THE recently concluded series from Apple TV+ Prime Target is an interesting amalgam of rebellion and conformity. 

The series, which makes great use of Cambridge and its environs, follows the trials and tribulations of, of all things, a maths genius, graduate student Edward Brooks who constructs complex equations in his head and notebooks the way most people jot down to-do lists. The first episodes of the eight-part series, though not skimping on the spy story aspect with murders aplenty, also refuses to skimp on the intellectual and abstract challenge surrounding these constructions, and so manages to do something most series wouldn’t even dare to attempt: it makes maths sexy. 

However, Brooks’s abstract obsession with prime numbers has a real world application. These equations are the key to an algorithm that can unlock global security and surveillance state secrets, rendering cybersecurity obsolete.