Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, or simply The Lost Symbol, is an American action–adventure television series based on Dan Brown’s 2009 novel.
The Lost Symbol Series Review
The Lost Symbol is executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. It stars Ashley Zukerman, Valerie Curry, Rick Gonzalez, Beau Knapp, Somali Montano, and Eddie Izzard.
This follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who finds himself pulled into a series of deadly puzzles when his mentor is kidnapped. The CIA forces him onto a task force where he uncovers a chilling conspiracy.
Let’s start off this review by saying that I have never read any of Dan Brown’s novels following Robert Langdon.
I was first introduced to the character when Tom Hanks suited up to play him in the wildly successful The DA Vinci Code, although that movie definitely has its flaws. I still think it is a ridiculously entertaining roller coaster ride full of conspiracies, puzzle-solving, and adventure.
As someone who grew up on national treasure, I am a sucker for this shit. Unfortunately, Ron Howard’s next two installments Angels and Demons and Inferno left much to be desired.
As the films dwindled in their box office receipts, it seemed like this franchise was doomed to be over.
But now Grazer and Howard have moved this franchise into the television format for a pseudo prequel series based on another of Brown’s books.
And while the idea was a sound one, the lost symbol suffers from many of the issues that the films did.
Well, the puzzle-solving and wild goose chases are interesting. This character and the world around him fails to be captivating, particularly when I watch angels and demons and inferno.
I couldn’t help but think that the filmmakers had somehow made the legendary Tom Hanks lack any sort of charisma.
And unfortunately for Ashley Zuckerman, who just showed up as Nick Good in the Fear Street films is no match for Robert Langdon’s droll.
The actor flounders in many scenes, mostly due to the overly complicated and silly dialogue.
Many of the other performers also fail to impress, making for a bit of a lackluster ensemble as a whole. But the one saving grace for this series is the reason why we watch these stories to begin with the mystery and the intrigue.
Although I do think there are so many puzzles to solve that it just doesn’t make much sense any time a new artifact was found or a new clue needed to be solved. I found myself invested again.
There’s also a brilliant action scene in the first episode involving being closed into an ancient room by moving walls, which I found pretty exhilarating.
The villain in the series also has enough unique attributes about him that I am curious as to what his motivations are.
Unfortunately, the lost symbol after three episodes just hasn’t found its groove yet, and I feel that for a series like this to succeed, the showrunners needed to hook us by the pilot episode. After three, I’m struggling to find many reasons to keep watching.
Although the puzzle solving is fun, you can only do it so much until it becomes tiring. The lead character of Robert Langdon just lacks any sort of gravitas to make you care about what comes next for him.
I do think fans of this type of historical and religious mystery-solving might get a kick out of it, but I just don’t think the showrunners have proven so far why this franchise needed to continue at all.
So I am going to give the first three episodes of The Lost Symbol Series a C.
Despite some intriguing mysteries and puzzle-solving, this new series fails to keep the audience engaged due to clunky dialogue and an overall uninteresting cast of characters.Â
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of The Lost Symbol Series. See you next time.
The Lost Symbol Series Trailer
Check out the trailer of the new action-adventure television series, The Lost Symbol.
