I have once again gone down the path of watching whatever Netflix recommends to me. I do this with any series and give it at least a couple of episodes' change to impress me. In the case of Clickbait I happily kept watching all of the episodes since they keep it interesting and just when you think you know what is going on, they change the perspective (which they do one episode at a time) and your suspicions and ideas about the overall story change. It's actually quite nicely done.
The story is basically a crime thriller and a whodunnit type of thing and I guarantee that 95% of watchers will not be able to figure out who the responsible parties actually are by the time it is finished. Each episode kind of tells the story from an individual character's point of view and the episodes are named accordingly such as "The Sister," "The Reporter," and "The Son."
The story is centered around the disappearance of Nick Brewer and his suddenly appearing online as someone who will be killed if the video of him gets 5 million views. It's a little far-fetched that the site doesn't get taken down especially considering the world we live in today where virtually anything gets censored but this won't be the last time that there are some major inconsistencies in the storyline so you are just going to have to let that go.
I'm going to go out of my way to not spoil anything about this because they actually do a very good job of keeping you guessing and you really don't have any idea who it could be. At multiple turns you THINK you know who it is only to have that notion proven incorrect normally in the same episode. You do feel like a bit of a dope for letting them bait you like that once they do but I promise you it will happen. Mostly it focuses on family, the sometimes insane nature of the media and most importantly how technology has taken control of our lives and not necessarily in a good way. In that regard this is like a an 8-episode long version of Black Mirror
This is another one of those series that is presented as a "Limited Series" yet it is 8, 45-minute episodes long. I don't know how long a series has to be in order for it to not be considered "limited" but I guess it is more than 8!
The acting is done very well by everyone involved, even the teenage actors which if I am normally ever going to dislike someone is the cast it is going to be the child actors. Even they do their job well even though for the most part they are used sparingly.
There are a ton of plot holes that if you want to enjoy this movie you are simply going to have to ignore them from a CSI perspective but overall, I would say that since I watched the entire thing over the course of 2 (or it might have been 3) days that it is a pretty good indicator that it is a series worth watching. Just like I said about Brand New Cherry Flavor, if you don't like it a lot by the end of 1 or 2 episodes, that's not going to change and you can give up.
Netflix of course incorporates their social agenda into this series quite a lot, but that is just the way Netflix is now so we have to put up with it.
Should I watch it?
I feel as though this is one of the better series available on Netflix right now and mostly because the casting is strong and the story, despite being far-fetched and a bit dare i say, dumb, at points certainly keeps you guessing. I think that a lot of people will be a bit disappointed by the ending, I know I was, but we'll leave that up to you to decide. If you like the first 2 episodes you are going to be entertained by the remaining ones.
