In the new HBO limited series The sympathizer, a North Vietnamese mole in the South Vietnamese secret police continues to spy on his countrymen after the fall of Saigon, when he joined the South Vietnamese in Los Angeles. Believe it or not, it’s actually a black comedy. How do you achieve this?
THE SYMPATHYST: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: A shot of a map of Vietnam that looks like something out of an old instructional film. “In the United States it is called the Vietnam War. “In Vietnam, it’s called the American War.”
The essence: A man in a prison cell is told to rewrite his confession and not leave out any details. “Comrade, everything I did was to advance the cause,” the prisoner says, before beginning to write his confession once again.
Saigon, winter 1975, four months before it fell to the Viet Cong. The prisoner, known as the Captain (Hoa Xuande), meets with his CIA handler, Claude (Robert Downey Jr.), at a movie theater where large displays are being set up for the film. Desire of death. Inside, South Vietnamese intelligence agents are interrogating a woman caught with a roll of film containing confidential information about her side. During the interrogation, the general (Toan Le), leader of the secret police, enters the theater. If Claude helped the Captain learn the customs of American pop culture, the General helped him learn the customs of the South Vietnamese.
What neither of them know, of course, is that the Captain is a mole for the North Vietnamese. He is the one who shot the film with which they found the woman being interrogated. The Captain’s link to the North is his childhood friend Man (Duy Nguyễn); The two regularly hang out with their other childhood friend, Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan), who is an officer in the Southern Airborne pision. Bon and his wife just had a baby, who is the Captain’s godson. What was in the movie was a list of all the members of the secret police, including the Captain, so that the North would know who needed re-education when he finally took power.
As the North advances towards Saigon and the prospect of escaping to the US grows closer, the General asks the Captain to check the list to see who stays and who can get on the plane that Claude has been able to secure. Since the film the Captain shot could not be recovered, it is ironic that the printed copy of the list is now in his hands; of course, he gives the Man a copy. That’s when the Man tells the Captain that he is going to the United States with the General and his family. Captain, who is half-American and went to college in the United States, has an affinity for the country and the North knows it. They believe he will be able to observe the General and the community around him and report back.
A big hint at the Captain’s pided loyalties is when he asks the General if Bon and his family can be on the plane leaving Vietnam. But as the North invades and rocket explosions surround them at the airport, the Captain has to decide whether he gets on the plane or makes sure Bon and his family escape unscathed.
What shows will it remind you of? Created by Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar based on the novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The sympathizer It has a bit of the dark comedy feel of shows like Hunterscrossed with series with a more modern setting such as The sun brothers.
Our opinion: The first episode of The sympathizer doesn’t give viewers a sense of how strange and twisted the Captain’s story will be. The Captain will settle in Los Angeles along with the rest of the South Vietnamese families who escaped Saigon when he fell, but he will continue to spy on them and inform his comrades back home. But, given his propensity to enjoy American life, his loyalties will definitely be pided.
Downey will play multiple roles in the series, which may or may not be a distraction. As Claude in the first episode, Downey acted as a cross between James Caan and Hunter S. Thompson; His character even claimed that he was 1/16 black. As much as we like how RDJ can disappear into his character, we wonder if “Where’s Waldo?” Downey’s appearance in multiple roles will benefit from this story.
And believe us, is a good story. Xuande’s performance shows the Captain’s pided loyalties; Even when he was still in Saigon, his conflict over betraying his South Vietnamese colleagues is palpable. He also likes life in the United States, but he is reluctant to admit it. When he tells Bon that he was “fascinated and repelled” by the country, Bon nails the American experience by interrupting him with, “That’s what it means to love America.” As he becomes more comfortable in Los Angeles, the cracks in his loyalty to the government in the newly renamed Ho Chi Minh City will show.
Like other shows currently taking place in this period, the 1969 set Royal Palm Oddly enough comes to mind here: there will be a lot of quirky characters, a lot of stylistic filmmaking techniques used, and a very strong sense of place and time that permeates the entire narrative. That tends to be a good thing and will serve this narrative well. We just hope that The sympathizer He is not distracted by his tricks and focuses on the Captain’s story.
Sex and skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: In his cell, the Captain listens to the song “The Wanderer”, which is the one he and Claude sang just before the US-bound plane left Saigon.
Sleeping star: Sandra Oh plays Mrs. Sofia Mori, who we will see in Los Angeles.
Most pilot line: The Captain is packing his spy things while the General enters his rooms; The Captain stands in front of the bag but doesn’t cover it very well. Is the general just not that observant?
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. The sympathizer tells a story about the post-Vietnam War experience that we haven’t heard much about here in the US, but we hope it doesn’t get bogged down by some of the tricks we already see in the first episode.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
