By Dan Skip Allen

As a big fan of Martin Scorsese, I was pretty excited when I heard there was going to be a series in the development of one of his movies, “Cape Fear” from 1991. This was the second version of this suspense thriller. The first was in 1962, starring Gregory Peck and Robert Michum as Max Cady. In the Scorsese version, Robert DeNiro famously played the sinister Max Cady. Now, this big screen psycho is coming to the small screen with a whole new actor playing the terrifying ex-convict. Along with all the other characters that first appeared in the previous movie versions. Besides Scorsese, there is also Steven Spielberg in the producing chair, so you know this has got to be good with these heavyweights behind it. Right?

This particular version of “Cape Fear” takes place in the Southern Georgia City of Savannah., Instead Florida. It focuses on two lawyers, Anna Bowden (Amy Adams), Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson), and their two teen children, Natalie Bowden (Lilly Collios) and Zach Bowden (Will Anders). They are like any other family at this time in America. The parents overwork themselves and don’t pay enough attention to their kids. One of which is a good student and athlete while the other is a bit of a troublemaker and a recluse. Their parents work diligently on their cases and a benefit group called SJLP, who help prisoners who are unjustly imprisoned. Unbeknownst to them, a client/ criminal they had put away previously Max Cady (Javier Bardem) got out of prison on a technicality. This causes an issue with the couple who put this man away years before. 

As most would imagine, a show based on “Cape Fear” is going to expand on the things that the previous two films did. One of those is the supporting cast. The two characters that get the most expansion of their characters are the teenagers Natalie and Zach played by Collios and Anders. They were basically throwaway characters in the last 2 films. Here, they are explored in a more in-depth way. In regards to the daughter, she gets caught up with a new character and has a change of heart regarding her father and mother. She questions whether or not they did the right thing keeping secrets from her and her brother. The brother now just goes into a dark hole that teens sometimes do. The father, played by Wilson, has to try to get through to him. The father son relationship is a key in the series. These two young actors did a good job helping these characters to get expanded in a way necessary for the story.

As far as the parents in the family and the lawyers that were involved in the case of Max Cady, Wilson and Adams are okay in these roles, but not great so far. I’ve only seen 8 episodes thus far so I can’t make my final decision on how they did playing these characters which were played in the past by Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange in the Scorsese film and Gregory Peck and Polly Bergen in the J Lee Thompson version. These two characters are supposed to be good people who get caught up in a crazy situation. Here, they are corrupt and have a lot of secrets that they are hiding from everyone, including their children. Adams and Wilson are good casting choices for these roles, but the screenplay may have let them down a bit, especially with the expansion of the story overall. I would have rather seen the Max Cady character have his reasons for stalking or wanted revenge on this family instead of the family not doing the right things regarding him. Hopefully, the series turns around regarding this.

Now, onto the Max Cady character himself played by Bardem. He plays the character much more reserved than DeNiro, and Robert Michum played the character. They were much more unhinged in their film versions. The obvious thing to do is compare these performances and from what I’ve seen so far Bardem isn’t going to where he needs to go to make this iconic character as crazy and psychotic as it needs to be to get the right effect. I want a psycho who wants revenge for what he perceives as an injustice to him. That side of the story is too convoluted as well. In the film versions, it was a simple injustice as Max Cady perceives it. Here, it’s much more confusing. Bardem can save this character if the show turns him into a genuine horror villain like in the other film versions. I like Bardem, the actor, as the character. I just want to see more from him because I know he has it in him.

