Alex Rider

The show takes him seriously, which means their fictional version of the SAS takes him seriously, which means the deeply realistic bad guys out to literally kill him also take him seriously. And while that much seriousness has the tendency to drag lesser adult action series to an absolute standstill, the hyper-realistic teen antics Alex and his tiny circle of friends get up to, even in the midst of life-or-death situations, serve as useful tonal ballast that lends the series just enough warmth and humor to bolster the rest of the story’s inherent tension.

It's fine! The decision was made to double down on exposition for this reintroduction to Alex Rider and his undercover world, which leads to long stretches of narrative clunkiness. But it feels like a reasonable eight-episode set-up for a fun series.

The first two episodes deliver a lot of setup as Alex’s world is ripped apart before he’s set on his path to becoming a spy. The plot mechanics are fairly predictable and it takes the show too long to get where it’s clearly going.

Things move quickly in the first four episodes, and rarely ever let up throughout the eight-episode first season. ... What ultimately works against the series is the fact its biggest mystery is actually its lead character. Farrant’s is an agreeable presence, and the actor ably vacillates from conflicted teen to clever budding spy. But Alex Rider raises so many questions about its eponymous secret agent, only to defer them for answering at a future date.

The series will probably benefit from the fact that adults don’t have the bandwidth at the moment to cope with much more than it offers. With any luck, it will buy Alex Rider time to find its feet, decide on its audience and fully realise the vision that floats just underneath the spectacle.

The new Alex Rider is pacy, polished and safe. It’s hard to imagine anyone hating it, but there is something slightly clinical about the exercise, too.