- Network: HULU
- Series Premiere Date: Apr 26, 2023
Critic Reviews
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Too bad the glimmers of depth are not nearly enough to overcome the show’s deficits.
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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.
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Complaining that such mystery series meander too much has become a familiar gripe, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Like “The White Lotus,” “Saint X” sets up provocative upstairs/downstairs themes in an inviting location, but unlike that HBO show, it’s a relatively poor destination for an eight-episode stay.