Max’s The Sympathizer trailer promises a black-comedy spy thriller with a Robert Downey Jr triple whammy
Robert Downey Jr, Park Chan-wook, Robert Downey Jr, Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr unite for a twisted tale of cultural collision
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Max is showing some great stuff this year– I’m currently nearing the end ofTrue Detective: Night Country, which has had me watching from behind my fingers for much of it – and one of the most anticipated shows isThe Sympathizer.
It’s an A24 movie so you know it’s going to be unusual, and now the second trailer has dropped we can get more of an idea of its pitch-black humor. We also now know when we can watch it: the show will make its debut onMaxon April, 14 2024.
What is The Sympathizer about?
According to HBO, the limited series will be “blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping spy novel and a powerful story of love and friendship”. Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen,The Sympathizeris the story of a half-Vietnamese, half-French spy who is torn between hs loyalty to North Vietnam and his comrades in the South Vietnamese military.
He escapes to Los Angeles after the fall of Saigon, and in the US he continues to spy for the country of his birth – not entirely voluntarily. Oh, and he also gets a job as a consultant on a Vietnam war movie that’s not a million miles away fromPlatoonorApocalypse Now. The film is partly a spy thriller and partly a satire about cross-cultural confusion.
Hoa Xuande (Cowboy Bebop, Hungry Ghosts) plays the hero, Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) is “a liberated feminist in the midst of a love triangle” and Robert Downey Jr, who plays multiple antagonists, are the key names here, and the cast also includes Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong. The showrunner is Park Chan-wook, whoseOldboyis widely and rightly regarded as a classic action thriller – he’ll also be directing the first episodes.
The Sympathizerwill be streaming on Max, one of thebest streaming services, from April, 14, 2024. While you wait, check out our roundup of thebest Max seriesfor more things to watch this weekend.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
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