Quibi's The Fugitive is a "less-good 24" -- a high-octane action-thriller that’s terrified of what might happen if it slows down

Mel Magazine

"So much sh*t happens" in each eight-minute episode of the Quibi Fugitive reboot starring Boyd Holbrook and Kiefer Sutherland, says Tim Grierson. "Ad-driven television has always been a slave to narrative conventions — something dramatic has to happen before we cut to commercial — and even streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu focus on binge-ability by loading each episode with enough stuff that keeps you watching so that you don’t switch off and start consuming some competitor’s content," says Grierson. "But this new Fugitive seems especially hyperactively 'entertaining' in a way that I quickly found exhausting. Ideally, the challenge of conceiving an entire 'episode' as an eight-minute chunk forces an economy of storytelling that’s novel and exciting. (Every line of dialogue — everything the characters do — has to be crucial to the story.) But that format doesn’t allow you to really relax into the series. I watched all four episodes back-to-back, and the maniacal rush of the thing felt deeply mechanical: Here… comes… another… PLOT TWIST! I’m not sure watching these things one episode a day would be any more satisfying. Because there’s no breathing room in the storytelling, the whole thing is a ceaseless churn of punchy exposition and urgent activity. The Fugitive is a high-octane action-thriller that’s terrified of what might happen if it slows down."

ALSO:

• Quibi has filleted The Fugitive into tasteless morsels of contemporary crap
• Boyd Holbrook signed on for The Fugitive for its great script and the chance to work with Kiefer Sutherland, whom he looked up to as kid
• “I wouldn’t have signed on if it was just a straight remake of something,” says Holbrook