Review of the series “A Crowded Room” with the good and disturbing Tom Holland

Today I finished watching Crowded Room, which aired on Apple TV.

We are in New York, 1979. After a failed shooting attempt at Rockefeller Center and the mysterious disappearance of his accomplice Ariana (played by Sasha Lane), Danny Sullivan (Tom Holland) finds himself being interrogated by Ria (Amanda Seyfried), a charming psychologist who believes Danny’s past is the key to solving his case.

A Crowded Room is Apple TV+’s latest production, a psychological thriller set in 1970s New York. Written and created by Akiva Goldsman, of A Beautiful Mind fame. This is a series that touches on complex and current topics, with a narrative that revolves around a variety of characters, each with an intricate story.

Tom Holland plays Danny Sullivan, a troubled young man living in New York. We see him at Rockefeller Center failing to pull the trigger while his accomplice Ariana shoots for him, wounding but not killing the target. After passing out, Danny wakes up in prison. With Ariana gone, Danny is the only suspect.

The Crowded Room features the high-quality production that is typical of Apple TV+. The series manages to faithfully recreate the atmosphere of the 70s, from film grain to sepia colors, clothing details (flared trousers, etc.) and metropolitan settings. However, sometimes the structure of the series, which alternates between interrogation scenes and flashbacks to Danny’s adolescence and youth, runs the risk of making the plot static.

Tom Holland is completely immersed in the image of Danny, demonstrating a sharp and poignant game. Despite the difficulty of discussing some of the details of the plot to avoid spoilers, it can be said that Holland offers a very good performance, managing to make the character’s inner pain visible.

The cast of the show is top notch. Among other things, Jason Isaacs plays Jack Lamb, a London con man, Will Chase convincingly plays Danny’s evil stepfather, Elijah Jones provides a poignant performance, and Christopher Abbott plausibly represents the gap between society’s ignorance of mental illness and the knowledge that our minds can get sick in the same way. just like our bodies.

The only real problem with The Crowded Room is its gender ambiguity. The series could go deeper into topics such as mental health stigmatization, xenophobia, and shortcomings in the welfare system. There is an important cultural dialogue that Goldsman and his staff are trying to stimulate with this story, and perhaps they will succeed. However, by treating some of the plot details as a twist, the series runs the risk of perpetuating many Hollywood clichés about mental illness.

Despite some imperfections, “A Crowded Room” is distinguished by its faithful reproduction of the atmosphere of the 70s, the relevance of the topics covered and the exceptional performance of Tom Holland. These elements keep the viewer interested in the series from start to finish.

Have you seen “A Crowded Room”? Did you like this series? Have your say in the comments.