REVIEW: The Cry (S1 E1/4)

I just knew this four-part adaptation of Australian author Helen FitzGerald’s The Cry would put us through the wringer, and for an hour it most assuredly did. Like all psychological thrillers, there was a constant feeling of unease, mostly due to the structure and the subject matter. It was filling the hole left by Bodyguard, Jed Mercurio’s flagrant thriller whose nail-biting rollercoaster ride made it feel like an episode of The Two Ronnies compared to this.

As I mentioned, the structure was entirely different, too. Instead of telling this story of young mum Joanna (Jenna Coleman) in linear fashion, we jumped here, there and everywhere with the express intention of letting us know SOMETHING BAD WAS GOING TO HAPPEN©. The opening scenes saw Joanna talking – presumably, and later confirmed – to a psychologist, where she revealed that there were two sides to her personality (or ‘faces’ as she called them). Red siren number one.

Then there were court scenes, and scenes that saw her escorted through a baying mob of photographers.

Then it was back to telling her story as a mum; a mum who really was not coping well with new motherhood. Her three-month-old babe cried non-stop and while her husband, PR man Alistair (Top Of The Lake: China Girl’s Ewen Leslie) was out doing his high-pressured work thing, Joanna struggled to stay awake, stay sane and block out the constant wailing (it really was constant). She was snappy with friends and wistful for happier times gone by, and in her inner reminisces we saw flashbacks to her days as a school teacher and the day she first met Alistair.

And then we went forward and then we went back again and then forward and then back again. This level of timeline trickery is very difficult to get right, but on the whole, The Cry did a good job because it managed to remember the most important thing: narrative pyrotechnics aren’t just there for the sake of it, but to build suspense and tension. It took a little bit of time to get used to, but by the end of this first episode of The Cry, I was a mess.

The main thrust of these flashbacks was to present Joanna as a flawed character. We knew because of her court appearance, her psychologist interviews and her generally frazzled behaviour during motherhood that SOMETHING BAD WAS GOING TO HAPPEN©. But we didn’t know whether Joanna would be the culprit or not, or what might happen (although you didn’t need to be Saga Norén to deduce that it would be something to do with the baby).

Alistair and Joanna travelled to Australia on a nightmare 24-hour flight where their young son cried constantly, arousing the anger of fellow flyers and drawing complaints. Alistair managed to sleep through the whole thing. Joanna was at her wits’ end – she was anxious before the flight, and now people judged her motherhood skills during it. By the time she landed in Melbourne, she was a spaced-out mess.

The couple were travelling to Aussie to see Alistair’s mother, but also to try and reclaim his teenage daughter, whose mother, Alexandra, had taken back to them both to their homeland after she had found her husband in bed with Joanna. (Joanna didn’t know he was married.) This parallel strand was a clever counterpoint to Joanna’s situation: you had a mother who was yearning for her pre-motherhood days, and another mother on the other side of the world who was desperate to remain a mother.

There were other little elements bubbling under the surface: Alistair’s behaviour throughout, for one. He wasn’t a nasty sort but he was a smooth operator. Not only had he cheated on his first wife in the first instance but he was serenely gliding through parenthood. He was one of those annoying types who every time he picked up the baby it stopped crying, compounding Joanna’s misery and making her even more self-conscious and self-critical. He also insisted on doing everything for her – he thought that because she was exhausted and anxious that he was helping. All she wanted was the freedom to go and buy a coffee at a kiosk; little things to break free from the prison.

Once in Australia, the SOMETHING BAD WAS GOING TO HAPPEN© happened. Alistair went into a supermarket to grab some things, and Joanna, in a daze, decided to buy some things too. When they got back to the car…

It was harrowing, not least because of the way the abduction was shown. Or not shown in this case. We jumped forward and back, seeing police, hearing sirens, seeing Joanna suffer from sensory deprivation as the news that her baby had sunk in. It was expertly handled and heightened the feelings of nausea, both in the characters and in the audience.

The Cry is obviously a whodunit – at the moment we’re still not sure of Joanna’s personality  or culpability and Alistair’s ex Alexandra was being built up as a suspect, determined as she was to stop at nothing to keep her daughter in Australia – but the impressive thing about this first episode was how human it was. The fact that Joanna was struggling during these early days of motherhood was not a crime and did not make her an abductor or, if worst comes to worst, a murderer. It makes her a normal parent. And her relationship with her past life and her husband felt entirely plausible, too.

A strong start.

Paul Hirons
@Son_Of_Ray

 

REVIEW: Mystery Road (S1 E3&4/6)

If last week’s opening episodes of Australian crime drama Mystery Road were all about establishing the idea of community and the collective weight it’s people bear when a crime dredges up old secrets, then this week’s were all about family – and the ties that bind us to keep those secrets with us to the grave.

Despite leading us to believe it was Larry that was descending on Shevorne’s house at the tail end of last week’s cliffhanger, when Jay and Emma turn up it’s actually Georgia who is the intruder – catching the two women in the midst of a ferocious fight. Once tempers calm, a photograph of Reese/Simon reveals Georgia’s lost love is actually not the same guy – just the same name and an amusing bout of character traits tennis seals the deal (“Tattoos? No. Circumcised? Yes.”). And so, Georgia is dispatched from the narrative as the reddest of herrings, with a parting wise word from Jay about relationships – a fine one to talk considering catching sight of his estranged wife at his hotel room prompts him to sleep in a cell at the station instead.

