Devils Review: Season 1 Episode 1
Based on the novel I Diavoli by Guido Maria Brera, Devils has plenty of potential.
Unfortunately, the first episode drags on a bit and doesn’t give the viewer much reason to be invested in the characters. Devils Season 1 Episode 1 demands a bit of patience — and a willingness to understand parts of the financial world that are probably foreign to most viewers.
But sure, I’m willing to learn what it means to short stocks. And I’m willing to look past not understanding a lot of the jargon because the intrigue is there and there are shots of a man falling from a window from the very beginning of the episode.
Devils follows Massimo Ruggero (Alessandro Borghi), the Head of Trading at NYL, one of the world’s most important investment banks, and his mentor, NYL’s CEO Dominic Morgan (Patrick Dempsey).
Massimo is ruthless and yet sympathetic at the same time. He’s from a humble background — and one he’d rather people not know about. He’s also estranged from his wife, who he runs into in London and learns she’s now working as a call girl. She’s also a drug addict, and there’s some sort of a setup to bring all of that to light and ruin Massimo’s chances at his promotion.
You get the sense that Massimo has fought tooth and nail, and that maybe in another life, he could have been a good person. Instead, he’s willing to exploit a clients’ illness in order to have a better chance at a promotion.
There’s a lot of interesting story here, and there’s a real opportunity to dive deep into his character as well as some of the others.
There are hints that Dominic has a sordid history as well. Patrick Dempsey is great in this role, by the way. He’s enjoyable to watch and has a sharp presence as a CEO who doesn’t have time for games, all while seeming like someone who probably can’t be trusted.
Perhaps the only truly likeable character at this point is Oliver (Malachi Kirby), who finds himself helping Massimo spy on his client, and eventually becomes the one to find Massimo’s wife.
He doesn’t have a great moral compass either, considering the spying he’s willing to do, but he has an innocence and seems like someone else who’s doing what he needs to get by. I can get on board with a story like that.
The first episode ends with us seeing who it was that fell from that building — in a bloody and, quite frankly, artistic fashion. It’s exactly the person Massimo had been up against all along.
Obviously, that’s going to raise some questions.
The bottom line? Devils seems like it’s certainly worth sticking around for. This episode is clearly setting up an even more complex story, and while the characters aren’t necessarily ones I’m invested in yet, they’re ones I’m interested in learning more about.
What did you think of this episode of Devils? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Devils airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
One thought on “Devils Review: Season 1 Episode 1”
The premiere was pretty terrible. Beyond being just hard to understand due to the lack of annunciation by the actors, they didn’t do anything to make the premiere all that interesting…just confusing. When a show leaves people lost after one episode, not really caring about anyone, you know there is a problem.
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