From The White Lotus to Patricia Highsmith‘s Ripley books, I can’t get enough of rich people being made to suffer.
Prime Video’s newest show, Malice, is right up that same alley. It stars Jack Whitehall as a young man who ingratiates himself with a wealthy family for nefarious purposes.
It’s a delightful and dramatic slice of soap opera thriller, and Watch With Us thinks it should be your next binge-watch.
Here’s why I think Malice is better than The White Lotus and most “rich people are bad” mystery shows streaming right now.
It’s a Little Bit Like ‘Saltburn’ and ‘The White Lotus’ — Only Better
If the past few years are any indication, pop culture content that depicts awful rich people getting their just desserts is what the people want to see — let’s not think too hard about why that is. At any rate, Malice follows Jack Whitehall’s Adam, a tutor who worms his way into being a male nanny (or “manny”) for the much wealthier Tanner family.
The Tanners are led by businessman Jamie (David Duchovny), who is not the best dad to his kids, Dexter (Phoenix Laroche), Kit (Harry Gilby) and April (Teddie Allen), although he still seems quite hot and heavy with wife Nat (Carice Van Houten). If you enjoyed movies like Saltburn or shows like Ripley and The White Lotus, there’s a lot here to enjoy. Gorgeous locales, a family with money-induced brain-rot and a suspicious little guy intent on getting revenge against them.
And yes, while The White Lotus is great, season 3 was a major letdown and left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Malice is even better than that season because it sets up an intriguing mystery and delivers on it. There’s no false red herrings, no obvious suspect and no loose narratives that lead to nowhere — instead, it tells a relatively straightforward revenge plot with an anti-hero you root for.
David Duchovny Plays a Jerk You Can’t Help But Like
One thing Watch With Us is gonna do is we’re gonna watch a show starring David Duchovny. Most people are familiar with Duchovny from his iconic role as Fox Mulder on The X-Files, but the guy is a fantastic actor, and funny too. He particularly excels at playing charming or impish a-holes but in a very nonchalant way, and Duchovny is in fine form, conveying this type of personality in Malice with plenty of wry humor.
Jamie Tanner is a dick, and yet it’s hard to hate him, partly because he is given some redeeming qualities. But a lot of that redemption can be chalked up to the way Duchovny plays him. Duchovny also does a great job at evoking the cruelty and carelessness of men who are so rich that petty irritations still manage to get the better of them, despite nearly all their problems otherwise being solved with their money.
It’s Fun to Watch Horrible Rich People Suffer
Watching a show like Malice can be incredibly cathartic, because while it’s so delightful to watch horrible people get what’s coming to them, it’s more fun when they’re wealthy. People who have a lot of money often feel like their wealth shields them from retribution for bad behavior, or even emboldens it — meanwhile, the rest of us, the lowly proletariat, just have to sit back and take the abuse.
Even though Adam’s motives are left unclear for much of the show, it’s entertaining to watch him spin webs, lay traps and just basically terrorize the horrible Tanner family (Jamie, in particular) in very quiet and calculated ways. He tosses Jamie’s passport into the ocean, poisons food and even flirts with Nat to try to disturb the sanctity of Jamie and Nat’s marriage. Malice combines audience fascination with luxurious lives and the nagging desire to see someone set it all on fire.
The Show Keeps Things Vague Until the Very End
From the jump, Adam is very calculated in his plan to gain the trust of the Tanner family, so we know that he is motivated by a grudge. At one point early on, Adam stands over Jamie, drunk on the ground, and says, “I could kill you right now if I wanted. But I’m not going to do that. Because I want you to suffer, just like I did.” For what reasons Adam suffered remains unspoken until closer to the season’s conclusion.
Keeping Adam’s motivations unclear might frustrate some viewers, but it also allows for Malice to keep people hooked and guessing until the very end — when Adam’s plot is finally revealed in full. Why reveal all the cards so quickly? And at only six episodes, there’s not much waiting to do either. Malice is fantastically bingeable, and the reveal is well worth the wait.
Stream Malice now on Amazon Prime Video.
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