Saint X

A more focused set of scripts would have undoubtedly helped the actors out with their performances but instead, we got a limited series that is the poster child for why ensemble casts are a hit-or-miss kind of asset.

Hulu’s series adaptation of “Saint X” hews closely to its source material, which winds up being as much a curse as a gift. The show also feints at a proper whodunnit, then builds to a nuanced, if anticlimactic conclusion, and all at a lazy river’s pace. That’s all the more disappointing because of how effective it is as a psychological thriller and a character study.

Unfortunately, an accumulation of minor fumbles leaves what could’ve been an incisive subversion of a familiar story feeling, instead, more like a replication of it.

You can feel the elements that made “Saint X” such a compelling novel become stretched, flattened, and dissipated by the show’s too-leisurely approach.

What begins as a potentially fascinating exploration of unconscious bias, sexual politics, true-crime entertainment, and the media frenzy surrounding missing young white women gets drowned out in a story that bites off more than it can chew, showing that some mysteries in life might be better left unsolved after all.

Despite some strong episodes that take us deeper into the lives of the characters grappling with loss, Saint X remains a series that never cuts as deep as it should by looking to the past rather than the deeper narrative potential in the future.

Too bad the glimmers of depth are not nearly enough to overcome the show’s deficits.

Saint X may successfully dance around some of the uncomfortable implications its making in its first episode, but the show’s disjointed storytelling isn’t helping its cause.