While at times the story drifts, especially midway through its eight-episode run, Prime Target does what Apple TV+ does best by offering an inventive, different, and unique political/tech thriller, held aloft by fabulous writing and a stunning ensemble cast. The first two episodes of Prime Target are streaming now on Apple TV+. New episodes are released every Wednesday.
Over the past forty years, our world has gradually transitioned from analogue to digital, and during the past twenty years, this journey has accelerated faster than ever before. Our world is now built on digital transactions, banking, filing, security and entertainment, with few analogue structures remaining active. At the heart of this new digital world are the algorithms that keep our digital services alive, and behind these encryption services lie the prime numbers and mathematical properties that keep us safe.
However, imagine, just for a moment, if there were a way to crack all prime-number-based encryption services. Chaos would ensue, with every government, business, bank, entertainment and online service suddenly vulnerable to exploitation, leaks and worse. This possibility lies at the heart of the new Apple TV+ mathematical thriller Prime Target, which takes us from the hallowed halls of Cambridge University to the bustling streets of Baghdad and the crystal-clear waters of Southern France.
Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall) is a brilliant, awkward, and warm-hearted young mathematics genius on the verge of an academic breakthrough that could forever change how prime numbers are viewed. Edward believes there is a secret, hidden pattern in prime numbers that could offer a key to understanding the very foundations of modern mathematics, and he is determined to find it through the research he has kept hidden from all but his closest colleagues. But Edward’s research on primes is about to place a target on his back.
On the retirement of his old professor, Raymond Osborne (Joseph Mydell), due to his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Ed is allocated a new professor, Robert Mallinder (David Morrissey). But Mallinder is concerned by Ed’s evasive behaviour relating to his research, a concern he shares with his partner, Professor Andrea Lavin (Sidse Babett Knudsen), who has just been informed of a significant archaeological discovery in Baghdad that might also relate to Ed’s secretive work.
Meanwhile, in Southern France, a young American National Security Agency surveillance operative, Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell), watches selected mathematicians and professors at Cambridge as they work using hidden cameras as part of a secret project led by her godmother Jane Torres (Martha Plimpton) and her mysterious boss, Deputy Director Andrew Carter (Harry Lloyd).
Created by Steve Thompson (Vienna Blood) and directed by Brady Hood (Great Expectations), Prime Target is a knotty mathematical thriller that has just the right formula to keep you hooked.
While at times, the story drifts, especially mid-way through the eight-episode run, Prime Target does what Apple TV+ does best by offering us an inventive, different and unique political/tech thriller held aloft by fabulous writing and a stunning ensemble cast, including Stephen Rea, Fra Fee, Jason Flemyng and Maanuv Thiara. Let’s be honest: how many streaming giants would give the green light to an eight-part thriller centred around a socially awkward gay maths genius based at Cambridge University? Thankfully, Apple TV+ did, and they leave a door open in the final episode for more if Prime Target finds the audience it deserves.
Holding this globe-trotting thriller together are the brilliant performances of Leo Woodall and Quintessa Swindell, with one analogue and the other digital in their outlook. A need for answers consumes Woodall’s Ed, as his academic drive sees him scribble his thoughts and equations in a notebook, avoiding digital devices. Ed doesn’t fully understand or embrace the digital world around him and sees his work on primes as an academic journey rather than a potential digital risk. Unlike Ed, Swindell’s Taylah leads a life consumed and dominated by the digital world. She understands the threats and risks associated with Ed’s work, as well as the dark opportunities his prime key could create.
As the story progresses, both Taylah and Ed form an uneasy yet essential relationship as the worlds of analogue and digital meet to solve a dangerous puzzle, while they are hunted and labelled prime targets by more than one deadly, secretive outfit.
Mixing elements of Mr Robot, The Bourne Identity, Good Will Hunting and the Cambridge-based maths drama The Man Who Knew Infinity, Steve Thompson and Brady Hood create a decidedly entertaining and engaging British thriller as Woodall and Swindell make maths sexy again, with a near-perfect formula for entertainment.
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