An Australian escapes from prison and takes refuge in India, where he continues his run. A strange odyssey that does not go to the end of its ideas.
Compared to any other period in contemporary history, the position of spectator is at the center of all cultural experience. Almost by force, they must constantly choose, then watch, listen, consume, as the entertainment multinationals say without any shame. Regarding the series, the question is even more acute than elsewhere, since the surge of “content” never seems to have to stop. How to find time? Why give this time to a fiction? Such are the strange questions formulated today, frankly new.
Most series respond to this by offering more episodes per minute than necessary. Others, on the contrary, choose a form of languor – or of I don’t care – and take full advantage of the attention granted to them. Apple TV + seems to have chosen this path with the adaptation in ten hours well packed and broadcast in dribs and drabs until December, of the bestseller Shantaram. A production between Australia and India, which relies less on the qualities of its plot than on a basic principle, which in the Anglo-Saxon world is called “escape”. The art of escape, in short.
A lazy tale
The first episode begins with a literal escape, when the hero named Lin (Charlie Hunnam) escapes from prison in his native Australia by going through the roof, before nabbing a plane to take refuge in India. There, what exactly is he doing? After several hours of fiction, it seems difficult to decide. Under the gaze of filmmaker Justin Kurzel (selected at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 for his film Nitram), the young man wanders in Bombay, more or less sought after, above all in search of an inner balance which remains largely inaccessible to us. At his side, a local guide befriends him and helps him to escape the troubles and various solicitations. Here they are launched into often fascinating urban settings, like an aimless journey that has the charm of a dangerous vacation. Except that boredom quickly shows up. The possible radicality of the story, its refusal of classical conventions, turns into laziness.
Fictional mash
A little over fifteen years ago, the rights of Shantaram had been acquired to make a film with Johnny Depp. We see what may have pleased the American actor, the possibility of adventure, a form of spirituality, a slow dive into the strange. Except that in the series, there remains very little of this initial desire. The strangeness never wins the day, rather a kind of fictional mash to which Apple TV+, responsible for great successes like Ted Lasso, For All Mankind or The Morning Showhad not accustomed us.
What remains, then? The vision of Charlie Hunnam, beloved actor of Sons of Anarchy, who defends at all costs (and often without a t-shirt) a character that no one understands. Its intensity and its emotion sometimes carry the piece, before the hum of the episodes takes over. We regret to write it, but Shantaram not worth devoting a day to, or even a rainy weekend.
Shantaram. Available on Apple TV+