Kaley Cuoco gets trapped in the hollow thriller Vanished

At least TFA‘s Cassie Bowden had a fleshed-out context about her family, friends, and struggle with alcoholism. Alice, on the other hand, has little interiority or history to help understand her actions and motivations. An archaeologist who travels the world for various digs, she bumps into Tom Parker (Sam Claflin) while working in Jordan. He’s employed by a global charity whose mission includes helping refugees who live in tents, are frequently attacked by bandits, and want to escape. The two hit it off while delivering vaccines to a village, and their instant attraction turns into a long-distance relationship. During a rendezvous in Paris, Alice tells him she wants to build a life together in one place instead of hopping around from city to city and meeting up in hotels. He agrees with ease, but while they’re heading to the South of France the next day, Tom gets off the train in the middle of nowhere and never returns. 

Confused by his departure, and assuming he didn’t just dump her, Alice seeks help from an investigative journalist who conveniently happens to be on the same train and overhears her panicked pleas to the conductor. As it turns out, Helene (Karin Viard) is along for the ride because she’s looking into the charity where Tom works, certain that something sinister is going on under their guise of helping out folks. Helene eventually convinces Alice to join forces, using their respective professions as some sort of vague connection between them. (“The pursuit of truth. That’s what I do, and that’s what you do,” she tells her.) As the two embark on an adventure, traipsing from Marseilles to Arles, director Barnaby Thompson solidly captures the gorgeous scenery in one of the show’s only highlights. If Alice is given surface-level traits, Helene is dealt an even weaker hand as a hardened crime reporter who carries around pliers to break locks and says stuff like “I haven’t slept okay since the ’90s.” French star Viard is wasted in this supporting role. 

The conflict of whether Alice and Tom’s relationship was ever real or built on a shaky house of lies rarely feels affecting, mostly because of the creative choice to provide little backstory about their time as a couple. Claflin and Cuoco are talented performers individually, but together, they fail to fully sell their characters’ seemingly intense dynamic. Watchable as it may be, Vanished also ends up as a relatively hollow thriller that depicts Middle Eastern countries with an annoying sepia filter. Its central suspense centers on crimes taking place against refugees, who are nameless and usually shown just huddled together in trucks or warehouses. It isn’t until Alice comes along that their precarious circumstances get the spotlight, and even then, the series focuses mainly on how her life is on the line. The finale makes a rushed attempt to address this misstep, but it’s too late because, by then, Vanished has already lost the plot.  

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic. Vanished premieres February 1 on MGM+.