The Lost Symbol, is an American action-adventure mystery-thriller television series based on Dan Brown’s 2009 novel, The Lost Symbol. The series is a prequel to the Robert Langdon film series, which began with The Da Vinci Code. Now, right off the bat, we found The Lost Symbol series to be annoying, boring and preposterous but have decided to write this story analysis as a means to understand what a BAD TV series looks like.
S P O I L E R S
The premise is rather straight-forward of course, viz.
The Lost Symbol follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who finds himself pulled into a series of deadly puzzles when his mentor is kidnapped. The CIA forces him onto a task force where he uncovers a chilling conspiracy. (IMDB)
Now the main problem is not the mystery or the puzzle aspect of the plot – that is fine by all accounts. The real issue – as with all Dan Brown stories – is the godlike antagonist. In this case, Mal’akh, a mysterious figure who sets Langdon on a quest to discover an ancient wisdom that will grant him godlike powers. Although, considering that Mal’akh is shown to be able to do virtually anything in the series, how much more godlike could he be?
Everybody else – other than Mal’akh – is an idiot and they all make the wrong decisions. Whether it be the freemasons, the CIA or even Langdon himself – they always seem to get everything wrong and Mal’akh is always one step ahead it seems. This totally destroys the suspension of disbelief as Mal’akh is portrayed as unstoppable – able to perform seemingly impossible feats! How or why is never ever explained, the audience is expected to take all this on face value. We think not!
Best part of all, in the end, Mal’akh’s quest for power was all a sham. What was the ancient wisdom? The Bible. The entire series – all the people Mal’akh hurt and killed – even his own parents – for absolutely nothing. What a monumental joke! And Dan Brown is laughing all the way to the bank. Probably one of the worst stories I have ever come across. Here’s our word of wisdom – avoid anything with Dan Brown’s name attached to it – you have been warned!
READ OUR STORY ANALYSIS OF RAISED BY WOLVES.
… still there’s more …