TV Review: National Treasure: Edge of History

I am an unabashed fan of the "National Treasure" movies. They are a lot of fun to watch, and Nicholas Cage's delivery of the line "I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence" is just iconic. I was excited when Disney+ announced that it was producing a series based on the movies. Then I watched it.

I don't usually use the IMDb plot synopsis, but this show is incredibly frustrating to watch, so I'll make an exception. "Jess Valenzuela, a 20-year-old Dreamer, sets off on an exploration to discover the mystery of her family history, and, with the help of her friends, seeks to recover historical lost treasure."

I'll start with the worst part of the show is that it is overly complicated and seems to think twists are what makes good storytelling. It is not that every episode ends with a cliffhanger-that is a tried and true tactic that television shows have done for decades. It crams a twist into almost every episode, and many are poorly thought out and executed. They aim for the "oh, wow" moment, but I audibly groaned at just about every single one.

Then there are the characters. I applaud the show for having such a diverse cast, but the characters are all incredibly dull. I am not rooting for any of them. I can't tell if the actors are bad or if they have just been given lousy material. Cathrine Zeta-Jones plays Billie, the villain, feels like she is phoning in this performance. Billie is supposed to be very smart, but she can only get one up on our heroes because she has either bugged (a tactic she uses TWICE) or just stumbled into the solution based on information she was given by someone else.

This show is not good, and the only reason I will stick with it until the end is to see the mystery's resolution. If there is a season two, I have no intention of watching it--unless it stars Nicholas Cage's, Ben Gates. In all honesty, I might just rewatch the movies after this lackluster show is over.