Rabbit Hole review: Mediocre thriller makes the best of its deceptions

Rabbit Hole follows John Weir, a corporate spy who gets embroiled in a large conspiracy orchestrated by someone who can influence and control the population. The series is now streaming on Paramount+.

Story

John Weir is a master of deception in the world of corporate espionage. With the help of his highly skilled team, he deceives people and forces them to make moves that will benefit his clients, who will pay him large sums to see their rivals lose.

FBI Agent Jo Madi has been trying to arrest Weir for a very long time. Somehow, he is able to leave no clue behind. Things go sideways when Weir accepts a job offered by his old friend, Miles Valence.

After carrying out the job successfully, Weir is framed for murdering a person. Following that, his whole team gets killed in an explosion. When he confronts Valence, all Valence does is jump off his office’s balcony because someone told him to do so.

Whoever Weir is facing is a powerful individual who can control and manipulate the world just like Weir, forcing Weir to team up with his father, Ben, who has returned after being assumed dead for years.

Performances

Most of the lead cast delivers a decent performance, which is not really something out of the ordinary. Kiefer Sutherland, as John Weir, plays a paranoid spy who doubts everything around him.

Sutherland doesn’t really look as crazy as the show tries to portray him to be. For the most part of the show, Sutherland comes out as a reliable lead who just questions all the events taking place.

Charles Dance, as Ben, is a threatening figure who is occasionally funny and likes to stick to the topic. Meanwhile, Meta Golding puts up a convincing performance as Hailey, who accidentally gets involved in the world of spies and aims to learn how Weir works, eventually becoming his love interest.

Lastly, Rob Yang, as Edward Homm, is the star performer of the show. He is unexpectedly funny, an oddball who gets the job done, and someone who is useful all the time.

Positives

Rabbit Hole highly relies on the picture-perfect deceptions it pulls off, not only on the characters in the show but also on the viewers watching it on their screens. At no point can one trust the events transpiring in the series because there is always a twist Rabbit Hole is hiding.

The heists in the show are simple if everything is put on the map in front of a viewer, and that’s what Rabbit Hole stays away from. It shows the viewers a fake narrative and later clarifies the truth. This kind of narrative allows the show to be unpredictable all the time.

At first, getting rid of Weir’s highly skilled team seems like a big mistake, but the show makes up for it by throwing oddballs like Hailey and, especially, Homm, into Weir’s team. The presence of these misfits promises a lot of entertainment amidst the action.

Negatives

Rabbit Hole‘s way of narrating the events works only up till a certain point. Once the viewers are acquainted with how events are going to play out, everything starts feeling predictable.

Furthermore, the show pushes this format hard to the point where it feels like the show is plainly lying to the viewers for the sake of pulling off its twists.

For a few episodes, the show becomes slow with its developments and fails to build tension around the finale. Even the revelation of the show’s big bad is dissatisfying, as the person doesn’t live up to the way they are described.

Lastly, when it comes to emotions, almost all the characters work great together in a professional setting, but definitely not in a personal setting. Neither Weir and Valence’s friendship nor Weir and Hailey’s romance evoke the emotions they should.

Verdict

Overall, Rabbit Hole is a fun spy thriller that only works because it is able to trap viewers into its deceptions. If the creators had opted for the old thriller formula for this silly storyline, the show would have ended up becoming another average spy thriller.

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Also Read: Rabbit Hole finale recap, review & ending explained