Bait: A Realistic Take on Fame and the James Bond Fantasy The series explores Shah's desire for fame and the contrast between his dreams of being Bond and the realities of his family and friends. "Bait" presents a realistic portrayal of an average person navigating the world of show business and self-discovery, with a twist of a James Bond adventure. But is this show really about Bond? Yes and no. Bait is loaded with Bond Easter eggs, if you're paying close attention, but it's also mostly about a regular guy trying to navigate the idea of being almost, not quite, famous. Bait begins as Shah is in the middle of an audition to play Bond and totally forgets his line. This isn't exactly our world; he's not reading lines with Denis Villeneuve, nor are the exact corporate powers-that-be controlling Bond mentioned. But, for the purposes of the show, it's best that this is a little bit of a fantasy. Ahmed is Latif; big names like Hamish Patel can play fictional people, too. (That said, the voice of Sir Patrick Stewart in Episode 2 is meant to be the actual Patrick Stewart, albeit in an entirely different guise than you'd ever expect.) What Ahmed does well here is to play Shah sympathetically as much as possible, but only to a point. Obviously, the average viewer can't imagine what it's like to be James Bond, but being a working-class person pursuing the goal of maybe getting a job to pretend to be James Bond, that's more relatable. And because Bait ultimately is a show about Shah's family and friends, the series essentially pits the fantasies of fame and fortune against the realities of the people who love, who also, sometimes, drive you crazy. In some sense, Bait is about choosing between an idealized version of yourself, a dream avatar of a man, and just being yourself.#denis_villeneuve #james_bond #ahmed_latif #patrick_stewart #show_business
