Upon being released from prison, Max Cady (Javier Bardem) describes his behind-bars ordeal as “death by a thousand cuts.” That’s also a good summation of Cape Fear, a 10-episode Apple TV adaptation of John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners that unnecessarily and exasperatingly expands, remixes, and overcomplicates its source material.
Taking its cues less from J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 film version of this story (with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck) than from Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake (with Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte), it’s an A-list series that, in terms of originality, vitality, and rationality, proves an F-grade affair.
Developed by Nick Antosca and executive-produced by Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Cape Fear (June 5) assumes its predecessors’ basic return-of-the-repressed form, telling the tale of Anna (Amy Adams) and Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson), married lawyers who were responsible—in a fashion that Apple has deemed a spoiler—for convicting Max.
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