The Serpent is okay but could have been a lot sharper.
1st problem is Tahar Rahim. He plays Sobhraj in a very flat, deadpan, manner. But in real life Sobhraj had a charisma, a lure, a mystique and a deadliness all of which combined to draw young people into his lair. This is lacking in Rahim's portrayal.
2nd problem is the timeline jumping. By far the most back and forward flashes I've ever encountered. I'm sure they thought this was clever but in fact it's simply sloppy scriptwriting. I get the point: trying to interweave the investigation but it has been done lazily and in a manner that, in trying to tell the investigative story alongside the killing spree, denudes the result of its dramatic tension.
3rd problem are the Aunt Sally lampoon characterisations: from Knippenberg to the British embassy official, to the Thai police. There are too many lazily written cartoon characters and really poor dialogue. A good example is the tired old argument between the Knippenbergs and Paul Siemons in episode 3 and then the clunky couple's dialogue after this.
4th problem is a tendency to glorify the killings. This is arguably less of an issue in that you have to deal with the evil Sobhraj committed but that's possibly overdone in places. It's pretty disrespectful to the families of the victims.
5th problem is not entirely the production team's fault and it's that you can tell they had to cut short filming on location and then rushed post-production because the schedules were full of repeats. It's like one of Sobhraj's rough cut gems. Maybe that's appropriate.
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