neXt Review: File #3 (Season 1 Episode 3)
neXt Season 1 Episode 3, “File #3,” goes to visit an old friend as the search for the rogue AI continues.
“File #3” isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It all flows together reasonably nicely and it’s engaging enough to get by but that’s about. That’s probably the biggest problem with it, too — it’s just fine. It doesn’t do anything to really wow the audience and it’s not ultimately trying to.
That’s both a feature and a bug. neXt knows the show that it’s trying to be and what it’s capable of and it stays very firmly in that lane. It isn’t a show that makes swings that are too big. What you get out of that is an episode that is executed well but is rather modest in its scope.
No one at any point throughout “File #3” feels like they’re in danger and that just comes to a flaw in the writing because a lot of what happens is dreadfully perilous. Shea and LeBlanc are going up against those weird dog robots that open doors — which are terrifying on the face it — and Ethan and Ty have to battle crowds after an Amber Alert gone wrong.
These are the kind of plots where you should be feeling like someone can get hurt or something can go awry but, at best, they are tense situations. When you’re not able as a show to deliver on the inherent fright that should exist, then that simply comes down to a failure of the writing not being able to capitalize on that.
Despite that, these plotlines are well done and suspense isn’t a terrible thing to work with during scenes like these.
One of the biggest things to praise with this episode is the way in which it subverts certain subconscious expectations we have with disabled characters like Richard Pearish. For whatever reason, we have this baked-in sense that someone like Pearish, who is in a Stephen Hawking-esque setup, is nefarious.
Maybe this has to do with the belief that Hawking is secretly evil or we don’t trust anyone who speaks via a computer or just microaggressions in general towards the disabled community, but neXt is aware of that as a trope and works to subvert that.
Again, that’s both good and bad because the ultimate answer the episode comes to is a bit too simple and pat in that the AI has hijacked his chair and his voice, which feels too easy. If it’s just that, then it’s inefficient on the show’s part to introduce us to the rest of the people at his facility if they’re never going to play into the rest of the episode at all.
Another bright spot in that should be noted is Michael Herzovi, who plays Pearish, is a wheelchair-bound disabled person in real life. That is a small thing but it’s worth pointing out that the series made the effort to have someone from that community play the character when it did not strictly have to.
A less bright spot, and it’s not even bad, is the crew at the FBI who continue to help out on cases but they feel like the show’s most awkward part. They’re weirdly extraneous and it’s pretty that it hasn’t decided exactly what to do with them yet or how it wants to them to play into the larger show.
What did you think of this episode of neXt? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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neXt airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
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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.