Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh famously won the Best Director Oscar for his drug-trafficking mosaic “Traffic” (2000), using three different colors for three different storylines: a yellow tint for Benicio del Toro’s police officer in Mexico, a blue tint for Michael Douglas’ politician with a drug-addicted daughter in Ohio, and a clear tint for Don Cheadle’s DEA Agent hunting Steven Bauer and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ drug lord and his wife in San Diego.
Now, Soderbergh returns to direct another complex mosaic with “Full Circle,” a six-episode miniseries streaming only on Max but not televised on HBO (hence the strike over streaming vs. cable residuals). It premiered on July 13, dropping two episodes at a time, but if you spread it out one episode per week, this week would be the finale.
Created by Ed Solomon (“Men in Black,” “Now You See Me”), the miniseries explores the botched kidnapping of a wealthy couple’s son, uncovering long-held secrets that connect multiple characters in present-day New York City.
CCH Pounder (“ER,” “The Shield”) is mysterious as the spiritual Mrs. Mahabir, a crime boss working with her consigliere Garmen (Phaldut Sharma) to recruit poor Guyanese youth to do her bidding in New York City. Jharrel Jerome (“Moonlight”) plays her nephew Aked, the leader of kidnappers Xavier (Sheyi Cole), Louis (Gerald Jones) and Natalia (Adia), who demand a symbolic ransom at a specific time at a specific drop-off point in a painted circle.
The kidnapping target is young Jared Browne (Ethan Stoddard), who sneaks out at night to recover his belongings stolen by an obsessed boy, Nicky (Lucian Zanes). Jared’s wealthy father, Derek Browne, is stressfully played by Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”), while Claire Danes (“Homeland”) plays his lawyer wife Samantha, whose father Jeff McCusker (Dennis Quaid) is a famous chef once involved in developing controversial condos in Guyana.
Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta”) gives a standout performance as the rogue investigator Mel Harmony, who privately pursues the case outside of the official parameters of the NYPD investigation. She’s concerned that her superior, Detective Manny Broward (Jim Gaffigan), is not on the up and up, concealing old secrets involving Samantha’s Uncle Gene (William Sadler), who quit the police force 20 years earlier as punishment for a bribery scheme.
When put into writing like the above paragraphs, the plot seems simple enough to connect the dots, but the way that it unfolds on screen is much more complicated. The first episode jumps around so much that casual viewers will probably bail, finding it confusing, which is a shame because there are plenty of juicy twists and turns to come.
If you give up after the pilot (“Something Different”), I honestly don’t blame you. However, if you decide to stick with it, your patience will be rewarded with a wonderfully intense Episode 2 (“The Charger”) as Derek desperate tries to reach his destination to drop the ransom money with the “Damocles’ sword” of a dying phone charger.
Episode 3 (“Jared’s Body”) drops backstory clues about Samantha’s family business deals before an intruiging cliffhanger. Episode 4 (“Safe in the Circle”) reveals personal marriage drama that showcases the acting chops of Olyphant and Danes. Episode 5 (“Loyalty”) stages some great scenes between Beetz and Danes as the latter’s family clashes over old secrets. The Episode 6 finale (“Essequibo”) brings it all to a violent, full-circle conclusion.
Even if the script is hard to follow, the episodes are brilliantly directed by Soderbergh, who has fun with the “full circle” theme with symbolic visuals. You’ll notice that when Derek places the bag of ransom money on the ground at the park, he inadvertently breaks the circle painted with chalk lime on the ground. Such strong directorial vision continues right up to a symbolic final shot, panning from a dilapidated building to a faded real-estate billboard.
In the end, this miniseries isn’t for fans of instant gratification, but rather for patient viewers who appreciate symbolic direction and complex character work. The maze-like story is better appreciated in hindsight after you know how it all fits together. Still, the writers could have worked harder to make its initial episode more gripping so as to not scare away viewers for what is actually a riveting story with social depth beneath the surface.
