The Serpent Review: A Passport to International Suspense
When you think of prolific serial killers, the name Charles Sobhraj probably doesn’t come to mind. Netflix’s new eight-episode limited series thriller The Serpent, which gets its title from one of Sobhraj’s nicknames, may change that.
The Serpent follows conman Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim) and his associate Marie-Andrée Leclerc (Jenna Coleman) as they murder and rob unsuspecting tourists on the Asian ‘Hippie Trail” in the 1970s. In real life, Sobhraj committed at least a dozen murders.
It’s a sinister story dressed up in the glamour of ex-pat life in Asia, showing how easily monsters can blend into polite society.
The show is not a biopic. Instead, it chooses to split its time between following the horrifying events of Sobhraj’s crime spree and the investigation into his crimes led by an intrepid Dutch diplomat named Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle).
Knippenberg’s investigation and the ensemble cast of government officials and witnesses he works with brings in the elements of a 70s paranoia thriller where you don’t know who to trust. You’ll share Knippenberg’s frustration and anxiety as he frantically works to untangle the mystery of Sobhraj’s victims and stop him from killing again.
The combination of horror and suspense creates a tension-filled season that hooks the audience.
Sure, you could always just search online what happens next in these real-life cases, but the way the story unfolds on screen is much more compelling. Strong performances from the cast, in particular Rahim and Coleman, captivate despite some of the more predictable events.
Rahim’s performance will chill you to the bone. He perfectly balances the charisma that allows Sobhraj to ensnare his victims in the first place with the silent menace that lets the audience know he’s a predator.
Some of the most disquieting scenes are when Sobhraj says nothing at all. He’s terrifying as he peers down at his prey from the balcony of the couple’s Bangkok apartment into the courtyard where they host parties to lure in travelers.
Sobhraj is a conman with a double life on the show, so Rahim also plays these different “characters” on screen. With his accomplice Ajay Chowdhury (Amesh Edireweera) he’s simmering with rage and menace, launching into diatribes about class warfare and injustice. With Marie-Andrée he’s a tragic figure looking for love and a fresh start, feeding into her escapist fantasies.
Although Rahim does an excellent job, The Serpent does deserve some criticism for casting a French actor of Algerian descent in a role based on a real-life person of Vietnamese and Indian descent.
Given that, at least in this depiction, Sobhraj’s experiences with racism seem to have a significant impact on him and his feelings towards society, it’s disappointing that the series has cast an actor from an entirely different background.
Coleman’s Marie-Andrée is one of the more compelling characters since more time is devoted to exploring her internal life and feelings about her involvement in the murders. Whereas Sobhraj is enigmatic from the start, Marie-Andrée’s transformation from naive girlfriend to a ruthless accomplice is more gradual.
With a less capable actress, Marie-Andrée’s emotional outbursts as she confronts the reality of her situation could come off as melodramatic.
Coleman inhabits the role fully through her anguished physical expression and biting delivery of dialogue to lend authenticity to these scenes.
The Serpent’s biggest weakness is an overreliance on flashbacks and shifting timelines. Although the episodes are careful to provide times and locations when making these shifts, it still creates an additional burden on the viewer to keep track of what is happening when.
Sometimes the shifting timeline is effective in creating additional drama, like when we learn the fate of Sobhraj’s captive Dominique (Fabien Frankel) long after he attempts his harrowing escape. More often than not the shifts lead to unnecessary repetition of scenes from previous episodes in the season.
Watching the same Dutch couple tortured over and over again from slightly different vantage points is more sensationalist than necessary to the plot.
By the end of Episode 8, which culminates with Sobhraj’s final capture, you’re left wondering if the series really needed that many episodes to tell a full story. Cutting out some of those repetitive scenes would help significantly in that regard.
The Serpent is hardly the only recent drama to come out with a slightly longer than needed runtime though, and overall its appeal outweighs its missteps.
Sobhraj’s story is stranger than fiction, even accounting for the dramatization of The Serpent. It’s one that viewers are unlikely to soon forget after watching.
Fans of the true-crime and detective genres will enjoy watching this twisted tale of international intrigue and murder pieced together.
What did you think of The Serpent? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Serpent is streaming now on Netflix.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.