Panic is a mystery thriller series currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It has 10 episodes with a running time of around 30 minutes and more. The series is based on a novel written by Lauren Oliver, who has even directed the show.
The show is set in a place named Carp, situated in Texas. Panic is about a couple of newly graduated teens playing a mind nerving game called PANIC. It is more like a ritual to perform instead of having fun. The plot is very interesting and will hook you up; it has love triangles, breakups, bizarre games, jump scares, and a lot to unravel.
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The first episode opens with a shot where a few teens are standing, playing a unique game and a narrator’s voice describing what it is and what happens in it. As the story follows, two kids of the town died the previous year while playing the game. So, police got involved this time to make sure other kids remain safe.
This time the group of teens who takes up the game includes Heather Nill (Olivia Welch), Ray Hall (Ray Nicholson), Natalie William (Jessica Sula), Dodge Mason (Mike Faist), and a few others. Heather, Natalie, and Bishop (Camron Jones) have been best friends since school, but this game changes their equation. Who judges this game, who sends out messages, who pick up spots and gaming challenges nobody knows.
As the story unveils further, we will see a spark between the bad guy Ray Hall and the good girl Heather Nill who both are poor and feel like they get judgemental stares from others. I absolutely adored those two and was hoping they would stick together until the end, but well, I won’t give you a spoiler here. Go ahead and watch the show to know this.
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So what did I like about Panic?
To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, even though there are a few flaws that I picked out. But as I love mystery thrillers and deadly games, I was too hooked up with it. The camera work was good, and the story’s flow was smooth. The background music has its own mystery. Olivia as Heather has done a great job to pull up a lead character, and other characters in the group have done the same too. Everyone has a past and everyone has a reason to participate in the game.
What I didn’t like about this series?
Well, there are a few queries that clouded my head, and I couldn’t get it from watching the series. Who is the judge of all these games? Who picks up the judges? Why were the cops so indifferent until those two kids died while playing? Who started this game? Panic doesn’t answer any of these questions and by how the series ends, it’s quite apparent that it will gear up for a second season.
What really disappointed me in this series is that it’s all about panic, right? If you panic, you are out. The games are set based on the players’ fears. But the games were not sufficiently demonstrated and shown, so somewhere the panic went missing, and I lost the connection with the representation. The way when Heather goes for devil’s drop in the first game, she was supposed to meet with a rock but only she didn’t and she got the highest points. No explanation is provided with regards to how she achieved that. There were so many twists that maybe the director lost their way out.
Panic is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.