Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Paapa Essiedu, Anjili Mohindra, Caroline Quentin, Tom Burke, Charly Clive, Rudi Dharmalingam, Salóme Gunnarsdóttir, Lukas Loughran, Vinette Robinson, Priya-Rose Brookwell, Brian Gleeson, Elaine Tan, Sam Troughton, Zoe Telford, Colin Salmon, Safia Oakley-Green, Rosie Jones, Royce Pierreson, Nina Singh, Lorne MacFadyen, Paul Boche, James Atherton, Joseph Steyne, Steven H.Li, Amaree Ali, Amanda Drew, Stuart Whelan, Sadao Ueda.
Time travel requires concentration of mind to follow, especially when it is in a loop and there are infinite ways in which to destroy yourself as you look for a way out of the spiralling, conjoining, splitting, fracturing strands that hold yourself together…for if attention is not held, if focus drops, then not even the mathematics of the brightest minds would be able to help you as you fall into the excellently crafted and weaved trap that is The Lazarus Project.
It’s safe to say that the second outing of the dramatic science fiction series reaches into the viewer’s understanding and shatters them with perfect precision, for each strand that the writer’s grasp is one they also set fire to with the glee of an arsonist proudly looking upon their destruction.
This is not a complaint, this is a truth with which to hold the attention of the viewer to its greatest maximum effort; it is a staple that worked so well in certain films such as Groundhog Day, Edge Of Tomorrow, and The Butterfly Effect. The only difference is that the complications set up in The Lazarus Project as such that they push the genre even further, they take a wrecking ball to the known and leave, not rubble in its place, but an imagination of spirit and understanding that shines like a beacon in the night sky.
The awareness of the series is sincere, it strides confidently in each of the episodes, and as the cast shine in their respective roles, each one truly giving their all, from Caroline Quentin in particularly vicious mode, through to Paapa Essiedu, Tom Burke, Charly Clive, and newcomer to the team the splendid Sam Troughton, the stage is set for some of the tightest writing to have been on screen in 2023, and a plot that urges the watcher to do more than enjoy, but actively think and deeply reason how such an event could truly come to be.
If there is a third series of The Lazarus Project, it would be difficult to top its predecessor, however it is one that undoubtedly would be welcome and assured a place at the table of must-see television. A phenomenal series, absolutely outstanding.
Ian D. Hall