The following contains spoilers for Malice, now streaming on Prime Video.
Jack Whitehall is best known for his comedic work, but he deploys his dramatic talents for Malicethe new psychological thriller from creator James Wood. Whitehall plays Adam, a self-proclaimed sociopath or psychopath invading the lives of the Tanners, a wealthy family who spend their vacations in Greece and their normal days in their luxurious home provided by the tons of money that the head of the family, Jamie Tanner (David Duchovny), makes. Even though the wife and children suffer some of the damage, it’s really Jamie that Adam has his eye on.
Adam’s revenge against Jamie goes to the extreme when he kills the father of the family in the finale for his father’s sake. Although Adam got what he wanted, Whitehall suggests that he may have felt conflicted once all was said and done. In an interview with CBR, Wood and Whitehall reflect on the consequences of Adam’s quest for revenge and the collateral damage that was caused in carrying it out. Animal lovers, be warned: Adam is not gentle with anyone. Maliceincluding four-legged friends.
CBR: I have a lot of questions after finishing the series. The most important thing is this: Does Adam get away with killing Jamie and torturing his family and friends?
James Bois: It leaves those who survived quite traumatized. Unfortunately, I think this is a pretty damaged family. Adam moves forward with a strange, hollow sort of victory within him.
It was a complicated ending and we had meetings where we talked about what happened to the survivors afterwards. Obviously, not all families survived after Adam left. I thought, well, if viewers are thinking about this and wondering about this, then great.
Jack, I noticed Adam’s face in the last scene of the series. It doesn’t seem like he’s incredibly happy or proud of what he’s done. What is he feeling at that moment?
Jack Whitehall: That’s definitely something we really wanted to address with this final beat, that he had executed his plan and done what he thought would bring him peace and closure. But there was a feeling that he was always going to have this emptiness, and that it wasn’t going to heal the wound deep inside him. It was really important to try and make sure that that was the note we hit at the end. We talked a lot about that scene on the boat, as well as figuring out exactly how we wanted to leave Adam at the end of the story, as well as the ambiguity of what we wanted the audience to feel about him in that moment.
Drink: It turns out that revenge doesn’t necessarily bring happiness.
There is also this incredibly sad moment in the series where the family dog dies. How did you manage that so that viewers weren’t immediately turned off by the show?
Drink: We involve [that Adam kills the dog]. We see the dog fall. I’m trying to think about how we… I had sort of observed that sociopaths and psychopaths in real life tend to start by hurting animals before they hurt people. This is a very unpleasant truth. I felt like we needed to dramatize this. While Malice is a thriller with hopefully some fun in it, it seemed like a really good escalating pace for Adam, trying to figure out how his revenge gets darker and darker and causing him to hurt Jamie’s dog in particular. This is very clearly Jamie’s dog.
It was like a really good, bad, growing beat halfway through. As for viewer reaction, I think some people will be upset. It’s extraordinary how upset people are about animals being hurt in a way that they never do about people getting hurt on TV. It was something I was looking forward to doing. I think it’s unusual to see Jack Whitehall hurting animals. This isn’t something you would have guessed a few years ago.
White Room: The most disturbing reaction came from one of my American agents, who may also be a bit of a sociopath, which is perhaps why that’s what he held back. When he read all the scripts, including the part with the dog and the part where I kill someone, his conclusion was, “Oh my God, the part where you throw the guy’s passport away was terrible.” I was like, “I literally murdered someone!” He said: “Yes, but have you ever lost your passport when you’re on vacation? You have to go to the consulate.” I was like, “I’m killing someone!” It’s definitely more embarrassing to be murdered.
Malice is now streaming on Prime Video.
- Release date
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November 14, 2025
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