Max miniseries ‘Full Circle’ comes to satisfying conclusion
Max’s six-episode miniseries “Full Circle” has aired in full, which means you can binge it without narrative interruptus if you like. It’s a thriller that brings a family in New York City together with a Guyanese crime boss and her goons. The link between the two very different worlds? No spoilers.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, “Full Circle” is effectively shot, and the scenes are tense, even while you might not fully grasp the links between them and feel some impatience. For the first few episodes, the story seems overly fragmented and mysterious. But it all adds up, gradually, and ultimately, and the finale is satisfying.
At the center of everything is a kidnapping. Sam (Claire Danes) and husband Derek (Timothy Olyphant) are wealthy Manhattanites — TV’s Chef Jeff (Dennis Quaid) is Sam’s father — and they receive a ransom phone call regarding their teen son. Meanwhile, in Queens, the powerful Guyanese boss Savitri Mahabir (CCH Pounder) is driven to put an end to an old curse she believes has been unleashed on her family. She puts her nephew, Aked (an explosive Jharrel Jerome), in charge of her plan, and he hires a pair of newly arrived Guyanese teens, Xavier (Sheyi Cole) and Louis (Gerald Jones), to help him carry it out.
Things go awry, of course, while a postal inspector, Harmony Melody (Zazie Beetz), becomes obsessed with figuring things out. Beetz is fantastic as a manic, ethically slippery, and, overall, sympathetic investigator, and she is, in some ways, our surrogate. Danes and Olyphant shine as a couple with a few major-league secrets between them. And Jim Gaffigan is a kick as Harmony’s crusty, irritated boss.