‘Clickbait’ is ‘Black Mirror’ Meets Schmaltzy Basic Cable

I’m just going to come out and say it: Netflix’s Clickbait confused me. It’s not that I couldn’t follow along with the insane plot with included a viral murder threat, oodles of character reveals, and one ultimate batshit catfish reveal. No, I could sift through all of that. Clickbait‘s tone confounded me. The show gleefully leans into some of the most starkly macabre moments of the dystopian anthology series Black Mirror while maintaining the look, feel, and schmaltz of a basic cable made-for-TV movie. Clickbait wants to fancy itself on the level of prestige drama, when it’s got the integrity of a cardboard bookcase from Ikea.

I very greatly disliked watching Clickbait in huge part because I sensed many people would watch it on Netflix this week because of the reasons I disdained it.

Clickbait opens on a family having a fight during grandma’s birthday. Sister Pia (Zoe Kazan) is frustrated when her picture perfect brother Nick (Adrian Grenier) and wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel) switch up the gifts and make her look bad. It’s a fraught domestic scene full of simmering resentment and rage. Pia then goes to party and almost hook up with someone.

Now you might think Pia’s troubles are going to be the primary conflict in the series, but no. The next day, one of the cancer patients Pia nurses shows her a troubling video starring none other than her brother. Nick has been kidnapped, beaten, and forced to silently confess to gross crimes on a world wide stage. Worse, if the video gets five million views, Nick dies. Pia suddenly charges into hero mode, trying to solve the crime on her lonesome. In Episode 2, we follow a detective on the case who eventually recovers Nick’s dead body. From there, each episode is a beguiling character portrait of someone new or hardly introduced so far.

Ultimately, the reveal of who killed Nick Brewer is as bizarre as it is bleak. Nick’s sweet older friend and colleague stole his identity to carry on cyber affairs in his name. She went so far with the ruse that her actions precipitated the death by suicide of one of the women she catfished. Blaming Nick, the victim’s brother kidnapped the real person to atone for the crimes of the fake one. When Nick confronts his co-worker about her actions, her husband murders Nick with a hatchet.

Clickbait‘s beats could be considered weird and dark in a good, artistic way, except the show’s writing and direction are both sorely wanting. Zoe Kazan does yeoman’s work trying to bring realism to a woman dealing not only with a ludicrous situation, but one handled with all the care of a lurid crime podcast. In the end, the show’s lack of style really hinders it. It serves to highlight the show’s lack of substance.

Clickbait at times wants to say profound things about our online identity and the vicious panopticon we live in today. However it leans on unearned twists and frankly unfocused storytelling to get there. Still, those twists, that darkness, and the puzzle the show sets up may yet be too alluring for folks to resist.

Clickbait is now streaming on Netflix. 

Watch Clickbait on Netflix