Saint X

Dee Rees directs the first episode of this thoughtful series that says so much more than you’d expect. In pivotal roles as resort workers, Jayden Elijah and Josh Bonzie deliver the best performances — two you won’t forget.

Hulu’s series adaptation of “Saint X” hews closely to its source material, which winds up being as much a curse as a gift. The show also feints at a proper whodunnit, then builds to a nuanced, if anticlimactic conclusion, and all at a lazy river’s pace. That’s all the more disappointing because of how effective it is as a psychological thriller and a character study.

Unfortunately, an accumulation of minor fumbles leaves what could’ve been an incisive subversion of a familiar story feeling, instead, more like a replication of it.

Despite some strong episodes that take us deeper into the lives of the characters grappling with loss, Saint X remains a series that never cuts as deep as it should by looking to the past rather than the deeper narrative potential in the future.

What begins as a potentially fascinating exploration of unconscious bias, sexual politics, true-crime entertainment, and the media frenzy surrounding missing young white women gets drowned out in a story that bites off more than it can chew, showing that some mysteries in life might be better left unsolved after all.

Saint X may successfully dance around some of the uncomfortable implications its making in its first episode, but the show’s disjointed storytelling isn’t helping its cause.

Complaining that such mystery series meander too much has become a familiar gripe, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Like “The White Lotus,” “Saint X” sets up provocative upstairs/downstairs themes in an inviting location, but unlike that HBO show, it’s a relatively poor destination for an eight-episode stay.