Should You Watch Tom Holland's Crowded Room?

Tom Holland's The Crowded Room Takes Its Own Sweet Time To Unravel

...maybe a little too much time? wonders Joshua Muyiwa.

SPOILERS don’t ruin the experience of books, television shows or movies, for me: it is the crafting of the clever, cunning routes to the climatic scenes that draw me into these art-forms in the first place. When told a spoiler, I’m watching for how the narrative works up to it. Okay fine, it is the intrigue, interest and inquisitiveness I feel for the lead actor of a show too. And so, Spider-Man Tom Holland showing up in Apple TV’s The Crowded Room meant I had to watch the show. I don’t want to spoil anything; following the 10 episodes of this series does lead to a reveal — that’s all I’ll give away.

STREAM THE CROWDED ROOM

Other Voices, Other Rooms

Tom Holland's Act As Danny Sullivan Isn't The Most Convincing

By Joshua Muyiwa

Here goes: we bump into Danny Sullivan (Holland) at the trigger event that sets off the story. He’s pointing a gun at someone. We understand it’s at the persuasion of a dreadlocked girl Ariana (Sasha Lane from American Honey). It’s aimed at a man in the square of a crowded business centre, but Danny fails to shoot. Then, Ariana snatches the gun from Danny and fires it; however, the target is only injured, not killed. From then on, the show begins undoing the knots around this labyrinthine box to find the reason deep inside — a little too deep in The Crowded Room.

One of the devices for picking at these knots is the psychologist Rya Goodwin (played by Amanda Seyfried from Mamma Mia!) doing “talk therapy” with Danny throughout the series. And it is through these interviews that we are shown the complexity and the criminal proceedings dogging this character’s life. Initially, her question focuses on the shooting incident: the location of the missing Ariana and the gun, and the motivation behind the murder attempt. She seems to be keeping the parody-esque policemen away from being excited over having arrested a serial killer. Slowly — a little too slowly — these interviews with the psychologist begin to fill in the backstory of Danny Sullivan.

In Manhattan of 1979, Danny lives with his stepfather Marlin Reid (Will Chase) and his mother Candy Sullivan (Emmy Rossum from Shameless) in a violent, miserable situation. Tired of it, he moves in with a Mossad-level-trained Israeli landlord Yitzak Safdie (Lior Raz) after being rescued by the latter when his high-school seniors try to beat him up. Ariana happens to also be a lodger at Safdie’s as well. We learn of Danny’s two best friends: joker Johnny and jock Mike; together, they deal weed and generally get up to no good at their school. We are shown Danny’s crush on Annabelle, a blonde beauty, as it turns into an on-off thing.

While Danny delivers these details with a tender earnestness in the interviews, the flashbacks are gloomier, grimier and grittier — undercutting the softness of those exchanges. Much like the psychologist, even we begin to see there’s something missing, something sinister in these stories. This sense of being off-kilter, the dread, discomfort and doubt is quite well-balanced over the span of The Crowded Room.

However, on occasion, it does slip… simply because this precarious situation can’t be held over 10 episodes. The endless hints of a missing twin brother; the spectre of physical, mental and emotional abuse surrounding Danny’s stories; the underlying streak of violence… these are dribbled out too slowly through the series to feel revelatory when uncovered. It feels like an awfully drawn out manner of untwisting a mystery.

This feeling might also have to do with the two actors — Holland and Seyfried — at the centre. Seyfried holds up her end of the bargain, although this is nothing like her fine performance as Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout. It is Holland who doesn’t quite shine. Perhaps his immersion in the Marvel universe has resulted in acting that means giving audiences quieter moments alone. Perhaps that is acting with a capital A for Holland. This choice renders him unconvincing as a central character of The Crowded Room. Or maybe the watery script didn’t allow for a firm foundation in the building of the characters that prop up this series. That’s sad because it is created and written (mostly) by Akiva Goldsman, who also wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind.

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It seems like certain concepts and techniques to show mental illness have moved a long way from Goldman’s writing of them for A Beautiful Mind. And his reliance on those tired tropes to tell this story of Danny Sullivan doesn’t quite hold up. Just like you can’t imprison a person on the possibility of their being a serial killer; the promise of potential doesn’t get everyone to watch a television show either. Apple TV’s The Crowded Room is no exception to this rule.

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