A show like Prime Target should be a welcome addition to Apple TV+’s library.
Featuring a queer male character as the lead, the show would go a long way toward improving the streamer offerings of queer stories.
Apple TV+ was the only studio to receive a failing grade from GLAAD’s SRI report of 2024 for its representation of queer characters in film.
An excerpt of the report reads:
“It was highly disappointing to see only one film in Apple TV+’s slate that included LGBTQ characters, both of whom were featured for less than a minute.”
On the television side of things, they try to incorporate queer characters but not as diversely as the community exists.
Apple TV+ has retrogressed to a practice from past decades where broadcast networks were willing to have queer characters on shows but only gay women.
Having a show like Prime Target that shows a queer male character is sort of groundbreaking for it. Sadly, the show is not good.
‘Prime Target’ Has a Great Premise but Terrible Execution
Despite being relatively young in the streaming arena, Apple TV+ has cornered the sci-fi genre, making award-winning top-tier shows like For All Mankind and Severance.
Prime Target was poised to be the latest addition to the genre.
The show “features a brilliant young math postgraduate, Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall), who is on the verge of a major breakthrough. If he succeeds in finding a pattern in prime numbers, he will hold the key to every computer in the world.
“Soon, he begins to realize an unseen enemy is trying to destroy his idea before it’s even born, which throws him into the orbit of Taylah Sanders, a female NSA agent (Quintessa Swindell) who’s been tasked with watching and reporting on mathematicians’ behavior.
“Together, they start to unravel the troubling conspiracy Edward is at the heart of.”
This description promises a thrilling tale of a scientific breakthrough and conspiracy.
Sadly, Prime Target wobbles in executing this promise, barely scratching the surface of what it can do.
This Young Man Ain’t So Brilliant, Or Interesting
The first problem lies in the main character.
Edward is as entertaining as a bunch of rocks at the bottom of a stream.
He lacks the confidence that people his age have and moves through life mumbling out of conversations.
He has this profound, introspective nature that, more than being alluring, looks fake and disconnected.
It’s not uncommon for extremely smart people to be antisocial, but there is usually a charm to this personality trait. Edward lacks that.
His life is punctuated by uninteresting scribblings and clothes so bad they seem like they’re from the 19780s.
Who decided a young queer man in 2025 should dress like a father of six who has worked in a cubicle his entire life?
Gay Who? Not Edward
An emerging trend in media nowadays is the desire to erase labels from characters, queer characters especially.
Opinions on labels change between generations, and if Prime Target was targeted toward Gen-Z, Edward’s strong defense against being called “anything” might be interesting.
But Gen-Z is scared of anything sexual on TV, so the moment Edward and Adam (Fra Fee) start making out, you’ve lost them.
The series avoids labeling the character, adding to his increasing lacklusterness.
Maybe like many homophobic parents of queer kids, he hopes if he doesn’t acknowledge it, it’ll pass. One day, he’ll wake up, and it’ll seem like a cruel joke that he ever was with a man.
Edward falls into a relationship with a bartender, Adam, but their relationship is not some great love story.
It’s a constant back and forth of sex and cold shoulders, which becomes monotonous quickly.
Maybe it’s meant to reflect the characters’ temperaments, but it’s frustrating to see a queer relationship fail to bloom, all things considered.
Prime Numbers? Really?
Prime numbers are the second complication children learn in elementary school, after odd and even numbers.
Creating an entire premise on prime numbers is not interesting; given that the show doesn’t let the viewer in on what Edward is doing, that is so groundbreaking.
Prime Target doesn’t seem to trust the viewer’s intellect enough to take them on the journey, which is the biggest shortcoming.
We are at a time where simply having gay characters do gay things on TV is not enough to keep us invested. How about being seduced by the story?
After watching the show, one might only understand that it’s really important that Edward does something with prime numbers, and something huge will happen.
It’s always an absolute pleasure when a show teases the apocalypse, and despite efforts to stop it, it actually happens.
Some shows cop out and stop it, which is what Prime Target does with Edward’s discovery.
It never succeeds in selling to the viewer how devastating Edward’s discovery would be. Even when he cracks it, everything feels anticlimactic.
Prime Target Misses It’s Target
Prime Target is not worth anyone’s time because of its lukewarm premise exploration, unremarkable characters, and mediocre performances.
For a show that traverses the world, it never leaves one place.
Even the little twists that make a show entertaining are easily predictable, making the show easily forgettable.