Critique: The Sympathizer (TV Series)

 This show was set during the penultimate and post-Vietnamese War moments, following as members of the South’s military flee to America. The Captain, loyal to the communist North, is spying on the capitalist South working for the General. Despite his loyalty to his cause, he nevertheless enjoys American, capitalist culture. He is half French/capitalist. His best friends Man and Bon work for the communist North and capitalist South respectively.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Funny

 

This show was so hilarious. It was a dark comedy, so a lot of the funnies originate from death-related situations.

The Captain advises the playwright on his Vietnam-based film. Explaining this film, the Captain says, “Officially, it’s a story of six American army personnel getting stranded in Vietnamese village. Unofficially, Vietnamese farmers are forced to take in uninvited guests.

The General thinks there’s a spy so the Captain frames Dumpling. After killing Dumpling, the Captain is forced to write Dumpling’s eulogy. So funny: writing a speech about how great someone is after killing them to protect yourself whilst pretending that he killed him for being a traitor, someone not so great.

The Captain, being caught by an explosion on the film set, asks for $15000. The lawyer says someone would need to lose one of their senses for that kind of compensation. So the Captain says, “What was that?” Brilliant.

One soldier said he would commit suicide if more seats weren’t found on the evacuation flight for his family. So the Captain gives the soldier a gun and leaves the room, saying, “I’ll give you some privacy.” Calling the bluff in this particular fashion was fun.

 

 

Good Visuals

 

They truly thought through the look, from transitions to angles.

The Captain puts down two oranges. From behind, a third rolls. This was a clever shot.

As the playwright is typing, words appear on the screen. When the playwright types slower, the words appear on the screen at a slower rate, too.

The best comment for last. The lens would focus on one object as it transformed into a similar object before fading from one scene to the next. A yellow, smiley face fast food logo was often used, such as being paired with an egg yolk.

 

 

Problems

 

The adverts made out like the Captain was a double agent. But he wasn’t. The thin is, I only watched the tv series because I was interested to see the role of double agent portrayed, especially within a comedy context. Even though I still rather enjoyed the show, it was a situation of false advertising.

 

There were a few examples of ‘humour’ that just lowered the tone of the show.

The captured northern spy passing wind loudly. The Captain ‘squid fucking’. DOWNEY  picking up dog faeces with his own scarf before handing it to the Captain.

These instances were bizarrely out of relation to the rest of the show. The show is funny enough without adding edgy humour that doesn’t fit with the rest of the show.

 

Robert Downey Jr plays multiple roles.

As in the first role he’s a spy, and spies take on many identities undercover, I just though Downey’s spy was taking on different roles. We see him dressed up as a homosexual dog walker, so the character taking on different looks for different roles is especially plausible.

But then we see the Captain at lunch with all of Downey’s characters at once, so they weren’t the spy undercover. Later, the character does have hallucinations in the lounge with all of them, such as the fast food restaurant and of Dumpling. So maybe the Captain was just hallucinating them all together at once? Downey playing all these roles is a little confusing.

 

 

Other

 

Other things are worthy of note.

            The main character is called ‘the Captain’. No actual name for him is given. Considering he’s a spy, people portraying false identities instead of their true one, it’s clever that his name/true identity isn’t displayed.

The airfield gets bombed at the end of the first episode, just at the South army officials are evacuating. It was so visceral. Especially after all the humour and jovial tones, the havoc was particularly emotional.

Throughout the show, Downey spy keeps on hinting that he found out communist spies. Almost like Downey spy was hinting that he knew the Captain was that spy. In the end he straight out says it, but he acts like the knowledge was pretty recent.

Bon is trying to go on a recon mission which the Captain dubs a suicide mission. So Bon comes out with the line, “Life is a suicide mission.”

 

Dumpling only had two family seats for the evacuation.

He brings his wife and mother because he can always have more kids but will only have one mother. Your job as a parent is to look after your children and yet you leave yours in a war-torn country being led by a government you fundamentally oppose?

I know that Vietnam’s culture reveres elders, but choosing an elder over a child is cruel. That made me so cross.

 

The boss at the re-education camp said they couldn’t find Man (hence they couldn’t corroborate the Captain’s story).

So is the Captain really not a spy? This wouldn’t be an unreasonable delusion, considering he’s deluded enough to be followed by the ghosts of people he’s killed.

When paired with his possible delusions relating to Downey Jr’s characters, it makes the whole situation both more plausible and more confusing.

 

 

This was overall a superb series. It had plenty to laugh about even though it dealt with emotionally heavy material without being disrespectful. Many professional comedians can’t get this balance right so really well done for managing it!