Monsieur Spade (2024)

Watched 2/19/24 (AMC)

Despite all the beautiful scenery to watch, Scott Frank’s latest was something to listen to more than anything else. Listening hard for the hints, revelations, jokes—it’s all vital to what you will or won’t get out of it. This is a show that will punish simultaneous phone use. Viewers need to lock in, turn everything else off and give themselves over to this world of rhythmic dialogue and political intrigue, even if it doesn’t all come together.

I definitely didn’t understand 100% of the goings-on here, but I can’t say that I did in Maltese Falcon either and it’s clearly part of the intent—to make you as confused as the detective at the center of it all. A master of the screenplay deciding to use his caché from Queen’s Gambit to go after a labyrinthine, shadowy, uncommercial fanboy sequel to a ‘40s classic is such a respectably offbeat move that if nothing else, Monsieur Spade is worth watching as the rare legacy sequel that is built off of ambition and love opposed to greed. It’s not always the most exciting of shows, but it brings a tremendous amount of talent both onscreen and off, committing to cleverness when it can’t commit to satisfaction.

It’s the furthest thing from a dumb show, but the length and structure feel a bit raw. At no point are the acts clearly defined and thus the end feels rushed and muddled as so many miniseries are guilty of. Scott Frank’s Elmore Leonard work from the ‘90s plays in the same highly-dialogue-reliant, often-sans-plot sandbox, but that work felt a bit more interconnected, alive, and had an obviously stronger sense of humor. The often cold distance that this Hammett sequel/adaptation operates at makes it a hard show to love. 

That all being said, it is in fact an enjoyable ride if you can pick out the little things that Frank just does better than anyone. His interest and skill in character, wordplay, and shocking-but-meaningful outbursts of violence are leagues above 99% of screenwriters we have today. And while I believe his adaptation skills to be a bit stronger than his creative and structural merits, the overall craft he continues to display ensures that I will keep watching anything he puts out. One of my favorite writers—few are better.

5.25/10