The creator and showrunner of “Cape Fear” is Nick Antosca.  He got Mortin Tyldum to direct the first episode of the show, and usually, that is the direction the series goes in. Tyldum is best known for “The Imitation Game” in 2014. That was a great film with a phenomenal performance by Benedict Cumberbatch. Here, he tries to build these parents into villains from the very get-go of the show. He wants the Max Cady character to be innocent and sympathetic in the minds of the viewers. He also introduces Black and white flashback sequences where the viewers start to learn about Max Cady’s time in prison. He has a journey, to say the least. Prison isn’t exactly for everybody, especially the cul de sac community. Tyldum does some questionable things that the other directors expand on while also doing one thing that I think was pretty good. That’s showing the times that the Max Cady character spent in prison instead of explaining what happened to him in exposition like the films did. This is also probably part of Antosca‘s vision for the show, in which not I’m against.

Where I feel the series drops the ball early on is that there are too many subplots. All the characters have their own thing going on, and some of them that I don’t want to see have connections with others are too much for me. I don’t think having the Max Cady character interact so closely with the Adams character. Her organization plays into that, but I don’t think it was necessary. I did like the subplots involving the teenagers and the father played by Wilson. He is a lawyer who has cases that he works on. This is an aspect of his character that should be shown. Considering the fact that he’s a lawyer who defended the Max Cady character. Maybe the fact that I like the Scorsese version of the story so much, and DeNiro’s performance as Max Cady, is clouding my judgment on this show and how Antosca and the writers are letting it unfold. I’ve only seen eight episodes, and with two more left, that seems to me like it may be two too many. I think eight would have been better as to get to the Max Cady stuff sooner.

Two things in the show that I liked were the camera work and filmmaking style that Antosca chose to go with in the series. Starting with the Tyldum pilot episode, they used shots that looked very interesting. You get to look through things or behind characters that are in the foreground.  This type of camera work lends itself to a thriller like this. The second thing I liked was giving some background to the Max Cady character. He has a mistress who may or may not have killed his wife, which he was serving time for. This kind of backstory is something I always wanted with this character. It gives him more depth instead of making it not as interesting. I like a villain with some depth to them instead of them being one-note characters. Max Cady is an iconic villain in my mind similar to Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface, and Pennywise the Clown. He’s that good of a character in my mind. More people should see the previous two films. 

Two things I didn’t like about the series were the changing of the race of Max Cady from a middle-aged Caucasian man to a middle-aged Latino man. Sure, I like Bardem as an actor, but I would have rather had Antosca not change his race. This, to me, is a cliched casting choice. Bardem had already played a couple of great villains in his career, one of which he won an Academy Award for. That being Anton Sugar in “No Country For Old Men,”. He also played a bond villain as well in his career. I think he’s played enough famous cinematic villains. I’m sure there was somebody else out there who could have played this character rather than him. Maybe Brian Cranston or Jon Hamm, even though they have also played iconic characters in their career. They would have been better voices from my perspective. Another thing the series does is use animals in questionable scenarios. I didn’t like the use of these animals like skunks, a possum, a panther, and a hawk to elicit cheap scares or freak out the viewers. 

“Cape Fear” is a series that tries to be something different from the two previous films. Both have come out in thirty year increments from where this is around a thirty five year difference in time. I think this time difference has changed the way Antosca has envisioned the story. It’s not a straightforward situation of a man who was sent to prison who wants revenge on those he felt were at fault. It’s more of a complicated story now. The side characters have bigger roles this time around, and there are more subplots. There is a different look to the series than the previous two films, it’s based on. I did like how the show looked regarding crazy camera angles and so forth. The five main actors in the show were okay, but I think Wilson and Adams may have been a little too on the nose with their performances where from the eight episodes I’ve been given to watch Bardem wasn’t that good of a replacement for the other two actors who portrayed this character so brilliantly in the past. The teen characters were more interesting than the adults. There are two episodes I haven’t seen yet and maybe the action and suspense of the series will pick up, but I haven’t seen a whole lot I’ve loved about this reboot of one of my favorite thrillers from the past, but with more episodes left to see maybe I’ll be able to change my opinion with some more time.

Cape Fear is Streaming on AppleTV on June 5th, 8/10 Episodes, Reviewed

3 1/2 stars