TV Review: ‘National Treasure: Edge Of History’ Season 1, Episode 8
by Frank Martin
The National Treasure franchise has a very particular tone, which is tricky to pull off. A lot of Disney franchises use this same tone in order to invoke a sense of suspenseful danger without tipping the genre into thriller territory. Even while characters are dying, the stories are still largely fun, light, and airy. Up until this point, National Treasure: Edge of History has largely been successful at mimicking this tone. It’s a good thing too as the show compared to the movie seems geared towards a younger audience. Nevertheless, this past week’s episode got a little too tense and felt off with the rest of the season.
The plot largely focused on Jess (Lisette Olivera) planning to break her father out of prison. Unfortunately, Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) was one step ahead and able to follow them after they got to safety. Meanwhile, the FBI agent (Lyndon Smith) that has been tracking them is getting closer to uncovering the secret of the treasure hunt. Also, Liam (Jake Austin Walker) and his grandfather’s nurse (Dustin Ingram) continue to try and conduct their own schemes to combat Billie. Things take a deadly turn when the nurse ends up getting shot and dying, forcing Liam to flee and leave the body behind.
On the one hand, the heist was great fun. It had each member of the team contributing to the planning and had Jess more or less faced with an adventure outside of being a treasure hunter. It probably could have been more in-depth, but given the show’s younger demographic, the straightforward scheme was probably better. Where the show seemed off was about halfway through when the prison sniper got shot as well as the nurse. The tone of danger for these scenes was too high compared to the rest of the season. It seemed as if the show has strayed too far from its adventure hunting danger and instead became a true thriller with real stakes and bullets flying. The danger from the National Treasure movies was never as intense, focusing on the treasure hunts instead. Hopefully as this season winds down, the show will remember that and drop the violence down a notch.
National Treasure: Edge of History streams Wednesdays on Disney+.