The Slap (2015) US Review

Photos from official NBC The Slap website

The Slap on NBC is a remake of an Australian mini-series of the same name. It is apparently critically acclaimed and for that reason it got a US made version. Network TV in America must be hurting to make copies of shows from other places and NBC has been making some pretty odd production decisions lately. This show can be added to that list of oddities.

If you don't want to go by what is written here than watch the first episode. The kid that gets slapped is hard not to want to slap and this version of the show almost sells it to the viewers. If it is supposed to make people re-think how kids are disciplined, they really did not think it through. By the time the titular "Slap" happens, you almost side with Spock er...the Slapper played by Zachary Quinto.

Quinto as the slapper

Also, it takes place in Brooklyn in what seems like one of those neighborhoods where in the 70's and 80's if a kid was acting like this little wild boy in the show, neighbors were allowed to slap a bad kid. Granted those days are long gone but it just seems they could have set it some place else in America where people are out of touch with the rest of the world, not Brooklyn.

They make it hard to like any of the characters.

A lot of the characters are hard to like. Quinto does a good job of playing an annoyed family member and he pretty much channels the way you may feel about this mini-series. NBC may as well hang this one up and finish it off on-line if the episodes have been shot already. It would be interesting to compare it to its Australian counter part the way BroadChurch and Grace Point was done here. But, the first episode was enough to watch, cannot recommend.