Last Light, the review: Matthew Fox’s return to TV between light and dark

A high-voltage family thriller that looks not only at climate change but also at the oil issue. The Last Light series, which marks the return to TV of Matthew Fox and Joanne Froggatt, is available from March 17 on Prime Video.

A return to TV, especially if after years and after a great iconic role, always gets talked about. An example is certainly that of Matthew Fox, who in Lost was Jack, beacon of the story and of the other characters, from beginning to end (his is the eye that opens and closes the serial that changed TV forever), and who is now back on the small screen in Last Light, miniseries Peacock that we find in Italy from March 17 on Prime Video. Not the only return to TV in the miniseries: even if less striking, there is that of Joanne Froggatt after Downton Abbey (which we saw again in the cinema in the two sequel films). Both have chosen to return to a product strongly linked to current events, a family drama with apocalyptic hues, as we will explain in the review of Last Light.

The shine and the dark

Matthew Foxafter a few appearances in the cinema in genre films such as World War Z, Extinction e Bone Tomahawkand on TV as a voice actor in the series BoJack Horseman (while we wait to see him again in the documentary in preparation right behind the scenes of Lost), in Last Light plays Andy Yeats, one of the most accomplished petrochemical engineers in the world. The man is hurriedly summoned by his boss to resolve a crisis at a refinery in the Middle East, just a few days before an important intervention by his blind son (Taylor Faye Ruffin), much to the apprehension of his wife Elena (Joanne Froggatt) and his other daughter, an activist against climate change (Alyth Ross). The family will find itself divided, scattered across the world, and will have to fight to be reunited, while a global threat will make its way on the horizon. In fact, here is the extremely topical theme at the center of the story, based on the novel of the same name by Alex Scarrow, adapted by Patrick Massett and John Zinman (Friday Night Lights, The Blacklist) and directed by Dennie Gordon (Jack Ryan). The whole question of oil priceof the petrol price increasecarbon emissions, the relationship with foreign states in the sale of an increasingly precious asset, electric cars, is brought to light (a term we choose not by chance) through a mysterious attack on a global scale that could have devastating consequences and Without precedents.

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In the dark, the light

Each of the five episodes that make up Last Light it is titled just like a status of light: dal The Dawning (dawn) and Twilight (twilight) atIllumination final, to tell us about the evolution of the global crisis and at the same time the struggle of a family that felt broken to find itself and understand each other again. Fox and Froggatt give two convincing performances, even if perhaps a little exaggerated in some moments, and the same goes for the young performers, as they face something that would put any family unit at risk. Andy may be the only one who knows how to stop this global attack, and as happened in Black Mirror and Years and Years, as happens in Extrapolations – Beyond the limit but above all in post-apocalyptic and dystopian genre films, the villain of the moment will have understandable even if off-scale motivations, and a method to try to resolve the issue that is certainly extreme but not so little shareable . THE protagonists are reinforced by Sibylline interpreters such as Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher) and Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Stranger Things) and others seemingly full of good intentions such as Victor Alli (Belfast) by Hakeem Jomah.

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The future generation

The two children of the protagonists are not a mere narrative tinsel but become functional to the narration: in a world that is increasingly dark, reminding us how much we are dependent on technology and electricity even for the most basic daily actions, little Sam he is blind and could be the one who will be able to make his family understand how to succeed view for really what is happening. In contrast, teenage rebel Laura, who often finds herself at odds with Andy over her work with the oil companies, will find a new kind of generational clash with her parent as the story unfolds. In fact, Last Light reiterates the now increasingly frequent discourse in the cinema and on TV about what world we will leave to our children and to the generations to come.

The structure and staging of the story do the rest: tension is high especially when the topic at the center of the debate becomes clear, thanks to the dynamic staging and apocalyptic photography, which makes heavy use of natural elements such as pouring rain , the fire of fires generated by citizens and so on. Going from the Middle East to London and Paris provides that instead setting global useful to the spy and conspiracy thriller genre that always entertains the public by making them think and look out of their window. Stationary transport, police forces who are not equipped and educated to manage a crisis of this magnitude, clandestine journeys in underground tunnels are all elements that want to underline how we are too little ready, despite everything, for the worst that could happen on the Planet Earth. Yet, once again, the final warning is one of hope and faith in what is to come. Unmotivated optimism, as Sorrentino would call it, or a desire to really try to change the course of events?