Review: We’re still doing this, are we?
Netflix must learn to hop off the bandwagon before tried-and-tested gets tired-and-testing.
Wilfred Okiche
It has become a Netflix subgenre at this point: an ordinary person gets involved in a criminal operation and triumphs against the odds. They’re working class and unremarkable – aside from how well placed they are to commit the perfect crime in broad daylight, that is. Think Unseen starring Gail Mabalane, a remake of the Turkish show Fatma, and Nigeria’s To Kill a Monkey.
The latest Netflix addition to this tradition is Marked – forgive the title – co-created by Akin Omotoso, Sydney Dire, and Steven Pillemer.
At the centre of this tale of faith and desperation is Babalwa (a solid Lerato Mvelase), a former police officer working as an underpaid security guard for a company that transports money.
Married to a pastor, Babalwa is a devoted Christian who tries to live above board in her personal and professional lives. When her only daughter becomes sick, her faith is shaken to its core as she learns she is the kind of person who will do absolutely anything to raise the money to keep her child alive.
Marked ticks all the boxes of a heist caper. The first episode sets up the stakes and Babalwa’s tilt to the dark side. Over the subsequent five episodes, motives are underlined, the team is assembled, spoilers are introduced, action set-pieces occur, and the inevitable complications emerge. So far, so cliché.
The moral dilemma presented by the protagonist’s peculiar circumstance makes things a bit more interesting here, as do agile performances from a supporting cast of familiar actors. Polished production-design work keeps things visually dynamic.
But, ultimately, although Marked may be a cut above the glut of recent Netflix-commissioned crime thrillers, it still isn’t convincing enough to stand out from the pack.