THE STRANGER (Limited Series)— TV Review
By John Argote Rodriguez
“The Stranger” was released on April 13, 2020 on Quibi and consists of 13 episodes and stars Maika Monroe, Dane DeHaan, Avan Jogia and Roxana Brusso. “The Stranger” is written and directed by Veena Sud. “The Stranger” tells the story of an ordinary work night gone wrong when Clare’s (Monroe) Orbit driver Carl E. (DeHaan) is actually a sociopath the night becomes a car and mouse chase between the two.
After watching “Most Dangerous Game” I was excited to watch another Quibi show and I landed on “The Stranger”, after watching it, well It’s better than “Most Dangerous Game” and I just don’t understand why the hell this show isn’t getting any buzz, maybe it’s because Quibi ain’t doing so hot, but man I hope for people start getting onboard with Quibi because this show makes it worth it.
“The Stranger” is one of the best shows I’ve seen in recent years. “The Stranger” brings out the thrill in the scenes by having great performances and having the feeling of helplessness because throughout the series our lead character Clare is being stalked and terrorized by Carl E., who’s also a hacker that can trace your whereabouts everywhere you go. If the show can make me feel helpless in the second biggest city in the nation then you’ve achieved something. There’s scenes where Clare is in a crowd of people, but can’t do anything because it’ll result in innocent deaths and this killer has shown he’s remorseless.
The shinning star of “The Stranger” is Maika Monroe as Clare and she rocks in this role. Clare is a shy girl who like every young person in Los Angeles is trying to make it in Hollywood (get in line😒), but her life becomes a living nightmare once one of her Orbit passengers is actually a sociopathic killer who knows her every move and will stop at nothing to kill her and it becomes a thrill ride watching her progression from a meek and scared young woman to a confident badass in the end who’s no longer afraid and rises up, it’s a complete Sarah Connor transformation because as the series progressed she went from doing ballsy stuff to straight up not giving a damn while stayinf true to the character.
I will that despite her character development being the best thing about the show, in the beginning it is a bit of a slow burn because when we first meet her she’s just doing her job then when she meets Carl E. and then ensues the fight for survival, but it’s brief, after all the episodes are 10 minutes or less so you really gotta have a short attention span to not hang on there.
Dane DeHaan as Carl E. was a awesome edition to the series as the antagonist. DeHaan is such an underrated actor and it’s a shame he isn’t in films a lot, he’s a great actor who depending on the role can be a kind person or could be a scary ass guy, hell he was of the aspects I praised from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” which gets a lot of flack understandably so, but DeHaan has so much range as an actor that’s truly disappointing he’s not in a lot of theatrical releases which is why his appearance here was awesome because I had no idea he was in the show until I saw his name in the first episode, in fact I never saw any trailers on either “Most Dangerous Game” or “The Stranger” so I had no idea going in what the shows were about (minus “Most Dangerous Game” cause of its pre-existing source material).
Carl E. is scary as shit and he’s intense in the role and it’s one hundred percent because of Dane DeHaan who when he plays a bad guy, he plays them scary. Carl E. at first comes off as a normal guy, but automatically lets us know he’s a sociopath and his relentlessness is what made this guy terrifying because no matter what this guy wouldn’t stop and no matter where they went he there, he is smart and was always two steps a head of Clare and her companion JJ (Jogia) and knows how to mislead other people into believing Clare and JJ are the criminals. Carl E. was like the damn Terminator and the way Dane DeHaan went so calm about it as Carl E. was freaky, but when he unleashes his rage it makes you wanna shit your pants.
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Another thing that made Carl E. very threatening was his weapon and it’s a weapon we all carry in out pockets… sounds like a euphemism, but I meant WiFi (cause it’s in our phones). Carl E. uses it to his advantage and forces Clare to confront her past by digging up information from her past she’s trying to run from and the way it’s used to push her down to the ground wasn’t anything new, but it proved to be effective because of how it was properly executed.
One major character in the series I haven’t brought up is Avan Jogia as JJ. It’s kind of sad that after Beck graduated Hollywood Art he ended up working in a liquor store. Little “Victorious” reference, but anyways, Avan Jogia as JJ was a great choice because JJ is just your average citizen in Los Angeles trying to make ends meet until he meets Clare and is dragged in the night of terror and I loved JJ, he’s someone who’s just hard to hate and when he snaps at Clare it’s totally understandable and his contributions were great, he wasn’t just there to stand there and look pretty, he was there to provide guidance for Clare.
Which brings me to another favorite of the show and it’s the chemistry between Clare and JJ and it’s a testimony to the performance from Maika Monroe and Avan Jogia, they shine and provide some comfort and relief even in the most dire situations and even though they literally met that night it’s a beautiful friendship that blossomed and it’s easily my favorite part of the show. When they were onscreen my eyes were just glued to the screen and I honestly can’t praise both the characters and actors enough and why it sucks that no one’s giving this show the attention it deserves.
I hope the Emmy’s recognize this show.
Going on the technical side of the show, the cinematography is absolutely fucking beautiful, Los Angeles looks absolutely stunning. Maybe it’s my bias love of the City of Angels, but the city looks so alive and vibrant, so much so that Los Angeles feels like it’s its own character. From the opening of the show I was automatically in aw at how gorgeous Los Angeles looked. All I can say is Paul Yee killed it on the cinematography. Absolutely brilliant.
I’m not gonna spoil anything because you guys just gotta watch this show, but this show is kind of action packed, not as much as “Most Dangerous Game”, but a surprising amount of it.
If I had to choose a negative, then it would be towards the end of the show when Clare outsmarts Carl E. which isn’t a spoiler, I’m sure we all expected Clare to step up, but when she did it was too believable because since the first episode of the series it’s established that Carl E. is a pretty intelligent sociopath and has always been three steps ahead of our heroes, but the way he’s out smart it didn’t really made sense to me because that’s something Carl E. would of definitely caught and easily taken care of and it’s also one of those things where certain things have to be in a certain place and time at a specific way for it to work, but that was it. Maybe Carl E. pooped that one. It’s never a good thing to go full cocky.
In the end “The Strangers” was just great. I was surprised by how much I loved it and how much of a thrill ride I had and the journey I took with Clare and JJ was entertaining because of the action and pacing and the two characters booming chemistry, a great modern villain and great story from start to finish. Beautiful cinematography and a story that La feel like a damn maze. “The Stranger” is one of those shows that take you on a roller coaster ride and what a hell of a ride it was.
I understand that Quibi kind of botched their launch, but so did HBO Max and Peacock (who doesn’t launch with Roku and Amazon Fire TV?), but one thing Quibi has going for it, is it has a lot of original content and in a world where people complain about lack of original content (which isn’t true) here comes a streaming service with a catalog that isn’t a big as other streaming services with big IPs, but has compelling shows yet people don’t support. It’s “The Nice Guys” all over again. At least try the 14 day free trail and see for yourself or if not the first full episode is available on Quibi’s YouTube channel.
Grade: A
The dog should of been credited as a series regular, she was symbolism for Toto from “The Wizard of Oz”.
