Based on Lauren Oliver’s eponymous 2014 novel, the drama follows a bunch of teenagers take part in a set of risky challenges to get out of their nowhere town
Amazon’s ‘Panic’: TV Review Inkoo Kang
Hunger Games-inspired YA mystery-thriller
Panic. Named after an annual tradition in which the recent high-school grads of a small Texas town compete in a risky game that resulted in the deaths of two players the previous year, the series finally lets us feel the weight of the decision to participate in the summer-long tournament at the end of the fourth episode.
“We’re both trash,” declares bad boy Ray (Ray Nicholson) to good girl Heather (Olivia Welch), citing their broken families and the dirty or pitiful looks the teens get around town. “I don’t think good things are going to happen to me anymore,” he sighs not as long as he stays in Cary. The Panic game yields a winner-take-all cash prize of just $50,000 not enough for the rich, college-bound kids to gamble on their very lives by, say, playing Russian Roulette or walking across a highway blindfolded, but enough to inspire dreams of moving away and
Check out the new DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming shows (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Sundance Now, BritBox, Acorn TV and more) coming out this week, including the first season of Amazon Prime Video’s exciting new series
Panic.
~Alexandra Heilbron
Panic – In a small town, every year the graduating high school seniors hold a competition called Panic. However, each level of the game is increasingly dangerous and deadly. Heather (Olivia Welch) doesn’t plan to enter, until the stash of money she had to pay for college is stolen. Heather’s best friend, Natalie (Jessica Sula), who needs cash so she can move to Hollywood to become an actress, makes a deal with Heather. If either of them wins, they’ll split the pot. However, Dodge (Mike Faist), a new kid who arrived in town at the start of senior year, is also entering, and he may have a different reason for playing Panic that has nothing to do with the money. Begins streaming May 28 on Amazon Prime Video.
Ziwe (Photo: Barbara Nitke/Showtime),
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. (Image: Hulu)
Graphic: Natalie Peeples
As the world begins to open up once more to social activities (for those who have been fully vaccinated, that is), TV is making a few big plays to keep everyone indoors this May. A new
Star Wars animated
Ziwe’s hotly anticipated Showtime debut, Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of
The Underground Railroad, and more true-crime docs and superhero shows await those who are prepared to wait a little longer before going outside again. Camping out in your living room for another month also means catching the exciting returns of