Busting out of the chute with great creative force, Saint X (based on the psychological drama novel) is immediately suspenseful and promising. It’s only after about 6 of the 8 episodes that we see there will be no “reveal” like the kind promised by the genre. Instead, the series comes in for a soft landing that isn’t bad, but feels like it falls short of that early momentum.
A well to- do family of four are spending their holiday at a Caribbean spa. It’s a picture perfect setting. Younger sister Emily is too young to have fun and too old not to resent it, while older sister and Princeton newbie Alison (West Duchovny) is partying like there’s no tomorrow.
Instant, though superficial, friendships are forged almost immediately- and one night, Alison turns up having been assaulted and murdered in the first episode – a whole set full of guests and staff are potential suspects.
Two best friends since childhood, played by Josh Bonzie and Jayden Elijah, are staffers who seem particularly suspicious at first, but we will get to lean a lot more about them than could’ve been foreseen. It’s a well-explored relationship.
Meanwhile we learn that all of the happenings at the resort were 20 years ago. Emily (played as an adult by Alycia Debnam-Carey) is living in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and still haunted by her childhood loss. When she, totally by chance, happens upon a cab driver who was one of the resort staff two decades ago, it sets her on a cat and mouse thingy that is interesting for a while. It also goes back and forth in time, which was cool.
I’ll go no further to avoid any spoilers. I just wish the series had been a couple episodes shorter and landed with a crash bang and not a whimper. But there is a lot to admire and I don’t regret sitting through it.
Saint X just premiered with 3 episodes on Hulu, and now continues with a new episode each week.
