How interesting is it that the makers of the show came up with such an apt title for a show? The trailer was intriguing, the thumbnails of the show on Netflix are interesting, but the minute you start watching the show, you truly understand the definition of clickbait. Because you have just been baited into watching a show that amounts to nothing.
Clickbait is a limp mystery that will leave you frustrated after watching the last episode. It is that bad. The last episode needs a serious rewrite.
Remember the phrase 'The Butler did it?'
Mysteries can be hard to write, especially if the intention is to keep the reader/viewer glued until the very last page. The story is effective only when all plot points fall into place.
The butler is supposed to be an unassuming character who no one suspects.
The butler is just someone in the background who no one suspects of any misdeeds. After all, he's a helper; he's not capable of any wrongdoing, is he?
But in some mysteries, of course, he is.
The ending of Clickbait is something like that. While there is no butler in that, the character who is responsible for the character's death barely features in any of the seven episodes before the climactic eighth episode.
As the last episode begins, there was a part of me that hoped this was just a ploy, a clever deception before the real killer would be revealed. After all, it was just too convenient, a cheat.
A clever mystery is one where all the characters are introduced, their motives revealed, and all of them partly investigated at least. Their ulterior motives could be revealed later.
Clickbait takes the easy route. It keeps the viewer guessing who it could be and then introduces the character in the last episode and say, there it is...the big reveal. Bet you didn't see it coming!
Of course, you didn't. That character doesn't make a decent appearance until the last episode.
But Clickbait has more problems to deal with beforehand. The biggest one is the character motives that are never fully explored or learned.
Nick and Pia are siblings who get into a fight on their mother's birthday because of a wrong gift. Nick goes to extreme lengths to throw his sister out of the house and tells her to get out of his life.
All because he got a planter instead of a breadmaker Pia wanted to get for her mother? Or was it because she was late for the party?
Because further on, Nick and Pia's relationship is shown as cordial and loving. They have gone through a traumatic event in their childhood when they found their father dead. The father had committed suicide which is why Nick became protective of his sister as he did not want to lose her, and why he threatened his friend Matt not to go after his sister. So, it doesn't make sense for Nick to have an outburst like that where Pia was concerned.
Then we Sophie, who was in a love-filled marriage. Nick was kind and loving, yet she cheats on him with a man in the school she works in, Curtis Hamilton. She is friendly enough with him to post pictures with him online. The next instant she breaks up with him and confesses to Nick without showing us what exactly happened to cause her to feel guilty.
And the fight between Nick and Curtis, are we ever going to learn the truth of what really happened that day? Curtis does lie about it to Sophie and then he is arrested later when he refuses to hand over his personal gadgets to the police.
But let's not forget the role of the police department in this floundering drama. As always, the police are shown to be inept and relying on civilians to provide them with evidence. There is a whole episode dedicated to a reporter, Ben Park. He is simply one of the reporters hanging outside the Brewer residence, hoping to catch a story but an entire episode is centred around him, and his relationship with his boyfriend, and his eagerness to climb up the career ladder. His investigations lead him to Simon Burton, Sarah's brother.
There is this whole thing with Nick being a liar, who was chatting and having affairs with women online way before Sophie was having her own little affair. Sarah was one of the women who killed herself because she thought Nick's alias, Jeremy, didn't love her anymore. Ben manages to buy data and find Nick's dating profile and find out about Sarah and her suicide. His research leads him to Simon and then he has enough to go on to win an interview with Sophie that his boss had previously assigned to someone else.
It is because of the interview that the police come to know of Simon and then track him down. Detective Amiri, the head investigator, clearly has feelings for Pia which is why he relays every detail in the investigation to her. What happens to Ben? He has a break-up because his boyfriend can't take his journalist lifestyle anymore. Good riddance, because this TV series has way too many characters to begin with and not all of them have a useful part to play.
The Detective barely manages to catch Simon who waives his right to a lawyer but will speak only to Pia. It is then that he reveals that he had kidnapped the wrong man and that Nick wasn't responsible for his sister's suicide.
Things get more confusing and more bizarre. A woman called Emma Beesly claims to be having an affair with Nick and comes all the way down to his house to talk to his wife and try to help the police in the investigation. What proof does she have that she was with Nick? She knows some personal details and maybe has a photo. No one asks her if she actually did meet him or speak to him. No. That question is reserved for Nick's eldest son, Ethan, to ask in episode seven when Emma finally reveals that she has never met Nick in real life or heard his real voice. That's all it took for her to reveal that she lied about Nick being abusive. Okay...way to go Ethan who is a better detective (with the help of his online friend Allison, of course) than the actual police.
All we get to see about police work is Detective Amiri thanking people for getting secondhand information while Pia does the actual investigation.
Now, here comes the truth about what actually happened.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Nick Brewer joined the Oakland Sports Centre as a physical therapist and meets with Dawn Gleed who sets his computer up, complete with a password and other privacy settings. Nick, is technology-challenged, as he calls himself. In this day and age, Nick knows nothing about setting up a computer password? How complicated is that? It is for Nick, apparently.
Dawn is middle-aged and looking for some excitement in her life, so she steals Nick's photos, alters some of them, and creates different dating profiles to talk to women. She gets so excited, it reinvigorates her relationship with her husband Ed. One night, Ed finds out what his wife is up to and confronts her. Dawn feels ashamed and upset enough to give a rude answer to Sarah who keeps pestering her with messages about her depression. Dawn doesn't want any of that. She wants fun and excitement. After her fight with Ed, she gets upset enough to tell Sarah to go kill herself, which she then does.
Meanwhile, Simon has kidnapped Nick thinking he is responsible for his sister Sarah's suicide. Nick shows him that the photos have been altered and Simon believes him enough to let him go. Nick realizes who must have used his photos to catfish the women and instead of going to the police or, at least his family, he heads directly to Dawn's house. He threatens to call the police on her but Ed comes and strikes him on the head, killing him.
The husband and wife clean all evidence in their house and dump Nick's body elsewhere.
All this is revealed when Nick's youngest son, Kai, uses the location Allison had sent to Ethan and heads there all by himself with a baseball bat. Of course, when he sees Dawn, he thinks there's no way she's the killer because she's so old and a family friend. Ed is ready to kill Kai to but the police arrive just in time and shoot Ed dead.
The mystery is solved, but the ending is so haphazard, so convenient, that you will find yourself wishing you hadn't started watching this series in the first place. Really? Dawn? Of all the people, her? A bored wife was looking for excitement, is responsible for someone's death?
And the very last scene where Pia and Sophie hold hands...it is as if the makers wanted us to care about their relationship, to root for them to feel something for each other. A traumatic event had brought Pia and Nick closer. And now his death brings Sophie and Pia closer. The message we are supposed to get is that Death brings people closer?
It would have been better to see the police doing their jobs, the characters that were in Nick's life get prominent roles rather than those who are only looking for a scoop.
The only interesting episode and character seemed to be of Simon Burton who has depth and motive. Rather than focusing on the detective's personal life or a reporter's relationship drama, it would have been interesting to see the women who were catfished and how they were affected by this incident. Imagine chatting with someone for months, only to see his face plastered all over the news. Didn't anyone else come forward with any information?
Apparently, not.
This drama/mystery could have ended in one or two episodes with capable investigators and compelling characters with genuine motives.
Clickbait turns out to be a clickbait after all. Don't fall for it.
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