![]() ![]() I say this as a huge fan of the novels, so much of a fan that I genuinely loved the film, but the show is nothing like that film, and you should put it out of your brain before going into it.) Otto Farrant as Alex Rider in Alex Rider. This new series isn’t Stormbreaker – either the book or the film. (Look, before we talk about the show, we have to talk about the elephant in the room: Stormbreaker. Like, a proper one with high production values, great actors, and the appropriate amount of grittiness, something that I – who is closer to middle age than teenage – could enjoy unashamedly. My fondness for the series is why I was weirdly overjoyed when I saw that it was getting a prestige adaptation for television. I got older and went to uni, Alex Rider kept on saving the world before he could even legally drink. It’s like that Matthew McConaughey quote in Dazed and Confused: “I get older, they stay the same age”. Alex Rider would always be a teen, but I grew up from finding escapism in his problems to finding escapism in… well, adult things. I grew up with Alex Rider and aged out of the books right as he sort of stopped ageing. That was something that I, a gay teen who may or may not have had a crush on an entirely fictional character, related to. Despite having to save the world on what felt like an annual basis, Alex was still dealing with girls, grief over losing his parents, and the kind of isolation that comes from having to hide something from your friends. Gadgets! Kicking! Witty banter in life-threatening situations! But with that teenage anchor. I read a lot of adult fiction as a teenager – more than your average – so the Alex Rider series was escapism. Otto Farrant and Vicky McClure as Alex Rider and Mrs. ![]() You might even say that he becomes a dark and damaged adult! Don’t we all. ![]() Alex Rider starts the series as a normal 14 year old, but over the course of many books (and many more international conspiracies), his resilience dampens and he becomes a dark and damaged teen. The appeal of these books as a teenager was Alex Rider: the boy, the spy, the strangely resilient teenager. Horowitz knows how to end a chapter full of page-turning action on a punchline better than almost anybody I’ve read – teen or adult. As a writer, Horowitz splits the difference between the more straight-up thriller-porn of say, Tom Clancy, and the more witty, wry stylings of Ian Fleming. While the brilliance of the Alex Rider series lies in the concept, it’s actually Horowitz’s execution that makes the books worth their salt. It’s all the stakes and action of James Bond, but with the added threat of knowing that Alex, regardless of how talented he is, is still a teenager in the middle of international conspiracies involving a suspicious amount of people willing to harm a child. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 novels (with the latest coming out just a few months ago), and kept a loyal crowd happily wagging their fan tails. The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.
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