REVIEW: ‘The Crowded Room’ Gets Too Crowded With Its Story

From Creator, Writer, and Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman, AppleTV+’s new limited series, The Crowded Room takes viewers inside the mind of Danny Sullivan (Tom Holland), a man under investigation for a shooting in New York City in 1979. Told through a series of flashbacks, the audience watches as interrogator Rya Goodwin’ (Amanda Seyfried) tries to understand the why behind the shooting and to find out if Sullivan is truly guilty of the crime.

Inspired by Daniel Keyes’ non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, the first three episodes of the series will be released tomorrow, June 9 and each episode is more confusing than it is thrilling. Sure, there are some thrilling parts, namely towards the end of each episode, but the rest of the episodes are dragged out with no real direction.  These episodes were supposed to introduce all the players in the game, while also lay out the groundwork for the motive or motives behind the shooting. Instead, the episodes focus too hard on being gritty and dark. The entire story gets lost in these scenes and you forget exactly what this show is all about.

The best parts of the episodes, though, are the scenes between Seyfried and Holland. Their back-and-forth banter featuring Seyfried’s soothing tone and Holland’s naïve nature sheds more light on the story than any other scene in the three episodes.  Emmy Rossum, Sasha Lane, Will Chase and Lior Raz round out the cast, but their characters are just as confusing as the story. Rossum and Chase star as Danny’s mom and stepdad and are extremely intriguing characters who merely get pushed aside in these three episodes. While Raz and Lane play much bigger parts in the story as Yitzak Safdie and the troubled Ariana. Of the two, Raz ‘s character is the one you will want to learn more about when all is said and done. Lane’s Ariana, on the other hand, you will wish was never introduced.

Without giving too much away, eagle-eyed viewers will immediately get what’s going on about halfway through the first episode. Once you think you’ve figured it out, it’s hard to stay invested in the series. Even with the fantastic cast, there isn’t enough story to keep you engaged until the final episode airs on July 28. Ultimately, many will end up watching the first episode, take a pause until the final episode is released, and then tune in to see if their theory panned out.

Grade: C-