Prime Target is an unremarkable thriller about a remarkably hot math whiz

From its wordplay-laden title to its outlandish premise, Prime Target is a ridiculous proposition—and an occasionally entertaining one. But there’s no denying that this AppleTV+ series hinges entirely on a laughable conceit—namely, that math (or “maths,” as the Brits refer to them) can be thrilling, intriguing, and, in the babyfaced features of Leo Woodall, even sexy. To say the One Day and White Lotus actor is called to do for maths what Harrison Ford did for archeology, what Sam Neil did for paleontology—heck, even what Nic Cage did for cryptographers—is perhaps too reductive. But that makes it no less accurate. 

Woodall plays Edward Brook, a bashful British graduate student whose research interests are, we’re told, rather arcane and unfashionable. He’s obsessed with prime numbers—you know, 2, 3, 5, 7…all those numbers that are only divisible by one and themselves. He’s driven to unlock the mysteries therein. Prime numbers, he knows, are everywhere in nature. And there’s no doubt a hidden inner coherence to the seeming chaos they suggest. He knows he sounds a tad looney when he shares such ideas, that he comes off as a kind of conspiracy nut, one not quite suited to work at a research university. It’s why he mostly keeps his musings to himself. That is, until a fateful dinner with his new advisor, Professor Robert Mallinder (David Morrissey), and his wife, Professor Andrea Lavin (Sidse Babett Knudsen, the show’s stealth MVP). That’s when photos of newly discovered, long-buried ruins under Baghdad, which Andrea is giddy about researching, unlock in Edward furious problem solving (on a tablecloth, no less—he can’t be bothered with paper, for God's sakes!) that may lead to a maths breakthrough centuries in the making.

But Prime Target isn’t really a show about math theorems nor about how Edward dutifully works late nights trying to Beautiful Mind his way through the hidden meanings within prime numbers. No, this is a thriller thorough and through, because, as we learn, prime numbers make our world—or rather, our digital world—go round. They hold the key (literally) to our passwords, to the entire security infrastructure on which everything from banks to government secrets rest on. If anyone were to crack that code, well, it would spell trouble for lots of people. There would be no such thing as privacy, no secrets whatsoever, and maybe nothing would be secure. 

This is why mathematicians like Edward and Professor Mallinder are constantly being surveilled by the likes of Tayla (Quintessa Swindell), a young woman whose job is to keep track of dreary research exploits in universities all over the world. And so when she spies that Mallinder (following Edward’s hunch) gets to working on prime numbers at his office late one night, she sets into motion a rollicking ride that will find every single one of these characters involved in a serpentine plot involving the NSA, villainous think tanks, ruthless mercenaries, Martha Plimpton, and, yes, plenty of maths.

Created and developed by Sherlock writer and Leonardo co-creator—not to mention former maths teacher!—Steve Thompson, Prime Target is designed as a fleet-footed thriller. Edward’s earth-shattering discoveries soon make him the very figure the show’s title suggests. To outmaneuver those who wish to find him (whether to kill, neutralize, or otherwise exploit him changes throughout any given episode), he needs the help of Tayla and Andrea. In all of this, there is a kind of blunt simplicity: Edward ends up being the only person in the world able (and willing, it turns out) to uncover a maths problem that would destabilize countries and institutions alike. 

Edward may be a tad socially awkward (after sleeping with a handsome bartender, he brusquely asks him to leave early the next morning so he can work away in his notebook), but he’s truly a genius. And in his genius problem solving, he may as well carry the blueprint for a dangerous weapon between his temples—only, as he tells Tayla over and over again, he doesn’t quite understand his plight that way: He’s interested in the abstract ideas of his research and the purity of his pursuit. Coming a year and a half after Oppenheimer, Edward’s maths-driven conundrum feels rather tired and familiar. (Yes, there’s even a “destroyer of worlds” reference here.) His belabored meditations on whether blindly pursuing the truth of the matter will eventually lead to others acting in bad faith becomes irksome, especially as they often interrupt the fast-paced cat-and-mouse structure of this eight-episode season. 

There is a cheekiness that lurks throughout the show, too, as if Prime Target is constantly trying to hide a snide smirk about its own wild plotting and many left-field twists. When a character utters the line “Right now, math nerds are probably the most dangerous people on the planet” with a straight face, you can almost feel the show wanting to wink at you instead and remind you how ridiculous such a statement remains. The same holds for the moments when the NSA keeps reminding itself (and the audience, perhaps) that they are the “good guys.” It’s laughable, yes. And the likes of Plimpton and Knudsen, two seasoned veterans whose deadpan delivery can land a punchline just as easily as a threat, are handily able to find the right tone to strike. 

Woodall, in comparison, looks a bit adrift as Edward. It’s as if he’s created a character out of antisocial tics and pure self-absorption. Ed is supposed to be shy and reserved. But to anchor an entire series around such a character soon becomes exhausting, even after he begrudgingly becomes the bold hero the plot requires him to be. It speaks to the greatest misstep of the show as a whole. Prime Target is playing with known formulas and well-worn tropes, turning to real-life anxieties about privacy and surveillance for narrative fodder. But in wrapping them all around maths—and a character who’d rather not be part of this story at all—the series keeps running into dead ends that are never as interesting nor as exciting as this would-be spy thriller presents them as.   

Prime Target premieres January 22 on Apple TV+