Malice is Prime Video’s latest thriller about the uber-rich self-destructing. As they tear into each other, the morbid, wicked glee that should have sprouted comes off as mild and benumbed. Creator and writer James Wood has created a show as enervating as caught in arbitrary plotting. It’s too tame and weak-kneed to incite any strong pleasure. Instead, the beats are so strapped to template-driven material there is no distinguishing texture. The mystery is hammered until it mostly dies out, lost in tripe of misspent detours and overwrought calculations. Where’s the thudding tension, the astringent wit required to keep a show like this strutting?
David Duchovny and Jack Whitehall face off in occasionally spiky ways, but the chafing isn’t sustained with compulsive momentum. This two-hander of infiltration should have been messy and vicious, but a venomous sting can be barely found. As one tries to outsmart the other, the thriller falters in justifying the padding over six punishingly long episodes. No motivation is earned, instead it feels routine to watch characters exert revenge and aggressive pursuits under repetitively hollow grounds. Retribution can cut with sinister energy, but it strikes as cold and mostly purposeless. The usurping of another family’s possessions never attracts dramatic bite. It should have certain ramifications but those aren’t plumbed with any rigour or heat. The show seeks to amp up intrigue at intervals but it doesn’t corral it into definite trajectories. Where are the points and moments at which characters reveal their depths? These do not come at all, stunted by bland, inert writing.
Malice (2025 TV Series) Recap:
The show opens with Adam (Whitehall) arriving in the States. He has a new job working for a family in Connecticut, plans that seem to be disrupted when he’s halted at security. Jamie Tanner, the head of the family whom he worked for, is dead. This doesn’t perturb Adam so deeply. Rather, he sees it as natural given Jamie was a reprehensible person. Jamie had it coming, Adam suggests.
An extended flashback ensues. We are introduced to several members of the Tanner family. Jamie has taken his family to Greece for a holiday. There’s his wife Nat, sons Dexter and Kit, daughter April. Jodie is the nanny. The family has gone with Jamie’s friends, Jules and Damien.
Adam comes into the picture. He works for Jules and quickly starts inserting himself in Jamie’s family. He’s the tutor of Jules and Damien’s children. Jamie’s family takes a shine to Adam, though Jamie doesn’t initially welcome it. He senses a threat to his position. Adam is spectacular and showy, full of imposingly playful antics. He flings Jamie’s passport overboard. He goes around killing octopuses. Manipulations start quickly and insistently. Nat becomes a prey. Adam forces Dex, which causes a subtle injury. He also gets Jamie sloshed and swears to kill him once an opportune moment presents itself.
How does Adam earn the Tanners’ trust?
Adam continues on a streak of viciousness. Jodie has food poisoning and gets taken to Athens. Once Inspector Niko comes knocking, Adam postures as if Jamie did hurt Dimitri. Jamie is suddenly super-trusting of Adam. On Nat’s insistence, Adam becomes the full-time nanny and moves into their London house. Adam sneaks building bonds with Kit. Jules is upset at Adam being the Tanners’ nanny. Adam observes Nat dancing closely with Luc. When Jamie returns home, there are several discoveries. Adam goads Nat to bring her work team to party at her place. Kit too is at a party. Kit gets arrested because a girl overdoses. Adam poisons Jamie’s dog.
The next morning, Dex finds Frankie dead. Jamie discovers Kit has been arrested. It’s all a big soup, everyone having had their hands full after Adam has let off a slew of debacles, orchestrating full-on fusillades with precision. Adam continues to stir tensions between Kit and his father. Kit wants to play around, while Jamie is vehement that he returns home. But Kit is disinterested in listening to his father, and Jamie cedes. This allows the imposter to gain further primacy and wield a tight iron grip over matters in the family, destabilising everything. Danger lurks as his movements and actions escalate. Adam fabricates a narrative around Jamie, portraying him as a terrible person in the mind of Kit. Chafing persists between Damien and Adam. They have a row over the Thailand incident. Jules confessing cheating on Damien.
Does Adam get apprehended?
Damien discovers that Sophie has been lying and that there’s no brother called Paul, much against earlier claims. Adam remains a firm interloper, spying on everything and pounces on Damien. Adam dumps Damien’s body in the boot. Manipulating Jules in a web of false professions of love, the intruder is a canny weaver of plots.
Adam is pulled over by the cops for the kids not having their seat belts on. What is set up as a cliffhanger for the ending of episode 4 wends into a harmless reveal in the next one. There’s a search for Damien. Adam has covered all his tracks that can involve him in complicity. Damien has been on anti-depressants before. This arouses pressing worry in his family.
Jamie gets called for an HR meeting. An employee has made a complaint. Adam had hacked into Jamie’s devices and sent off inappropriate messages to a female employee, Emily. She’s not intent on retracting her complaint.
Adam dredges Jamie’s sex scandal to the media. As much as Sophie insists on Adam not to make the past meddle in the present, he carries on unbothered. The media will report the scandal no matter if it displeases Jamie.
The family seeks to take a break but April stays back in the house with her boyfriend Joel. That night, robbers break in and clash with April and Joel.
Malice (2025 TV Series) Ending Explained:
Does Jamie outsmart Adam?
The final episode opens with Kit heading back home only to find everything emptied out by the robbers. Nothing remains. April is locked in the bedroom. Anxious, Kit informs Nat and Jamie what has gone down in the house. The family rushes back. The police seem to hit a dead end and are clearly clueless. Nat scrambles for the passports that have thankfully remained intact. Jamie’s paranoia aggravates and Adam lingers. It keeps getting worse for Jamie. Adam’s orchestrations have worked. He is fired from the company. Tensions between Jamie and Kit melt somewhat as the father thanks the son for tactfully taking care of the April situation.
Adam steals Nat’s phone, calls Jamie and derides and flings it into the sea. Jamie tries to rush to Greece, worried Nat is in major complication. Jamie also realises he had given Adam’s father a substantial sum. Gradually, Adam’s family history comes to light. There had been a fire in the house, killing Adam and Sophie’s parents.
Jamie falls for the umpteen trap in the trap set by Adam. Jamie tells Nat all that’s happened with Adam. The climax is a confrontation between Jamie and Adam. The former beseeches with the latter, entreating him to be logical instead of being propelled by revengeful, festering emotion. Even as Jamie tells the truth to Adam, the latter is unmoved. Instead, he shoots both Yorgos, Dimitri’s son, and Adam dead. The intruder is questioned but the ending doesn’t specify whether he actually got away. This sets the stage for a second season.
