Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Feedback’ On Netflix, Where A Former Rocker Struggling With Sobriety Searches For His Son In Warsaw

Psychological thrillers that dive into the psyche of their main characters are either effective trips into the mind of a well-written character or piecemeal messes that make little sense. The first episode of a new thriller from Poland looks like it’s going to be the former, especially because we know a lot about the main character pretty much right off the bat.

FEEDBACK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of a man talking to his son in a restaurant. A voice talks about the last time he saw his son. “I remember… only fear.”

The Gist: Marcin Kania (Arkadiusz Jakubik) wakes up in the apartment of his son Piotrek (Jakub Sierenberg), bloody and disoriented. Piotr is nowhere to be found. As Marcin stumbles around, trying to figure out what happened, Asia (Dominika Bednarczyk-Krzyzowska), his estranged wife and Piotr’s mother, knocks on the door. But Marcin is too out of sorts to answer.

One other thing: Marcin seems to be drunk. Considering that the former rock musician has been sober for two years, that doesn’t make any sense to him. But he has absolutely no memory of what happened the night before.

Marcin goes to his group sobriety meeting, and the leader Jarek (Juliusz Chrzastowski), “a dork made of cholesterol,” wants to kick him out, given that Marcin showed up drunk. But Marcin thinks it’s a good place to sort out what might have happened the night before. The rest of the group, especially a woman named Jadzia (Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik), seems supportive, but Marcin can’t bring himself to share.

When the police question Marcin, Asia and their daughter Ula (Nel Kaczmarek), it becomes pretty clear that suspicion is falling on Marcin. But the interaction they had the night before is the first time Piotr has contacted his father in quite awhile, so he can’t imagine he had anything to do with whatever may have happened to his son.

As Marcin starts to piece together what happened that night, he remembers Piotr telling him that he’s gotten involved with people that have the capacity to harm him, and he vaguely remembers his son being grabbed and put in a van after they left the restaurant. But, as an alcoholic, he knows that his piecemeal memories could be faulty. Still, it’s all he has to go on, so he keeps retracing his steps, hoping more details come back to him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Feedback (Original title: Informacja Zwrotna is a bit of a cross between Memento and Russian Doll, if the latter show was much more serious.

Our Take: The first episode of Feedback is a bit disjointed, but given the fact that Marcin is spending the early episodes trying to piece together what happened to his son Piotr the night he disappeared, that makes sense. One of the things that makes the first episode interesting is that we get a fair amount of background on Marcin, more than enough to get an idea of how difficult things are going to be for him as he tries to find his son.

He’s a musician, a former bassist in a rock band that has had a few moderate hit songs. He’s done well enough to buy the building he lives in and give his family a decent life, but he’s on his own because of his reluctant relationship to sobriety. We see what that relationship is like as he looks at the inventory in a liquor store, and his voice over quotes someone who said he stayed sober for a year so he could try all the new products that came out when he chose to drink again. Marcin seems to be a guy who’s trying, but knows he won’t be able to completely make up for the sins of his past, especially with his ex-wife and his kids.

Marcin’s voice overs are sometimes illustrative, but other times are a little more cryptic — we hear a voice over saying that he learned Ula was “made of alcohol” and that she “still dresses like a kid. She shimmers in bright colors. So I can see her through the fog.” We’re never big fans of narration in scripted series, but it’s helpful here because we’re trying to get a picture of Marcin’s psyche as he searches for Piotr, and the voice over helps give us that insight.

What we hope to see, as he presses on into Warsaw’s darkest corners, is more of Marcin’s inner life, and the reasons why he decided to give up the rock star life. Was it just about the booze, or was there more to it? And why does it seem like Zbyszek (Andrzej Konopka), the leader of the band he quit, wants to have him come back and tour while his son is missing? If we can get answers to the questions we have, but presented in a way that’s not a series of red herrings, we’ll be more inclined to buy into the show’s fractured perspective.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Marcin recalls being beaten in the subway station where he followed the men who grabbed Piotr. Flashing with memories of his son saying, “You have no idea what they’re capable of,” Marcin remembers a dark hooded figure looming over him, who then hits him in the face.

Sleeper Star: Marta Mazurek plays Piotr’s wife Kinga; we’re surprised Piotr had a wife, given that he seems like a pretty young guy. But then we see Kinga in what looks like designer clothing, and we then wonder how the hoodie-clad game coder that Piotr is could be matched up with what seems to be a sophisticated woman who likes to travel. Something here doesn’t add up.

Most Pilot-y Line: Marcin remembers the police detective who is investigating the case; he was at an AA meeting with Marcin two years ago, admitting that he beat his wife. The detective tells him that he’s going to end up formally questioning Marcin about the case, and “hit you in the face. Once or twice.” Wow, that’s quite the thing to admit.

Our Call: STREAM IT. There may be parts of Feedback that make little to no sense. But it’s an effective psychological thriller, with a main character that you get to know pretty well by the end of the first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.