Netflix’s The Serpent revives Charles Sobhraj’s cold-blooded story. Does it work?

The Serpent, starring Tahar Rahim as the notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj, is currently streaming on Netflix. Previously, Randeep Hooda played the unnerving murderer in the 2015 film Main Aur Charles.

The dark and deadly story of Charles Sobhraj has been catnip for adaptations books, films and television for decades. The infamous killer preyed upon Western travellers on the Hippie Trail in Asia back in the free-wheeling 70s. Now, The Serpent on Netflix has chronicled his reign of terror, his slithery evasiveness and eventual incarceration. The eight-part limited series stars Tahar Rahim as the sinister Charles and Jenna Coleman as his accomplice, Marie-Andrée Leclerc. Before this, Bollywood gave us an account of Charles Sobhraj’s exploits in India with the 2015 film Main Aur Charles, featuring Randeep Hooda. Do these representations do justice to the real Charles, whose story is often considered stranger than fiction? We find out. Charles Sobhraj’s story has all the makings of an intriguing true-crime dramatisation an enigmatic personality, a multitude of crimes, a killing spree across countries and an international cat-and-mouse chase. The Serpent attempts to present this slice of history, even if in a scattered fashion. There’s a lot of deception, drugs, gems, identity theft and murder. But the series fails to live up to its premise. Yes, the ingredients are all there for a great crime drama, but the product is a mess because of the incessant time jumps and clumsy narrative devices. Maybe a condensed series would have worked. That said, the series is not without its thrills and one does hold on, to know what becomes of the notorious serial killer and his accomplices.