I suppose Steven Soderbergh’s latest miniseries, Full Circle, has double meaning in its title. The first is that events from the past are coming back around again some twenty years later and the other is literal circles. We’ll get into that, though.
It starts with a murder that leads into trying to stop a curse set upon a US-based Guyanese crime family. In order to break the curse, they need to essentially “get even” with a hyper-wealthy white family so they can “close the circle” and be free of the curse. Too bad some do-gooders get involved. It’s right that they did, but it sure complicates matters a lot. Jared, son of the wealthy family’s Sam and Derek and grandson of uber-famous Chef Jeff (a ridiculous Dennis Quaid), meets up with a strange kid who’s been stealing his stuff and then all of a sudden that kid, Nicky, gets kidnapped. It was most definitely supposed to be Jared, so that kid did him a favor by stealing his stuff actually. Although the family ultimately decides to do the right thing a pay the ransom for this kid who took their son’s place, it was never about the money, so Nicky is dead.
That is, he would be dead had a pair of sibling, Natalia and Louis, not swapped him out at the last minute. Louis and his best friend Xavier have only been involved with this crime family for less than a day and they want nothing more than to go home. That task becomes progressively harder as more facts come to light. Turns out Nicky is Derek’s son from a one night stand some sixteen years ago. That rocks Sam’s world. Though Sam has a lot more to contend with. Turns out she was involved in the crime family’s curse way back in the day in which her uncle paid the ultimate price. It’s got to do with American greed, which isn’t that hard to believe, but the lengths everyone went to back then to cover it up is truly shocking.
Admittedly, I was kind of lost on this show after the first episode, but I like to give things the benefit of the doubt, especially with a cast like this and it being a Soderbergh vehicle. Enough was revealed by the end of each episode that I found myself saying, “well, it’s only six episodes so I might as well finish it.” I’m glad I did, though I can’t say that I loved the series. Everything truly did come full circle and most got what they deserved. Zazie Bates played a US Postal Inspection Service worker (yes, a real thing), that was kind of the glue that held everything together but also helped move the story along by filling in some plot details. It was passed off as her just being extremely good at her job, but it felt kind of like lazy writing at times. I say all of that having never written a story like this before, so bravo for holding my attention and crafting an intricate web of scenarios together.
Overall, I don’t know that it’s a show I would recommend to many, but if you’re looking for a quick, mysterious, crime drama, then by all means check this out.