International co-production Trackers seems to be aiming to become the South African version of The Wire, but its collection of crime-related subplots is more of a disjointed jumble than a rich tapestry. Based on the 2011 novel by South African author Deon Meyer -- one in a series of thrillers featuring the same overlapping set of characters -- Trackers follows multiple story threads that gradually come together, based around a slow-building terrorist plot to attack a high-profile soccer match. The three episodes (out of six) available for review introduce a dozen or so characters with varying levels of importance, although it takes a while to get a handle on who’s central to the case and who’s going to end up as cannon fodder.
The closest that the show has to a main character is grizzled ex-cop Lemmer (James Gracie), who’s introduced taking on some mean-looking bikers at an out-of-the-way bar in the small town of Loxton. He’s clearly moved there to escape his past, but a job offer to work as protection on a shady delivery gig out of Zimbabwe sets him back on the path to confronting dangerous criminals. Lemmer is the kind of gruff, taciturn hero familiar from dozens of cop dramas, but despite his central role in the story and his position as the first character introduced to the audience, he’s only one part of a large ensemble.
While Lemmer tags along on the mission to smuggle a pair of rhinos into South Africa and meets up with a feisty big-game expert who calls herself Flea (Trix Vivier), in Cape Town the agents of the Presidential Bureau of Intelligence are closing in on a local terrorist cell. The fictional PBI is sort of the South African equivalent of the FBI or CIA, although with far fewer resources. PBI head Janina Mentz (Sandi Schultz) is under threat from the government thanks to a previous botched operation, and the agency may be shut down at any moment. That adds extra urgency to their efforts to track al-Qaeda operative Suleiman Daoud (Emmanuel Castis), who’s come to town to team up with a small-time local cell for a major operation.
There’s also a volatile gangster named Nkunzi (Sisanda Henna) who’s after a shipment of diamonds that relates both to the terrorist plot and to Lemmer’s rhino transport, and an American businessman named Lucas Becker (Ed Stoppard) whose motives remain unclear in these early episodes (and whose presence seems like token outreach to the international audience). On the law-enforcement side, Janina’s top agent is the headstrong Quinn Makebe (Thapelo Mokoena), who’s eager to round up the terrorists even though the extent of their plans is still uncertain. And low-level analyst Milla Strachan (Rolanda Marais) proves surprisingly resourceful as she researches information on the case (and gets intimately involved with Lucas).
That’s a lot of characters to keep track of, even without mentioning some of the supporting cops and criminals, and creator Robert Thorogood (a British TV veteran) has trouble balancing all of them, while attempting to give Lemmer and Milla, at least, some personal storylines. Milla is introduced hurriedly leaving her suburban home while her husband is away, and the scenes of her dealing with family troubles as she goes through a separation feel disconnected from the convoluted central crime story. Although she gets as much screen time as Lemmer, she’s still just one of many important characters, and the focus on her marital troubles feels misplaced.
The acting on the show is mostly solid, even if a lot of the characters are thinly sketched, but the creators have trouble establishing an emotional connection to any of these people, especially as their motivations often remain murky for the purposes of building a suspenseful mystery. That suspense is often underwhelming, with basic police-work scenes (planting a bug, intercepting a call) that don’t generate much tension. A co-production between Cinemax in the U.S., South African network M-Box (where the series premiered as the channel’s highest-rated show of 2019) and German broadcaster ZDF, Trackers sometimes has the generic feel of a series designed to appeal to multiple audiences simultaneously, with its familiar mix of terrorists, cops and gang members.
At the same time, the show doesn’t hide its South African setting, and characters frequently switch between English and Afrikaans (along with other local languages) during conversation. The subplot about the government’s investigation of the PBI is a bit underdeveloped, but it addresses issues of corruption and mismanagement in the South African government, and the inclusion of big-game smuggling as a key element of the plot also grounds the show in local culture. The terrorists themselves come off as broad stereotypes (complete with questionable-looking fake beards), but the other main characters are more distinctive.
With an entire series of Meyer’s novels to draw from, Trackers could eventually expand into the kind of deep, layered examination of crime and corruption that marked The Wire, but for now it’s stuck awkwardly between the action-oriented style of Cinemax originals and a more ambitious prestige-drama template.
Starring James Gracie, Rolanda Marais, Ed Stoppard, Sandi Schultz, Brendon Daniels, Trix Vivier, Thapelo Mokoena and Sisanda Henna, Trackers premieres Friday on Cinemax at 10 p.m. ET/PT.