‘Lost Symbol’ and ‘The Premise’ debut
Adapted for television and doled out in hourlong dollops, “Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol” streams exclusively on Peacock.
Brown’s best-selling books “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” were made into popular films starring Tom Hanks as the globe-trotting Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.
“Symbol” concerns a younger Langdon, portrayed by Australian actor Ashley Zukerman. With his lean frame and tousled hair, he often resembles the modern-day Jimmy Stewart that Hanks was supposed to evoke — only Stewart never had to translate Latin or cogitate about codicils.
“Symbol” follows the pattern of other Brown efforts. Langdon is invited to a major academic affair, only to discover he’s been hoodwinked down a physical and metaphorical rabbit hole by some dark, violent freak representing a cultlike group out to protect ancient wisdom.
In this case, Langdon is drawn to Washington, D.C., a city awash in Masonic signs and symbols. He’s compelled to search for his kidnapped mentor (Eddie Izzard) through the tombs, vaults and bookstacks of our nation’s capital.
Brown’s novels have always mixed comic-book action with long passages of explication. What works on the page has resulted in some turgid filmmaking, and “Symbol” is no exception. There’s so much to explain that dialogue can seem like a speech or a lecture.
The move to hourlong episodes is an improvement. Absent academic asides, Brown stories can often seem like “Indiana Jones” films. And the first episode of “Symbol” includes a scene of Langdon nearly crushed by walls closing in on him, a stable of serialized adventures dating back to silent movies. Both “Jones” and “Star Wars” were inspired by Saturday serials, and the murky storytelling of “The Lost Symbol” is improved by the need to tune in the following week for the next thrill-packed adventure.
› B.J. Novak, a star and producer of “The Office,” turns his hand to topical storytelling on the anthology series “The Premise,” streaming on FX on Hulu. Each stand-alone halfhour story will focus on a single character swept up in themes that most comedy writers would traditionally avoid.
The first episode, “Social Justice Sex Tape,” takes an over-the-top look at the Black Lives Matter movement from the point of view of a do-gooder nebbish (Ben Platt) who discovers that his ineptly made sex tape includes a shot outside his window that exonerates the victim of a violent police beating. In a bit of Kafka by way of Woody Allen, the do-gooder’s motivations, life story and sexual habits are put on trial.
In a second, more harrowing, story, “Moment of Silence,” the father (Jon Bernthal) of a child killed in a school shooting goes to work as a publicist for a gun lobbying group, where his Second Amendment zealotry falls under suspicion.
“The Office” by way of “Black Mirror,” episodes of “The Premise” are smart, thought-provoking, discomforting and mercifully short.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.