The No. 81

“The No. 81” is a riveting, suspenseful mystery in the vein of auteur Alfred Hitchcock with a splash of David Lynch and Takashi Miike, reminiscent of successful television such as “Lost”, “Dexter”, and “Twin Peaks”.  The show focuses on twenty-eight-year-old Edward Nash, an American corporate investigator with an ambiguous past.  Nash has been hired by Biotechnology giant Imago Labs to investigate an alleged leak stemming from a mole at the Beijing branch.  Nash travels to China to investigate the situation, where his superiors believe a man named Charles Hanssen is culpable for the leak of information.  Nash is to stay at the Imago Compound, which houses Imago Labs’ abroad employees, during his stint in Beijing. 

Here Edward is confronted with a series of eccentric characters, some with seemingly sinister motivations.  Edward begins to question his already deteriorating grip on reality, as a series of strange events plague the ambiguous living quarters, including odd phone calls, cryptic messages from fellow neighbors, noises coming from outside his room, and a peculiar Chinese man who seems to turn up everywhere.  Adding to the mystery is Edward’s shrouded past, which even he is unsure of, including a peculiar incident at Kiev which seems to plague his thoughts.  Some within The Compound refer to the complex as “The No. 81”.  Finding out the meaning of this strange epithet consumes Edward, along with befriending the potential mole for investigation, and obsessing over an attractive mysterious young woman who may not be as innocent as her looks suggest.  The complex, layered characters, coupled with the intertwining mysteries of the show, will undoubtedly keep viewers on edge for episode after episode.