Amazon Prime’s ‘Malice’ Will Only Drive You Crazy | TV/Streaming

As temperatures drop, the promise of a guilty pleasure thriller about a mysterious man who infiltrates a family with the intention of destroying its patriarch is a tempting invitation. With two episodes set on the shores of a Greek vacation home, a stunning cast and a twisting mystery at its center, Prime Video’s “Malice” should grab the attention of viewers who have made streaming series like Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives” and Peacock’s “All Her Fault” hits.

Everyone loves a good escapist absurdity, shows where the plots and character motivations don’t need to ring true as long as they entertain. And yet, even guilty pleasure has its breaking point and can vary in quality. When done well, we don’t mind irrational behavior and inconsistent characters in the name of thrilling twists and turns. When this is done incorrectly, we get “Malice”.

Creator James Wood’s six-part series opens in Greece at the Tanner family’s magnificent vacation property, run by the charming Jamie (David Duchovny). From the start, the writers drop narrative crumbs about Jamie’s past and personality. He is a bit violent and intimidating towards his son and asks people to stay off social media, hinting that a scandal may be about to break out. Almost hysterically, many of the “clues” left in the first two episodes simply disappear, as if the writers forgot to incorporate them into their incredibly insane final act. What is the opposite of a Chekov’s gun? What do you call it when a playwright places six loaded guns on a table and then forgets they’re there?

Anyway, we also meet Jamie’s wife Nat (Carice van Houten from “Game of Thrones”) and watch Nat’s best friend Jules (Christine Adams) arrive at the Greek mansion with her husband Damien (Raza Jaffrey), their son and family guardian Adam (Jack Whitehall). From the start, Adam is clearly the villain of the piece, a sort of Tom Ripley character who has worked his way into Jules and Damien’s family just to get closer to Nat and Jamie. How do we know this? He tells us. And not through narration. “Malice” is the kind of show where Adam drops off a passed out and drunk Jamie one night and tells him he could kill him, but chose to destroy him instead. We understand.

The most important problem with this “Ripley”-inspired story about a suave conman who tries to destroy the life of a wealthy businessman is that Tom Ripley has to be charismatic and brilliant. We have to believe that intelligent people would let him into their inner circle in a way that would lead to their destruction. This simply never happens with Adam Healey, a character Whitehall plays as an obvious sociopath. He died behind the eyes, which might be a choice to amplify the way his quest for revenge destroyed him inside, but it also means that no person who built a business from scratch would leave him alone in their house, or around their children, or around their wife, etc.

And yet, there are tiny little choices that will keep viewers rooting for “Malice,” including a compelling performance from Duchovny as the kind of man who is often unaware of the harm caused by his business choices. He’s carelessly selfish in a way that can be compelling and could have turned his Scrooge-like downfall into thrilling television if Wood and company had the courage to really follow through on that idea.

Without spoiling, Adam’s plan to destroy Jamie’s life, and his motivations for doing so, are so half-assed by the “Malice” writers that they culminate in a finale with no narrative or thematic conviction. This is a series that never figured out where it wanted to end and so chose one that could work as well as any other. The final revelations and choices seem so casually considered that they collapse under any sort of analysis. It doesn’t leave anyone marveling at the arc of a villain or even a victim, but just feeling mistreated by bad television.

The entire season was screened for review. Now on Amazon Prime.