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Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate

4.0

A Kuwait crime thriller that mistakes long-winded discussions and flashbacks for genuine mystery

TV Show

Arabic
Crime, Drama
2023

TLDR

How can finding justice be this boring AND annoying?

What it's about

A determined defense lawyer takes on the case of a star athlete accused of murdering his wife, despite the public's belief in his guilt.

The take

Quick to start and slow to deliver, Devil's Advocate follows Bader, a renowned football player who is tried for being the primary suspect in his wife Dalal's murder. After the series' initial commentary on how the court of public opinion affects a case, nothing else about it stands out. It's mostly just the lawyer Loulwa desperately proving Bader's innocence, going against her father (the prosecutor), and avoiding her ex-fiance (the officer assigned to the case). All of those things collectively sound like a good setup, but they somehow have no impact. In two of the six episodes, there are countless conversations and baseless speculating, and yet nothing progresses past emphasizing Dalal's mental illness. So our two options, by that point, are to trust Bader or (if you can) believe that Dalal stabbed herself 14 TIMES. There's certainly more to the story, but the allure is no more than an ignorable simmer.

What stands out

The questionable actions of the police, especially Yousef, make the show unwatchable. Yousef's personality is never consistent, and the choice to make him obsessive and creepy never amounts to anything useful for (or against) the case. Other characters aren't a saving grace either; repetitive dialogue and unconvincing characterization disappoint early on. There may be more to the rest of the series, but after an uneventful two of six episodes, it's hard to justify continuing.

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