Prime Target Review

Prime Target kicks off with a fascinating premise: Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall) is on the brink of unraveling the mathematical secrets that safeguard every computer system in the world. The thrilling puzzle at the root of Edward’s work positions the Apple TV+ drama for brilliance, but as the doe-eyed prodigy is pulled into a dangerous web of intellectual espionage and conspiratorial intrigue alongside NSA agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell), Prime Target starts to lose its footing. While the opening episodes establish a sharp and engaging story grounded in a cozy Cambridge setting brimming with tweedy charms, its later, international-spy-thriller portions begin to feel like a Dan Brown novel blending egghead enigmas with grand conspiracies. The race to crack the pattern within the prime numbers underpinning most modern cryptographic security stumbles into the same pitfalls as the film versions of Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, as its embrace of big ideas is accompanied by dull info dumps, uneven pacing, and an overreliance on scenes of people doing research, pointing at screens, or reading old notes with intense stares.

As Prime Target progresses, the journey begins to feel less compelling than the destination. It stretches itself thin over eight episodes, relying on filler and exposition that sap the story of its momentum. The tight construction and engaging question marks of the opening chapters are overtaken by repetition, with Edward and Taylah moving from one cryptic clue to the next, interspersed with vague, ominous warnings about the importance and apparent danger of numbers divisible only by 1 or themselves. These warnings become the show’s awkward mantra, crowbarred into nearly every episode as if to remind viewers that the plot is still moving forward. I found the concept of an apocalyptic mathematical discovery undeniably cool, but the execution lacks the spark to make it feel genuinely thrilling or believable. There’s too much self-seriousness on display to allow for a full embrace of the concept’s fun. In its place: a hatful of melodrama that mostly feels unearned.

The characters are drawn just as flimsily. Thankfully, both leads deliver strong performances: Woodall plays Edward as the quintessential genius whose intellect seems almost too vast for the mundane concerns of everyday life,capturing a mix of youthful brilliance and prickly, too-smart-for-the-world hostility. And Swindell brings a calculated intensity to Taylah, tempered by moments of subtle, grounding warmth. They’re intriguing protagonists, but their arcs still feel underdeveloped, with motivations shifting without much explanation and arguments that blow up seemingly out of nowhere. The supporting characters fare worse, often reduced to shallow vehicles for exposition and plot. Any attempts to goose the energy levels through globetrotting location changes come across as artificial distractions rather than meaningful advancements in the story.

Eventually, Prime Target begins to buckle under the weight of its ambition. The tension dissipates as the story meanders, weighed down by superficial drama and a lack of compelling new plot points. While there are moments of genuine intrigue – particularly in the way the writers weave Edward’s work into the main storyline – these moments are too fleeting to sustain momentum. Ultimately, the show is undermined by a lack of confidence in its own ideas. While it shines in moments – particularly in the early episodes – and remains fairly watchable throughout, it ultimately fails to live up to the grand spy-thriller potential its opening episodes tease.