massive expectations I had from an HBO and A24 co-production, but it's still better than a lot of miniseries you'll watch.

The Sympathizer is all about perspective. A Vietnamese perspective of the events. A Communist perspective of the events. Something that is absent from the Hollywood productions about the war.

The complex politics of Vietnam War told by our lead, two-faced spy, and unreliable narrator, the Captain. Hoa Xuande gives an absolutely great performance in this role, supported by Oscar winner, Robert Downey Jr in multiple roles.

As I haven't read the original novel, I cannot judge this show as an adaptation. But, the writing and story deserves a lot of praise. Doesn't take sides and criticises both parties of the war along with the American influence. According to writer's own words, he understood "how the revolution had gone from being the vanguard of political change to the rearguard hoarding power".

PCW's direction in the first 3 episodes is great, as expected. His style, especially in the editing choices, is absent from the rest of the episodes. It also has a bit of pacing issue for which I couldn't engage with the plot as I would have loved to. That's why I am not rating it any higher. But I loved the ending, and the finale was my favourite episode.

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.

People expect serious tv series like Band of Brothers, Chernobyl, Shogun or The Last of Us. But this is Edgar Wright's style comedy but tv show. Funny, Engaging, Interesting and Good Acting. This is better Comedy than F. R. I. EN. D. S or Oscar bait serious WAR movies like Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge and 1917 which are overrated. People's imagination go War movies or series not serious low rating. If you like What We do in the Shows, Tropic Thunder, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, or any Edgar Wright's Movies like I did You will have a Wonderful time and have a Fun watching the show unless if you are expecting serious war TV show.

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.