Clickbait

For the most part, though, the ensemble’s work feels urgent and in the moment, and that matters for a series like this. Ultimately, “Clickbait” doesn’t say anything singular about the anonymity of the Internet, and it flirts with a lot of big ideas it doesn’t pursue as vigorously as it could have. ... But a show that went down those roads wouldn’t have been “Clickbait,” and also probably wouldn’t have been this silly or low-brow entertaining.

Clickbait is, by its very definition, deceptive, misleading and prone to leaving you feeling slightly cheated. Yet overall, this modestly diverting whodunit manages to sustain, as well as draw, your attention without insulting your intelligence.

To its credit, “Clickbait” doesn’t flash back and forth through a police-procedural process, but it does make its somber way through an abundance of 40-odd-minute episodes. Which begins to feel like a stalling tactic. ... There are certainly some gripping moments and genuinely surprising plot twists; it’s a labyrinthine construction that would be hard to spoil even if one set out to do so. The characters aren’t very likable, but the performers are convincing enough.

Clickbait wants to send powerful messages about the dangers of social media in the digital age, but the hackneyed writing and unfathomable reveals can’t save the show from the irony of being nothing more than an intriguing title.

There’s something about Clickbait that seems a bit off, whether it’s the flat plot or the concentration on characters that are less than interesting. But Kazan puts in a magnetic performance, and that may be more than enough to keep viewers watching through a mystery that stumbles out of the gate, weighed down by technological nonsense.

Clickbait is one of those intriguing ideas that's likely to lose followers as it progresses, a social-media-age whodunit that features a different character every episode, building toward an increasingly convoluted payoff. If you start watching you'll probably want to see this Netflix death-by-Internet mystery through to the end, but as is often true, think hard before that first click.

“Clickbait” has a suitably noir-ish look and a few neat wrinkles, but far too often, we branch out and fall down too many different rabbit holes. ... The cast turns in solid work and we appreciate the ambition and scope and timeliness of the subject matter, but the payoff is delivered off in currency that’s pure counterfeit.

The resolution of the numerous plot twists are increasingly ludicrous and deliberately indiscernible to the audience, given the information presented. True to title, Clickbait head-fakes, but not to a place you’re likely to relish.

The show’s problems start with the fact that, well, it’s doing this over eight 45-ish-minute episodes. ... It’s not so incompetent as to be dismissed as total trash, but nor is it interesting enough to embrace as a hidden gem. It’s just kind of there, waiting for someone to find its title provocative enough to give it a click.

A very watchable show that ultimately runs aground when trying to assert big ideas. Some of the characters are drawn and performed effectively. But after starting in an extreme place, the show keeps pushing further past credibility, cutting corners on its investigation subplot in favor of increasingly bizarre demonstrations of the internet’s dark power.

“Clickbait” starts to stretch credulity in chapter two and then just keeps digging deeper and deeper into its own silly hole. Again, the structure amplifies this sense because characters come and go in service of the gimmick, which further highlights the thinness of the entire project. None of them feel three-dimensional, and the mystery is too dumb to make up for the lack of depth.

The gimmick wears thin, and is ultimately purposeless when the final reveals roll around in all their absurdity and gratuitousness. I wouldn’t say the ending is as much of an insult to the senses at the ending of “Behind Her Eyes,” but left me simultaneously cold and peeved.