In 2021, The Roku Channel surprised the world by acquiring the rights to Quibi’s (RIP) catalog of original programming. Freed from the constraints of a ten-minute runtime, this collection of oddball shows will soon be unleashed on streaming devices around the country. And if the first two episodes of Kathleen Robertson’s “Swimming With Sharks” are any indication, some of these stories deserve to outlast the gimmicky technology that spawned them.
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Based loosely – oh-so loosely – on the George Huang film of the same name, “Swimming With Sharks” follows young Lou Simms (Kiernan Shipka) on her journey from Colorado to Los Angeles. After securing a much-desired internship with Fountain Pictures, Lou begins to serve at the whim of the team behind Joyce Holt (Diane Kruger), a Hollywood mogul waiting for her opportunity to run the studio outright. But when famous author Meredith Lockhart (Erica Alexander) threatens to take her contract to another studio, Lou proves herself invaluable to the deal – and a dangerous Hollywood force in her own right.
“Swimming With Sharks” barters in familiar Hollywood horror stories, populating its script with pages of verbal abuse and predatory executives. Here Donald Sutherland is the latest actor to play a Weinstein archetype, flaunting his power over Kruger’s Holt by demanding a display of gross sexual exercises. But in a break from the recent tradition of grounded Hollywood narratives – films like Kitty Green’s “The Assistant,” which presented a realistic look at abusive systems of power – “Swimming With Sharks” trends toward the lurid. The vibe here is more “Single White Female” than industry exposé, and Shipka plays Lou as still waters running very deep.
Shipka is no stranger to finding her demons onscreen – the actor’s breakout role in “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” is one of the more iconic performances of the past decade – and “Swimming With Sharks” leans heavily into her gift for sunny opacity. By avoiding the most obvious character beats, Shipka imbues Lou with a quiet confidence that makes it hard to guess her final goals. She may be obsessed with her boss, but Lou is also in no hurry to reveal her endgame. Instead, she is content to watch others react to the fallout of her actions – unhurried obsession is the most frightening obsession of all.
And while Shipka may give the audience nothing by design, Kruger is entrusted with finding poignancy in the failures and compromises of her Hollywood executive. As someone who splits her time between the French, English, and German film industries, Kruger has always gotten a little lost in the shuffle; her combination of undeniable talent and overlooked potential makes the actress a natural fit for Joyce. Despite the thin story beats on the page – she battles both against industry misogyny and infertility, commonplace powerful woman tropes – Kruger is most interesting when the veneer of influence is dropped. Kruger clues into Joyce as half lost soul, half board room performance, and her own dark path through Hollywood – hinted in a series of keynote clips discovered by a younger Lou – promises hidden depths.
Rounding out the cast is a collection of talented young actors, headlined by Finn Jones (“Iron Fist”), seemingly back from his years in the Netflix/Marvel wilderness. “Swimming With Sharks” also tabs both Ross Butler (“13 Reasons Why”), and Thomas Dekker (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as the personal assistants to Joyce, the only true obstacles between Lou and her target. These two offer the series its most Hollywood insider moments, with jealousy and territorial infighting playing into the more well-established industry tropes. The show has the rhythm of a dark comedy, and Dekker, in particular, keeps things moving at a Rob Thomas-esque clip.
Given the half-dozen sex scenes in the first two episodes, “Swimming With Sharks” seems to be carving out a bizarre niche in the era of streaming platforms: one part long-form content, one part erotic thriller. It is possible that the full season – which only lasts another four episodes – tilts that entire show out of balance, or that Robertson and company are unable to resolve Lou’s backstory without tripping over a series of harmful cliches about mental health. But in a world where every streaming show seems to be angling for a prestigious cache, there’s something to be said for the way “Swimming With Sharks” loses itself in pulp. One thing is clear: if it doesn’t work, it won’t be the fault of the show’s two stars. [B-]
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