Deadly Class

Deadly Class takes a beloved genre and offers a new take. With touches of humor, layered characters and creativity to spare, this is a series that resonates.

There’s certainly a spark from time to time. But for now, Deadly Class is failing to live up to its potential. It’s messy and hollow.

Deadly Class also misfires at times with this tale of disaffected, dysfunctional young outlaws being trained to lethally rage against the machine. But the first four episodes also vividly embed themselves with their blend of fierce action, relatable characters, striking visuals and a pounding, dynamic soundtrack that offsets some of the ham-fisted spoken words.

Occasionally the dialogue lays into this a bit too thickly, via character soliloquies resembling anti-corporate rants from the “Repo Man” school of screenwriting. Viewers turned off by that won’t be impressed by the cynicism winding through the opening episodes, either. But the central cast, led by Wadsworth and Condor, wins you over eventually--or, I should say, the most fleshed out characters featured within the first four episodes do this.