You always know who the enemy is in a Howard Gordon show: Anyone who isn’t American.
Jack Bauer battled an entire United Nations of foreigners on “24.” Carrie Mathison killed a big enemy, Abu Nazir (Navid Neghaban), on “Homeland.”
In his new series, “Tyrant,” premiering Tuesday night on FX, Gordon goes behind enemy lines to tell a prodigal-son story with heavy overtones a la “The Godfather.”
California pediatrician Bassad Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) fled Abuddin, the Muslim country of his birth (the series is filmed in Israel), at age 16. Now, he very reluctantly returns home — a married man with a blond wife and two typically snotty American children — to attend his nephew’s wedding.
Barry, as he is known in the States, hasn’t been home in 20 years, and for good reason. His father, the president of Abuddin, is a dictator whose ruthlessness is recalled in flashbacks. When the men behind an assassination attempt are captured, the president wants his eldest son, Jamal, to shoot the main culprit.
As an adult, Jamal (Ashraf Barhom) is a raving evildoer whose sexual exploitation of women is graphically presented. No sooner does Barry settle in at the family palace — it’s very pink — than he is preventing the naked Jamal from killing someone in the royal sauna to which the men have repaired.
Besides his crazy brother, Barry has another reason to drop off the wedding gift and head back to the airport. His son, Sammy (Noah Silver), spends his time at the sauna making goo-goo eyes at the son of one of the men in the president’s security detail.
Rayner, yet another British actor on TV with a flawless American accent, plays Barry with a poise that barely masks his fears that coming home is the worst idea he’s ever had. But the supporting roles are underwritten. Aside from the wonderfully hammy Barhom, who plays his scenes with a dastardly relish appropriate for a bad guy, everyone seems a little stiff.
Jennifer Finnigan, cast in the all-too-familiar role of the understanding wife (Molly) of a non-verbal spouse, whines like a disappointed child. The kids (Silver and Anne Winters) are the same brand of diaper-rash teens you see on every TV show. Alice Krige, as Barry’s passive mother, barely registers a pulse.
As in all Gordon shows, the plot turns on a series of catastrophes and, before you know it, we have the feeling that somehow Barry can’t go home again to Pasadena.
The Middle East of Gordon’s “Tyrant” is as explosive as on “24” and “Homeland,” but he’s much better at letting the special effects guys manufacture the blasts than he is at creating those moments with his characters. After one particular shock, Jamal takes to driving his sports car at great speeds down a cliffside highway while forcing a woman’s head in his lap.
All the screeching (tires), screaming (the woman) and defiant swearing (Jamal) should have had me on the edge of my seat, but I burst out laughing. The infidel was clearly getting what he deserved, which conforms to Gordon’s world view — but, with stunts like these, “Tyrant” can’t be taken seriously
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sorce:http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/a-risky-homecoming-as-tyrant-gets-underway/
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