CNN
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Samuel L. Jackson’s appreciable star energy can’t can’t breathe life into “The Final Days of Ptolemy Gray,” a slow-moving Apple TV+ restricted collection constrained by the disjointed nature of its plot. Simply securing a venture that includes Jackson (who produces in addition to stars) might be coup sufficient for the streaming service, however the marquee worth doesn’t overcome what seems to be a slog as a viewing proposition.
Jackson’s title character is launched within the throes of dementia, counting on assist from his nephew (Omar Miller), who’s murdered early on. Missing a caretaker, Ptolemy varieties a bond with an orphaned teenager, Robyn (Dominique Fishback), earlier than he meets a physician (“Justified’s” Walton Goggins) providing him a second likelihood: An experimental drug therapy that has the power to revive Ptolemy’s recollections, a minimum of quickly.
Based mostly on the 2010 novel by Walter Mosley, who additionally serves as an government producer, the narrative meanders earlier than reaching that time, which opens up a collection of flashbacks as his recollections flood again, together with Ptolemy’s household historical past and long-dormant recollections of the horrors that they confronted.
These sequences function on a parallel monitor with Ptolemy utilizing the time he has left to attempt to decide who killed his nephew, searching for to actual vengeance earlier than the marvel drug fades and it turns into too late.
The idea creates a showy position for Jackson – alternately exhibiting rage and confusion as he struggles in opposition to the vagaries of his personal thoughts, whereas enjoying the character at completely different ages – and the most recent alternative to admire Fishback, who continues to construct a resume of knockout supporting performances that has included HBO’s “The Deuce” and “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Nonetheless, the oscillation between previous and current already appears like an overused gadget, and the non permanent nature of Ptolemy’s therapies – backsliding between them – undercuts the story’s momentum earlier than it might attain a not-wholly-satisfying conclusion.
Streaming has develop into the best place for large names like Jackson to carry ardour tasks, affording them artistic freedom and the prospect to flesh out tales that will garner much less consideration as impartial movies, assuming they get made in any respect. As for the companies, the publicity and status render concerns about precise viewership secondary, not that these figures are commonly disclosed.
In that sense, “The Final Days of Ptolemy Gray” ought to yield advantages to these instantly concerned. The upside for viewers of this uneven collection isn’t almost as clear.
“The Final Days of Ptolemy Gray” premieres March 11 on Apple TV+. (Disclosure: My spouse works for a unit of Apple.)