Red Eye leans hard into the classic American hero’s journey, one man against the odds, carrying the weight of the world. It’s high-stakes, high-drama, and not especially grounded in reality. But it’s also a false narrative. Real change doesn’t come from lone heroes, it comes from people working together, sharing power, and taking collective responsibility. That’s why I bothered to review it. It’s because participatory democracy depends on us moving past these myths.
Red Eye opens fast, a stabbing, a crash, an arrest at Heathrow. The protagonist is accused of killing a young woman, daughter of a Chinese Party general, and is quickly extradited to avoid jeopardising a government energy deal.
It made me think of Blue Lights. Where Red Eye sticks with the classic hero’s journey, Blue Lights takes a quieter path. It’s about ordinary people, messy choices, and a system that doesn’t always reward doing the right thing. It’s less polished, more human and to me, more compelling.
Red Eye also leans heavily on one female character who backs the protagonist. She’s there to believe in him, to push his story forward, but we never get the same insight into her.
Two different shows. Two different ideas of what heroism looks like.
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