‘National Treasure: Edge of History’ falls flat

The new Disney+ series “National Treasure: Edge of History” is yet another attempt by Disney to reawaken a long-dormant I.P. This time, the target is the Nicholas Cage-led franchise about Benjamin Franklin Gates doing illegal things in the name of protecting the country or his family’s good name. And man, could “Edge of History” use a personality as compelling and unique as Nic Cage because this show is super bland.

“Edge of History” is the story of Jess Valenzuela (Lisette Olivera), a brilliant young woman who dreams of one day working at the F.B.I. An encounter with retired F.B.I. agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel) leads to Jess becoming entangled in a hunt for a legendary Mesoamerican treasure that may have a connection to her long-dead father.

Jess also crosses paths with Liam (Jake Austen Walker), an aspiring musician and Sadusky’s grandson who soon joins her in her quest. Jess and her friends must beat black market antiques dealer and not-very-pleasant person Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to the treasure if they want to prove their family members weren’t nutballs who wasted their lives chasing a nonexistent pile of riches.

That sounds like an exciting setup for a TV series. Sure, it’s been done before, but with the right mixture of charismatic cast members, well-written characters and an engrossingly mysterious plot, you could have something enjoyable. Unfortunately, “Edge of History” is filled with some seriously bland characters and a plot that’s way too predictable to keep you guessing and engaged.

Start with Jess, whose entire personality boils down to two things: She’s super smart, and she doesn’t know anything about her dad. You could build a sturdy character on that foundation, but the writers don’t build the character out from that with more traits that give her more dimension.

Liam doesn’t even get that much depth. He’s mainly a hunky dude who can sing and doesn’t like his family much. That’s not enough information to build a character who seems like a living, breathing person.

A mystery with no tension is a snooze.

The rest of the main cast gets the same treatment, the same shallow character work. Tasha (Zuri Reed) is a tech whiz, Oren (Antonio Cipriano) is a sneaker-loving goofball and Ethan (Jordan Rodrigues) is overprotective of Jess. The actors don’t impress much, but they aren’t given a lot to work with, either.

But the worst character in the show is Billie, your garden-variety greedy rich person who works for a shadowy, even richer employer. Billie waltzes through the show’s sets with badly-dyed hair and a monochromatic wardrobe, and Zeta-Jones’ performance is equally colorless. She alternately looks embarrassed to be on the set, or she looks like she’s killing time until she can go back to her trailer and get a foot massage. I can get the younger actors some slack, but Zeta-Jones is way more capable (and better) than this.

It doesn’t help that every scene plays out exactly the way you expect it to. Adventure mysteries require surprises to keep the audience on their toes, but “Edge of History” doesn’t even try. Because the plot is so predictable, the scenes have no tension. A mystery with no tension is a snooze.

Then there are the little things, like the show inserting politics where it doesn’t belong. Another thing that kind of bugged me is how a bunch of Gen-Z kids know A LOT about Elvis Presley. Not that it’s impossible for young to people know about Elvis. Maybe they all just watched that Baz Luhrmann “Elvis” flick.

Throw that all together, and “National Treasure: Edge of History” is not a worthy addition to the “National Treasure” franchise. It tries to reel you in with callbacks to the original films, but in the end, those movies and this streaming series don’t feel like they could possibly exist in the same universe.

The first four episodes of ”National Treasure: Edge of History” is currently available to stream on Disney+, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.