Plus, maybe if people tune in for this launch, somebody will see fit to give the budget a necessary boost.įor those who don’t know, Alex Rider (Otto Farrant) is a normal London teen, bored by his banker uncle Ian (Andrew Buchan) and attentive housekeeper Jack (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo), but content to hang out with geeky buddy Tom (Brenock O’Connor), holding movie nights and sneaking out to parties.Īlex thinks his uncle is beyond dull even though Ian has taken him on trips around the globe, helped him get training in Krav Maga and taught him a strange assortment of skills that make sense when he discovers that Uncle Ian is part of an intelligence operation called Department of Special Operations. But it feels like a reasonable eight-episode set-up for a fun series. And as for the series itself? It’s fine! The decision was made to double down on exposition for this reintroduction to Alex Rider and his undercover world, which leads to long stretches of narrative clunkiness. The new TV series bearing the teenage spy’s name premieres on Friday on Amazon’s IMDb TV platform and it has already been renewed for a second season, meaning that audiences can feel some liberty to get invested. Welcome to the streaming revolution, Alex Rider. The feature adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s well-liked espionage saga failed to make back even a modest budget and earned reviews that, at best, called the star-studded - Ewan McGregor! Damian Lewis! Alicia Silverstone! Mickey Rourke! Bill Nighy! - movie “forgettable.” By almost any standard, 2006’s Stormbreaker (or Alex Rider: Stormbreaker in the United States) was a disaster.

Stormbreaker book series