“Tell me, when it’s just you all alone, do you even know who you are?” – Severine (Gina Bramhill)
This question is one of the first lines in Bait, a British limited series directed by Bassam Tariq and Tom George, released in its entirety on March 25. Bait follows a minor British Pakistani actor Shahjehan “Shah” Latif (Riz Ahmed), as he auditions to become the next James Bond. He immediately enters into a life of fame, making him a lightning rod for public discourse. His family dynamics and personal life unravels, driving him to the existential question of where he truly belongs.
The series starts with Latif intentionally leaking a photo of himself leaving the audition. What follows is online harassment from Bond fans. And praise from his Muslim parents. And an op-ed discounting him for selling out to play an “imperialist” character. And manipulation from MI5 (Britain’s intelligence agency). And a pig’s head resulting from a hate crime that goes on to haunt Latif’s psyche.
The dialogue is fast and biting, capturing the disparate worlds that Latif inhabits. It manages to be funny, but also grounded in real experiences and stories, giving it a flavor of authenticity that is hard to find today. When Latif is chasing his ex through a night in London, the dialogue becomes impulsive and breathless. When Latif finds himself in public settings, such as the movie set or a gallery opening, he immediately polishes himself to make himself more palatable to his surroundings. In Latif’s parents’ house, everyone chaotically talks over each other, creating a dense soundscape that reveals deeply buried grievances.
The ensemble cast truly brings this intricate dialogue to life, giving a messy but entertaining energy to the screen. Despite a limited screentime, every character feels fully realized. Portrayals of even minor characters avoid playing into easy archetypes, such as the strict immigrant parent or the model minority.
Instead, the series remains nuanced in displaying characters’ fears, desires and personalities. Tahira (Sheeba Chadha), Latif’s mom, leads the family dynamic with a fierce sense of pride for her son, but also displays petty jealousies and anxieties. Zulfi (Guz Khan), Latif’s cousin, provides a loyal but chaotic energy to the show, constantly vying for more responsibility in his family as he starts his own taxi-driving business. Even the pig’s head (voiced by Patrick Stewart) has a personality in Latif’s hallucinations.
At the center of this whirlwind is Riz Ahmed, who delivers a masterful performance of a character unraveling as a result of both his own and society’s decisions. From the beginning, Latif is an exhausted man slowly consumed by the multiple personas he has to (code-)switch between. He struggles between both his fearful, scarred self, haunted by trauma, and the stoic “James Bond” he struggles to transform into. The claustrophobic feeling induced by Latif’s existential crisis is incredibly powerful.
This characterization is most evident in the sequences where Latif is alone, speaking to the pig’s head. These moments perfectly illustrate his deteriorating mental state, with Patrick Stewart’s voice providing chilling commentary on Latif. The pig’s head symbolizes the portion of Latif that has internalized the very standards that push him out of succeeding in becoming James Bond. With this type of jarring symbolism used so creatively, the audience can truly understand the haze of doubt that Latif has to drive through to find himself.
In a gruesome scene, Latif is hit by a car and falls unconscious. He then finds himself in a dream being pressured by his agent Felicia (Weruche Opia) to kill his parents and cousins in cold blood. His agent states that, to become an icon of British culture, he must sacrifice his roots and leave any semblance of his past. This scene chillingly illustrates the system that Latif desperately wants to fit into, effectively giving Latif agency over his internal conflict. This type of bold storytelling allows the series to explore the depth of characters’ anxieties, and it appears as striking as it is profound.
Bait ultimately succeeds because it refuses to take the easy way out. It refuses to let characters fall into easy stereotypes, giving them the complexity and authenticity they deserve. The storyline pushes Latif to reimagine his own identity and find himself again. This commitment to addressing the difficult issues leaves us with a profound meditation on the endless struggle to maintain one’s sense of self.
