One of the effects of the almost universal spread of the Internet is that digital crimes and cryptographic wars have become one of the popular themes in the action and thriller genres. A new literature and movies sub-genre called ‘techno-thriller’ was labelled, in which computer programmers with Internet and cryptography expertise became the main heroes. While ‘techno-thrillers’ are numerous on the big and small screens, the good ones, as in any genre are not so many. I had seen a few years ago the first season, produced in 2014, of a quite successful such a series called ‘The Code‘. The action takes place in Australia. The series was created, produced and written by Shelley Birse and directed by Shawn Seet. I have now seen the second season, made in 2016, which fails to match the first one in interest and quality. There will be no third season.
The second season takes over the main characters of the first season, investigative journalist Ned Banks (played by Dan Spielman) and his brother Jesse (played by Ashley Zukerman), a genius in computers, but suffering from an acute form of autism that makes him dependent on his brother. The two are again engaged in a political plot that combines corruption, terrorism, the struggle for the independence of the indigenous peoples of West Papua, dubious businesses and crimes committed on the Internet. The series take on two elements that are often used in such films: cyber attacks that can paralyze all Internet based services, so practically all economic and social activity almost anywhere in the world; and permanent surveillance of everyone in any place, represented on screen by overlapping digital clocks every few minutes, giving the impression that the scenes are captured by security cameras. The later trick is in my opinion quite schematic and non-credible, as some of the locations are in the depths of the jungle, where it is unlikely that such devices exist or can be mounted.
The second season has, like the first, six episodes. It captivated me only in the first two, which manage to build the premises of an interesting main thread, along with several other secondary stories. Unfortunately, the continuation is not up to expectations, one of the more interesting threads is terminated too early, the social elements are presented schematically, and some of the secondary intrigues fall into melodrama or banality. The actors’ performances are OK, and the episodes are well filmed. Technological aspects are, however, presented as in many other such films, amateuristically, with obvious technical errors. The final episode recovered some of the interest, but it was too late, and no seeds were sown for any continuation. The producers of the show may have also come to the conclusion that the chances of success of a third season are a close to null.