‘Bait’ Review: Riz Ahmed Rethinks Becoming James Bond in Amazon’s Slick but Formulaic Action-Drama

Everything is going well for Shah Latif (Riz Ahmed) until he’s thrown for a loop by a question he already knows how to answer. It’s the middle of his big audition — a part he’s coveted not only because it would turbocharge his career and forever alter his life, but because he’d be an excellent James Bond. He’s got the perfectly tailored tuxedo. The hardened look of a world-weary MI6 agent. The seductive speech that gets the girl. He’s even got a director in his corner, fighting to put him in front of the decision-makers, but he can’t get past one pesky question.

“Do you even know who you are?”

When his audition dialogue reaches that line, Shah can’t answer. He knows what’s in the script, but every time he hears the question, the response sticks in his mouth. After his dreams are all but dashed, Shah unloads on himself. “Do you know who you are?” he says back to himself in the dressing room mirror. “I’ll tell you who you are: You’re a fucking failure who just shat on your last chance of being somebody. You should be ashamed of yourself — you are ashamed of yourself — because you are a shame to your family.”

“Bait” lays itself bare in these tense opening minutes. Ostensibly, the Amazon Prime Video original series created by Riz Ahmed is about an actor’s quest to become the next James Bond. After his failed audition, Shah makes sure a paparazzi photo leaks of him leaving the studio, and from there, he’s back in the conversation — not only with the producers, but with fans, his family, and, eventually, himself. That’s because what “Bait” is really about has little to do with who succeeds Daniel Craig as 007 and everything to do with how Shah sees himself in relation to his country, his culture, and his character.

A Pakistani-British man and active member of the Muslim community, Shah was picked on as a kid, discriminated against throughout his life, and pigeonholed as an actor. His low opinion of himself isn’t just a momentary blip following a botched audition. Shame haunts him around the clock. But if he can just play James Bond — an emblem of style, brilliance, and desire the world over — then maybe he can put his pain behind him. He’ll know who he is, he’ll be proud of who he is, and so will everyone else, because he’ll be James Bond. Or the guy who plays James Bond, which is actually even better.

Of course, for anyone who’s watched TV in the last decade or two, it’s clear that’s not true, and waiting for Shah to catch up can make for a tedious six-episode arc. “Bait” should either be a movie that’s 30 minutes shorter or a proper series with eight episodes in the first season and a proper set-up for the second. As is, it’s satisfying, slick, and thinner than it could be.

Once the rumor mill is buzzing, “Bait” ticks off box after box on Shah’s personal growth chart: First, he gets into it with his cousin, Zulfi (Guz Khan), an on-the-rise entrepreneur running his own “Uber for Muslims” rideshare service. Even though both men (who were raised like brothers) are trying to do right by their Pakistani heritage, Shah is fighting for a place within Britain’s (white) upper class, while Zulfi is trying to build something specifically for London’s sprawling Muslim community. Any tension between them, though, stems from personal affronts, while their ideological differences exist as a largely unremarked upon undercurrent.

Then there’s Shah’s wider family. His father is sick and doesn’t want to go to the doctor. His mother needs him to be around more, and his cousin just quit her job. Shah feels responsible to them, financially, which only exacerbates the pressure he puts on himself to become James Bond — and, of course, only exacerbates the vitriol he unleashes when that pressure boils over.

Riz Ahmed and Riz Ahmed in ‘Bait’Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

Finally, there’s Yasmin (Ritu Arya), Shah’s ex-girlfriend, who he reconnects with in a beautiful fourth episode built around multiple oners and electric banter between the former partners. Directed by Tom George, the 22-minute adventure doesn’t bend over backward forcing you to notice its formal ambitions. Instead, the takes run as long as they should: to build a colorful, immersive atmosphere, to establish the palpable chemistry between Shah and Yasmin, and to tip our hero into a frantic state fit for the penultimate episode’s sprint to the finish.

It’s not that “Bait” is dull or even overly wordy about unpacking thorny issues regarding national and racial identity, seeking affirmation in others vs. finding it in yourself, and the pressures felt by a generation who wants to do right by their parents’ sacrifices without betraying what they need to do for themselves; if anything, it doesn’t always dig deep enough.

What’s onscreen often looks distinct (the locations are vividly captured, there’s one very gross recurring prop, and the whole meta narrative of Ahmed playing an actor auditioning for James Bond in a TV show he created for a streaming service that now owns James Bond… phew!), but it too often feels like something we’ve seen a hundred times before. Paired with a propulsive pace and zany tone (Amazon is calling it a comedy, but I cannot, in good conscience, agree), it’s like a weirder, bolder show is lurking somewhere beneath the surface of the formulaic one we’re seeing.

We know where “Bait” is going from the jump, and it’s easy to get onboard — be it for Ahmed, an urgent screen presence, his supporting cast of TV favorites, or the significant emotions being examined — it’s just a little disappointing to find yourself at the expected end without much more to show for it than what went down in those first five minutes.

Grade: B-

“Bait” premieres Wednesday, March 25 on Amazon Prime Video. All six episodes will be released at once.