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The Serpent: a slow-burn TV success that's more than a killer thriller

Cleverly delving into the dark side of hippie culture, the BBC’s drama about the murderous Charles Sobhraj has defied ambivalent reviews to become one of its most-watched shows

When it debuted on New Year’s Day, the BBC’s eight-part drama The Serpent was met with ambivalent reviews. Do we really need another serial killer story? Does the attractiveness of its stars, Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman, overly glamorise a murderer and his brainwashed moll? Do there have to be quite so many flashbacks? Once you’ve peeled away the 70s fabrics and neurotic clouds of cigarette smoke, what is it actually saying?

The show took a while to dispel such reservations and clarify what it was really up to. Since then, however, it’s become a word-of-mouth sensation on iPlayer, and was among the most-streamed series during the biggest-ever week for the platform.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cnNV4K
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