neXt Review: File #1 (Season 1 Episode 1)
neXt Season 1 Episode 1, “File #1,” kicks off the series with a technological nightmare that makes us question how safe we all are with our gadgets.
One of the biggest obstacles that neXt has to overcome is that it is bringing a conversation of technology and privacy that we have already been having for many years. Many will likely recall Person of Interest , which was primarily about this very topic, and that is a show that ended ver four years ago now and ran for five seasons.
Given that, there’s a certain level of expectation and need that this series deliver something new to that zeitgeist. Yes, the way we have opened ourselves up to attack via our wireless is a serious problem. We’ve all been aware — to some extent — that things like an Alexa, which is riffed on during this episode, are spying on us.
Unfortunately, neXt doesn’t really have anything to say about that in a way that plenty of other procedurals over the years haven’t. Granted, since this is only the first episode, it is likely a nesting doll situation. It is showing the in-universe problem, which is that there is a superintelligence in existence, and will really dive into the complications of that as the series progresses.
It is intriguing enough for a pilot episode to at least bear with it for another episode until it can provide some juicier meat on the bone.
A lot of this is a matter of expectation. If you’re going in thinking that this will be akin to the later seasons of Person of Interest , this is not that, at least not right now. It would be reasonable at this point to require significantly less of neXt than that.
On the flip side, it’s also not something like Zoo, which was so bombastic, ridiculous, and dumb in the best ways possible. It’s taking itself far too seriously to be something like that but it’s not impossible to see it growing into something like that. So far, it’s existing somewhere between those points and is managing to do so rather well.
A large part of what carries “File #1” is the lead performance from John Slattery (from Mad Men), who plays the off-putting and eccentric tech mogul Paul LeBlanc. He is so utterly charming in an arrogant and condescending sort of way that it fills the episode with a lot of the really necessary energy that a show like this requires.
LeBlanc is a fascinating character that the show could have a lot of fun digging into it. He’s a man who’s spent his entire life shaping the technological world and building to an AI and now, with a crippling disease in his future, realizes how destructive that could be.
Also doing good work in this premiere is Special Agent Shea Salazar, played by Fernanda Andrade, who grounds this episode with a lot of needed skepticism in a Dana Scully sort of way. Her interactions with LeBlanc are quite engaging and the two actors have really promising chemistry together.
The show also allows Salazar to have an interiority and family life that shows often don’t let women in positions like her have. She gets to go home to a husband and son and it all feels so normal and mundane that it’s laudable.
Just based on this first episode, neXt looks to be an intriguing romp through technological dangers, even if we’ve seen things like it before.
What did you think of this episode of neXt? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
neXt airs Tuesday at 9/8c on FOX.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.