“Spider-Noir” is a hugely fun, deeply moody, and visually inventive new TV series. Nicolas Cage is a blast as the zany, brash, slightly disturbed Ben Reilly. The noir mystery elements bring fresh life to the genre with excellent plot and pacing. 1930s New York looks stunning! We were lucky to watch all 8 episodes of the series early, read on for our full review.
The new show from Prime Video is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. It tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.
The series is executive produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and is their first foray into a live-action Spider-Man story after producing the animated Spider-Verse movies. Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot serve as co-showrunners and executive producers, their previous credits include 22 Jump Street (produced by Uziel) and Marvel’s The Punisher TV show (produced by Lightfoot). They are joined by cinematographer Darran Tiernan (known for his work on the Emmy Winning DC Studios’ series The Penguin), alongside a talented selection of directors, including Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Enola Holmes), Nzingha Stewart (Grey’s Anatomy, Little Fires Everywhere), Alethea Jones (Peacemaker Season 2), and Greg Yaitanes (House, Banshee.
The first striking element about Spider-Noir is that it sets a great atmosphere. It offers a sort of intrigue mixed with a sense of fun that’s created by the upbeat musical score, Nicolas Cage’s zany performance, and the theatricality and boldness of the 1930s New York setting. It’s flavoured by a sense of camp, a jovial rapport among the friendships Ben Reilly fosters with his fellow private detectives, and the people he runs into in his various escapades. The dialogue is written with a comic-book inspired style, slightly over the top, a good measure of sarcasm and self-awareness, and delivered with a theatricality that harkens back to the style of golden age Hollywood actors like Cary Grant in comedies such as “His Girl Friday”.
The script and editing technique set a great pace for the show, easing you into the world with a character-driven story that unravels through the investigations Reilly goes on as a private investigator. These move the show along swiftly while introducing new situations, new locations, but giving Reilly and his personality room to breathe against the hugely fun backdrops the show creates. Extended sequences of him snooping around the city feature fun tidbits and humours glimpses into people’s lives that he comes across which break up the more serious scenes with some comedy. As you’d expect with a noir-mystery show, the series has a slower burn pace, which creates wonderful tension and intrigue. We get plenty of time to understand the background of characters, feel their motivations, and soak in the feeling of Reilly digging into larger-than-life conspiracies with brash corrupt villains, shocking super-powers, and lavishly decorated sets that add to the show’s atmosphere.
The 1930s New York City setting that the show creates is brilliantly brought to the life. This is thanks to the combination of truly vibrant and textural set design, colourful and tasteful costuming, and cinematography that spotlights the beauty of the Art Deco architecture with high-contrast, stunningly coloured shots.
Visually, the show offers a striking style thanks to its deeply rich neon colours, high-contrast lighting, and inventive camera angles that swing around the environment with the same dynamism of The Spider. The selection of directors across the 8 episodes each fit well into the sharp visual style of the show, while bringing their own sensibilities to their respective episodes. The most defining characteristic however is Darran Tiernan’s cinematography, which adds a beautifully warm, textural look to the golden glow and red and purple nighttime hue of New York city.
One of the most unique aspects is that it’s also available to in colour or black and white. Prime Video have branded this as a choose-your-own adventure aspect, where each episode will have two options for viewers to choose from, “True Hue” Colour or “Noir” Black and White. Cinematographer Darran Tiernan confirmed that the show was designed to be shot and designed with black and white in mind first, then edited to add depth to the colour after the black and white was finalised. We watched the show primarily in colour, and were deeply impressed by the wide range of dynamic, neon colours and depth of contrast available in the show’s style.
Nicolas Cage’s performance is a standout part of the show. As his first TV performance, Cage brings decades of range and diversity from his filmography that clearly informs what a talented actor he is.
Spider-Noir is a visually inventive, well-written, and hugely fun noir mystery show. It is well worth watching for the fresh style it brings to both the superhero and mystery genres, and the brilliant work that went into creating the 1930s New York setting with its unique Black and White or Colour viewing experience.
Spider-Noir starts streaming on Prime Video on May 27th with all 8 episodes available at once. (Early access to all episodes is available from May 25th for MGM+ subscribers).
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