Tyrant: “Pilot”

We’ve come to expect quite a bit from FX, the home of The Americans, American Horror Story and, most recently, Fargo. So when a so-far mediocre show like Tyrant comes along, we’re more disappointed than we would be if, say, the show had aired on USA. Despite its heavy subject matter, Tyrant often comes across as cartoonish and preposterous.

Bassam “Barry” Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) is a successful pediatrician living in California with his wife Molly (Jennifer Finnigan) and their two children, Sammy (Noah Silver) and Emma (Anne Winters). Twenty years after leaving his dictator father and his home in Abbudin behind, Barry returns for his nephew’s wedding. “Just promise me, we’ll come back,” he implores his wife. But, of course, if the family returned home to sunny California, there wouldn’t be a show, would there? We’re immediately stuck with a premise we’re forced to believe not because it makes sense but because it makes sense for the show.

That’s the first of many problems with Tyrant’s set-up. If you’re sitting there thinking, “Where exactly is Abbudin?,” you’ll never find it on a map, because it doesn’t exist. It’s a fictional country, and that allows the show to somewhat address the strife in the Middle East without having to actually address any real world events. It’s difficult to buy into the conflict of the show when, by definition, we know it’s not real.
Tyrant plays like a modern day twist on The Godfather with the “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” mentality. But Barry was out – for 20 years! – and it doesn’t quite seem realistic that his nephew’s wedding would be the thing that would make him return.

My biggest problem with the premise is the idea that Barry and Molly have lived their whole married life without discussing his childhood. I get him not telling his beloved that he executed a man to impress his father as a child, but wouldn’t he have told her more about the horrors his father perpetrated? Or, you know, couldn’t Molly and the kids use Wikipedia to find out exactly what had gone on in Abbudin and what a ruthless leader dear old grandpa is? Molly’s whole bewilderment at Barry’s reluctance to return home to his native land is ridiculous.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the fact that Rayner is a British actor and not at all Middle Eastern. And it is a missed opportunity that the show did not cast a Middle Eastern actor in this pivotal role. But Rayner’s performance is strong, even if it is difficult to have sympathy for someone who could have solved a lot of problems just by telling his wife the truth.