Prodigal Son: Pilot

September 23, 2019 8:20 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Malcolm Bright is an acclaimed criminal psychologist. He knows how killers think, how their minds work. He ought to know, his father was a serial killer, known as The Surgeon. Now there's a copycat, imitating his father's methods. Bright may be the only one who can stop him.
posted by DirtyOldTown (12 comments total)

Comrade Doll said, with total confidence, about ten minutes into this pilot episode, that Malcolm's sister Ainsley is the killer. Not sure if she's right, but I wanted to log that somewhere in case she is.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:22 PM on September 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Review roundup:
TV Line - Fox's Prodigal Son Premiere: Grade It!

IndieWire Review: Michael Sheen’s Fox Drama Is a Bad, Bonkers ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Knock-Off

The Wrap - ‘Prodigal Son’ Star Michael Sheen Tells Us Why We Find His Serial Killer Character ‘Just Delightful’

TV Fanatic - Season 1 Episode 1 Review: Who Said Daddy Issues Aren't Fun?
posted by oh yeah! at 8:41 PM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Damn Michael Sheen for being so captivating, I'll probably keep watching this for the rest of the season.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:51 PM on September 23, 2019

I laughed at Mom's nonchalant delivery of "I had Luisa change the sheets and wipe down your restraints.", followed by "Quaalude?" She's my current favorite character - the rest seem fairly predictable so far, but it *is* just the pilot.
posted by Mogur at 10:11 AM on September 24, 2019 [5 favorites]

Comrade Doll's theory is that Ainsley is the mastermind behind one or more minion killers. She claims the overemphasis on how Ainsley is "the good one" and "without the issues" is telegraphing that shit hard.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:32 PM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

It's true that Ainsley is the only one in that family who appears to have no problems whatsoever, *and* who claims to remember nothing about the night her father was arrested. Both ideas make me suspicious.
posted by Mogur at 2:00 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Bellamy Young, who plays Malcolm's mother, is a whole twelve years older than he is.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:16 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ainsley stuff from episode one:
-as a young child, she watches her father's arrest
-walking with her brother, she comments cheerily about how she doesn't have any issues like Malcolm does... then she takes a mysterious call and lies to him about it
-Mrs. Whitly says Ainsley is perfect and never gives her any worry

Also, note Malcolm smarmily saying the killer has to be a man.

In fact, as he confidently describes the killer ... Ainsley calls.

Yes, it's definitely a bald, imposing man. Then Ainsley texts him.

At dinner with his family, he begins a sentence "This new killer..."

Cut to Ainsley making a weird, knowing face.
Guys, I think my spouse pegged this one right off the bat. (Before most of this was even on screen.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:22 PM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just checking in on the procedural starring the quirky white guy who sees things a little differently and solves problems with the help of his minority and/or female sidekick(s).

--ODiV's line about The Good Doctor, which also has this show dead to rights.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:45 PM on September 24, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah I think Ainsley is also the Moriarty.

Honestly if not for Sheen, I'd nope out of this show. I may still, but I'll give it at least 2 more eps.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:48 PM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

Coming to this late, but Mrs. Example and I saw an ad for it on one of the streaming services and gave it a try. We wanted to like it, but it's even more implausible than most shows like this. We're supposed to buy that the main character, a disgraced former FBI agent, who:

• is the son of a prolific serial killer;
• has a crippling level of complex PTSD to the point where he has frequent hand tremors;
• sleeps three or four hours a night, and has to take multiple prescription drugs to manage even that;
• when he does sleep, sleeps so badly that he has to shackle himself to his bed at night and have an industrial-strength mouth guard;
• occasionally drifts off in the middle of the day and has night terrors so intense that he's known to run screaming, still asleep;

...somehow not only made it into the FBI Academy through all the background checks and assessments and screening, but actually managed to graduate and then stick with the FBI long enough to become a profiler and work at least one case.

I'll probably watch one or two more to see if it gets better, but so far it's kind of a waste of Michael Sheen.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:35 PM on March 14

Also, while I'm thinking about it...we're supposed to believe in the flashback at the end of the pilot that Michael Sheen's brilliant serial killer--someone who, mind you, is methodical and careful enough to have gotten away with over twenty murders at that point--would just haphazardly attempt to drug and kill a beat cop who came to the door to investigate a complaint?

A cop who would have almost certainly have radioed his location to his dispatcher, and whose last known whereabouts would be absurdly easy to trace?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:45 PM on March 14