Tyrant (TV series)

Tyrant
Created by	Gideon Raff
Developed by	Howard Gordon Craig Wright
Starring	Adam Rayner Jennifer Finnigan Ashraf Barhom Fares Fares Moran Atias Noah Silver Anne Winters Salim Daw Mehdi Dehbi Alice Krige Justin Kirk
Composer(s)	Mychael Danna Jeff Danna
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Lehmann Avi Nir Hugh Fitzpatrick David Yates Gideon Raff Craig Wright Howard Gordon
Editor(s)	Matt Chessé
Cinematography	Chris Seager
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	55 minutes (pilot) 45 minutes (regular)
Production company(s)	Fox 21 Television Studios FX Productions Keshet Media Group Teakwood Lane Productions
Release
Original channel	FX
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original release	June 24, 2014 (2014-06-24) – present
External links
Official website

Tyrant is an American drama television series created by director and writer Gideon Raff and developed by Howard Gordon and Craig Wright.^[1] The first season of Tyrant consisting of 10 episodes premiered on American cable network FX on June 24, 2014 and ended on August 26, 2014.^[2] FX renewed Tyrant for a 13-episode second season which will premiere on June 16, 2015.^[3]

Premise

Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed, the youngest son of an infamous Middle-Eastern tyrant, has been running from his past for 20 years. Now a pediatrician living in the United States, he has an American wife, son and daughter, and has no desire to revisit his familial origins. However, when he is reluctantly compelled to return to his home country (the fictional Abbudin) for his nephew's wedding, he is quickly drawn into a taut political crisis when his father passes away in the midst of growing popular revolution against the ruling family. Bassam must now attempt to use his influence to guide the new President, his brutal and unstable older brother Jamal, to a political solution that will avert a bloody conflict.

Cast

Main cast

• Adam Rayner as Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed: the second son of Khaled Al-Fayeed, the long term dictator of Abbudin, and Amira Al-Fayeed. He has been in self-imposed exile in Pasadena, working as a pediatrician.^[4]
• Jennifer Finnigan as Molly Al-Fayeed: Barry's American physician wife, with whom he has two children, teenagers at the start of the series^[4]
• Ashraf Barhom as Jamal Al-Fayeed: Barry's older brother who takes over the Presidency of Abbudin upon his father's death^[4]
• Fares Fares as Fauzi Nadal: freedom-fighting reporter and Barry's childhood friend.^[5]
• Moran Atias as Leila Al-Fayeed: Jamal's wife who had a past relationship with Bassam.^[4]
• Noah Silver as Sammy Al-Fayeed: Barry and Molly's gay son^[4]
• Anne Winters as Emma Al Fayeed: Barry and Molly's daughter^[6]
• Mehdi Dehbi as Abdul: a young man from Abbudin who comes from a long line of men who have proudly served as security for the Al-Fayeed family. He is a closeted homosexual who develops a connection with Barry's son Sammy.^[7]
• Salim Daw as Yussef: the longtime top political advisor to the President of Abbudin
• Alice Krige as Amira Al-Fayeed: the matriarch of the Al-Fayeed clan (Jamal and Barry's mother)
• Justin Kirk as John Tucker: a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in Abbudin^[4][8]

Recurring cast

• Mor Polanuer as Samira Nadal: Fauzi Nadal's 20-year-old daughter, a Muslim girl in active opposition to the Al-Fayeed family, who fights bravely for the principles in which she believes.
• Raad Rawi as General Tariq Al-Fayeed: Khaled's brother, the top military leader of Abbudin, and is revealed to be the one responsible for the base bombing and the subsequent retaliation
• Cameron Gharaee as Ahmed Al-Fayeed: Jamal and Leila's son, and next in line for leadership
• Sibylla Deen as Nusrat Al-Fayeed: Ahmed's bride.
• Oshrat Ingedashet as Reema: Barry and Molly's maid at the palace
• Mohammad Bakri as Sheik Rashid: the exiled former resistance leader
• Alexander Karim as Ihab Rashid: Sheik Rashid's son and the current resistance leader who has his own aspirations to take over the government
• Waleed Elgadi as Walid Rashid: Sheik Rashid's younger brother, who sides with the Al-Fayeed regime although not being treated with respect because he is a Rashid
• Wrenn Schmidt as Jenna Olson: Molly's younger sister, who suddenly appears in Abbudin and surprises Molly and her family. A free-spirited young woman whose reckless ways are usually met with disapproval from Molly and Barry.
• Leslie Hope as Lea Exley: an employee of the U.S. Embassy who, along with Tucker, assists Barry in his plan to overthrow Jamal.

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2

Tyrant has been renewed for a 13-episode second season, which will premiere on June 16, 2015.^[3]

Production

While the show is filmed throughout many cities in Israel (such as Kfar Saba, Petach Tikva, and Tel Aviv)^[19] and Morocco,^[20] the fictional Arab country of "Abbudin" is deliberately compiled out of mixed elements of a few different actual countries, in order to not appear to simulate a particular nation or situation. The producers of the series have also said that no particular sects or clans will be named while relating details. Executive producer Howard Gordon stated, "We do want to stay away from reality and yet hew to it as long as it sort of feels emotionally correct and culturally correct. I think we’re going to try to stay away from names as much as possible."^[4]

The first television promos appeared in April 2014, featuring an excerpt of the song "Wave" from the album Morning Phase by Beck.

Reception

Tyrant has received mixed reviews. On Metacritic, the show holds a score of 54 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[21] On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a rating of 60%, based on 47 reviews, with an average score of 6.2 out of 10. The consensus on the site reads: "Realizing a uniquely vital representation of life in the Middle East, Tyrant mostly thrives as a biting family drama set against immersive scenery".^[22]

The pilot episode has been criticized for Adam Rayner's lackluster performance, the show's depiction of the Middle East, and for being boring. Todd VanDerWerff at The A.V. Club gave the show a C-. He commented: "Deep down, Tyrant wants to be about the seductive power of evil, about people who believe themselves to be good can be swayed by their darker natures if the darkness is tempting enough. But Tyrant is so careful to make evil look evil that it forgets to make it look exciting or fun. Instead, it takes on all the urgency of a position paper, wandering around and having characters extol things about the Middle East and human rights abuses in said countries."^[23]

Alan Sepinwall at HitFix labeled the show "messy", and heavily criticized Adam Rayner's performance as Barry: "Rayner is so bland, so lacking in charisma in the role – Barry is by nature, a quieter more reserved character, but there are ways to play silence that aren't remotely this dull – that it's baffling that Gordon and company would go to the trouble and risk the justifiable anger over the casting."^[24]

Some reviews were slightly more positive. Melissa Maerz at Entertainment Weekly gave the show a B-, admitting that the show could use some work: "With so much attention focused on this American series set in the Middle East, Tyrant is already an important show. Now it just has to prove that it's also a good one."^[25]

The show's depiction of Jamal Al Fayeed as a rapist was also criticized. Maureen Ryan at The Huffington Post accused the show of using Jamal's sexual assaults to add "edge" and "atmosphere" to the show: "The women in these scenes are devices—they are there to create an atmosphere of danger or to move the plot along."^[26] VanDerWerff also agreed that the sexual assaults were used as plot devices: "The pilot is far too cavalier about throwing around sexual assault as a plot point, even if it's trying to make a point about women's rights in Middle Eastern nations." He added that the scenes "leave a bad taste in the mouth".^[23]

References

External links

• Official website
• Tyrant at the Internet Movie Database