neXt Review: Case #6 (Season 1 Episode 6)
neXt Season 1 Episode 6, “Case #6,” delves deeper into Paul’s illness and forces characters to make hard choices all around.
“Case #6” is one of those episodes where it definitely feels like a lot is happening while you’re watching but ultimately is a bit slight. It’s like eating cotton candy. You’re consuming a lot of it with these big handfuls that you’re shoving into your mouth but it’s kind of just nothing.
More and more, that is how neXt feels: like it’s nothing. We’re existing with it and trying to engage with it on its level but it’s starting to feel unsatisfying. Too often, we’re walking away from an episode feeling underwhelmed and like we’re not getting anything from this.
There are these fleeting moments of the series doing something genuinely interesting — like Paul having arguments with manifestations of himself — but those are so few and far between.
It also does make these big swings that you wouldn’t necessarily expect it to do, like Shea shooting her father in cold blood, but it feels empty to the point of not even mattering or not having any true emotional involvement in it. Each episode feels like it’s saving something big for the next one, but that continues to not come.
It’s not doing anything contained and none of this feels big enough to be a slow-burn, which is giving the show this weird identity crisis for what it wants to be. Honestly, this is probably something that should have been a film. This idea screams something you’d watch on TNT at two in the morning.
The reason you do a show like this is so it can be a procedural and that’s something this show has been only seldomly. This feels like someone watched Person of Interest and then spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make this the most boring and dull version of that possible.
At a certain point, you have to ask yourself what is bringing you back to watch this show every week? The answer is: not much.
By leaps and bounds, the most interesting thread throughout this show is not the rogue artificial intelligence but rather Paul’s rapidly deteriorating condition. Watching him have a back-and-forth between multiple imaginary versions of himself and an adolescent Abby is compelling television.
It brings up this idea of your brain turning against you that’s supposed to serve you in this very deliberate fashion, making it this nice parallel to neXt, and the ways in which it chooses to attack you. What buried parts of your mind would it choose to bring up in a situation like that?
This should go without saying, but you should definitely not give yourself electroshock therapy without a doctor present. Probably not even then. Call that some free advice.
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.