Rahul Desai
The kind that thrives on emotional inertia – but Raina is better than this. He is better than his role as an ex-alcoholic who orders a vodka-tonic at meetings to ‘test’ himself.
Covert Islamophobia aside, The Freelancer is undone by some very clumsy storytelling. Even as an action series, it fails on multiple levels. It’s the sort of storytelling that tries to be cool and self-important, but the result is comical.
The narrative keeps jumping from present-day to seven or eight years ago, back to Avinash’s pre-freelancing days as a disgruntled Mumbai cop in a corrupt system.
When Avinash tries to get the CIA as allies, there’s no flashback. Instead, the two agents turn to each other at the end of their chat and go: “Goddamn, we were like a couple of freshmen in front of him”.
Given that the series is far from over – the freelancer is yet to reach Syria and Aliya at the end of this season – I can’t say I’ll be back for the rest.