Diksha Sundriyal
Max’s ‘Full Circle’ is centered around a kidnapping that has devastating repercussions for all the people involved in it. Created by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the show unfolds over six episodes from the perspectives of different people associated with the crime. The story digs into the lies and secrets that the characters have harbored over the years. Everything starts to unravel with the investigation led by Inspector Harmony, who is dedicated to getting her hands on the criminals she has been eyeing for so long.
The story takes many twists and turns, with the kidnapping as its focal point. The target is a boy named Jared Browne, whose life turns upside down in the aftermath of the crime, especially as he discovers some disturbing things about his family’s past. If you are wondering whether the show is inspired by a real kidnapping and if Jared is based on a real person, here’s what you should know.
Jared Browne is Fictional Yet Inspired by Real Kidnapping Concepts
‘Full Circle’ is an original story written by Ed Solomon in collaboration with Steven Soderbergh. The director revealed that Solomon came up with the idea for the show by combining two different things. For the kidnapping arc, he was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘High and Low,’ which, in turn, is based on Ed McBain’s 1959 novel ‘King’s Ransom.’ The movie focuses on a botched kidnapping, following which a wealthy man has to decide whether or not he should pay the ransom for the boy who means nothing to him.
Solomon was intrigued by the concept of mistaken identity in this scenario. He expanded the setup by introducing the Guyanese crime gang, which runs insurance frauds. This idea came to him after reading a news article about a New York crime syndicate that got insurance claims after killing the people in whose name the insurance was filed. The show’s creators wanted to make it like a noir film due to the cinematic prospects the genre offers.
“The conflicts are clear; they’re interesting. They inevitably lead to some burst of violence, either physical or emotional, because the pressure builds up in the clash between people’s dreams and desires and reality, and shifting loyalties, mistrust, all of these things. It’s a very sexy genre to work in as a director,” Soderbergh said. For Solomon, it was about “people hiding their truth from others, and then the circumstances pressurize them. They’re trying harder and harder to keep that from coming out.”
While Solomon most probably, wrote the crime, picturizing it from different angles from scratch, the cases of botched kidnappings are not unheard of in the real world. In one case, as reported by the BBC, a North Carolina prosecutor’s father was abducted after the kidnappers confused her with her father. Reportedly, the criminals searched for the prosecutor’s address online but found her father’s instead and held him captive for five days.
In another case, a 12-year-old boy was kidnapped while coming back from school. Reportedly, while driving away from the scene, the kidnappers called someone to confirm the kidnapping, but when they asked the boy his father’s name, they realized they had got the wrong boy. After discovering their mistake, they left the boy on the road and fled without a trace. Considering all this, we can say that Solomon didn’t base the kidnapping or Jared’s character on any particular case. However, he wrote it with a touch of realism, allowing the viewers to connect it to reality.
Read More: Is Inspector Harmony Based on a Real Person?
