An AI has plans to control the world; only an FBI agent, a seriously ill genius and those around them stand in its way…

Described as an event series originally – but then, despite that, being cancelled after the first two episodes were aired – neXt works best if it’s regarded as a one-and-done (despite the hints at the end). It’s pretty much self-contained, and you do occasionally have to remind yourself that it was created and filmed long before COVID-19 showed that a microscopic organism was capable of creating such devastation as we’ve seen in the last few months (aided by similar human stupidity).

neXt comes from the mind of Manny Coto, and he juggles the human elements of the story and the more sci-fi well. John Slattery’s Paul LeBlanc suffers from a disease that can make him hallucinate, and at the start his primary focus is discovering whether his daughter has inherited the disease (and by the end of the show, we have a definitive answer on this). He’s the ousted boss of a computer company – ousted by his own brother – but his warnings about the dangers of AI have been heeded by at least one person, who desperately tries to get in touch. And that brings Paul into the orbit of FBI agent Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) and her team… Because the threat is real, and neXt knows exactly what it wants to achieve. And Paul will do whatever it takes (as he proves on multiple occasions) to defeat it. neXt has access to all the information it needs about the people chasing it, and knows exactly what buttons to push – in some cases, literally. Folk from the agents’ pasts appear unexpectedly, and ordinary people get caught in the crossfire.

Slattery and Andrade make a strong central pairing, with the effect this has on Salazar’s family a key element (a shoutout to Evan Whitten as son Ty, who pulls off a number of difficult scenes). Michael Mosley and Eve Harlow similarly work well together as members of Salazar’s team and Jason Butler Harmer makes his Ted LeBlanc a suitably conflicted character.

The episodic structure occasionally means things take slightly longer to play out than perhaps they needed to (I suspect this could have been told in eight or nine episodes), and there’s an unusual preface to the second episode which never really gets picked up on. However, overall Coto and his team pull together a compelling story that never really got a chance on US television with its scheduling.

Verdict: A familiar idea played out pretty well. 7/10

Paul Simpson