Georgia’s parting gift to Jay is Shevorne’s purloined phone, whose contents reveal videos of her taking drugs with the two missing men up at Two Mile – currently Larry’s place of residence. Jay and Emma search the shack to find traces of Ice but no significant stash – and Larry is as sphinx-like as usual. Jay uses the threat of taking Shevorne’s visitation rights away from her (not for the last time) to squeeze information out of her – and she in turn points the finger at Eric, the Dutch national who is already under caution for possession – but he’s off the grid now as station owner Tony conveniently sacked him the day before Jay turns up to question him.

Things seem to be slowing down in the search for the missing pair until the Rodeo blasts through town, and a figure from Jay’s past turns up to stalk Crystal. But Jay is too wrapped up in his own investigation to notice – instead focusing on the appearance of Eric’s girlfriend Genevieve (equipped with the least convincing Scottish accent ever) and her awkward attempts to sway him off his course of locating Eric. Bonnie & Clyde these kids aren’t. But these twin strands collide the next day when Crystal is nearly abducted by two men who are relatives of the six bikers Jay killed in the past (referring back to the film of the same title), and Eric happens along to rescue her – deploying his best dutch insults to warn her assailants off. Eric and Genevieve convince Crystal to join them in absconding to Darwin, only to have their escapade abruptly brought to a premature close at the local police blockade when the Dutchman tries to pull a Thelma & Louise and Jay replies with a High Noon, standing in their car’s way ready to shoot. A recalcitrant Crystal exits the vehicle to calm the situation, much to Jay’s obvious embarrassment.

The trio are hauled into custody and Emma has an opportunity to talk one on one with Crystal, who defends Eric for helping her escape an attempted kidnapping. But Jay is more interested in flipping Genevieve against Eric, and the threat of extended jail time awaiting court works – she reveals the connection isn’t her boyfriend but a local trucker. A swift chase down on a dirt road leads Jay to pulling over the trucker – who’s haul has enough drugs hidden in it to put him away for twenty years or more. Naturally not inclined to live out his years in prison, he also flips on his connection – Tyson Zein, the local bouncer and ‘security’ expert. But the story is far more concerning for Reese and Marley’s welfare – Reese had approached the trucker in a bid to cut out Tyson from being the main dealer in town. It’s a huge motive for murder, but when Tyson is arrested his lawyer refuses to let him help the investigation and it’s back to square one.

But again, it’s not police procedure that moves the case forward significantly but the mechanics of family. Mystery Road is really Shevorne’s story so far, with each significant part of the narrative rotating around her in some way. A complex character study that goes beyond the stereotype of teenage petulance, Tasia Zalar does a wonderful job drawing you into the life of a young women who is equal parts unfathomable and defiant. A person with an open book of traumatic history in a small town could never easily find peace, and on top of that she spends her time either being accused of not displaying enough grief over her missing partner or being repeatedly threatened with not being a good enough mother to keep her child permanently (these judgements laid on her largely by men – Jay is especially venomous here when he reveals the carved bird her daughter found is from Larry). No wonder she’s miserable – we see her drunk and desperately demanding to see her child, and in the past taking drugs as an escape from anywhere but reality. Her actions only become more inscrutable as she is witnessed speaking to her former assailant Larry at the Rodeo, and then later turns up at the Thompsons to finally reveal she knows where Marley is. Are the three involved in something?

Whatever the reason, Marley is found safe and well in a shack on the edge of Ballantyne’s property – a little too well for a man who proclaims he survived on bush tucker for an entire week. Marley denies everything the cops throw at him – presumably because he knows his house is being watched by persons unknown – and professes to have no knowledge whatsoever of where Reese/Simon is. After they fought, his pal took off in the truck leaving Marley to fend for himself in the outback. It’s a tall story – and one which a botched walk-through of his hiding place by Jay and Emma (“where’d you shit Marley?”) doesn’t have the effect they’d hoped, but does cast enough doubt in mum Kerry’s mind as to what her boy is up to. But she’s still his mother – and she demands he call council chief Keith Groves to help him out.

Elsewhere, Mary is heartbroken Crystal wants to stay in town with her father – a situation that his estranged wife sees as a choosing of one parent over the other. Consequently she turns to the one constant in her own life – alcohol. When Muller calls Jay to the local pub where she’s causing a ruckus, it leads to a great scene between Tasma Walton and Aaron Pedersen that’s beautifully understated but supremely powerful. Mary finally lays it all on Jay – about how his actions have consequences that he leaves behind for everybody else to pick up the pieces from but him. It’s the reason his own daughter is in real danger – but Jay simply doesn’t have the emotional language to articulate what he wants to say, instead stoically absorbing the truth with an increasing mix of frustration and confusion before exploding in violence when he’s finally alone in his car. It’s a standout performance from both actors and a welcome re-framing of the original film from a female perspective.

Mary is not the only mother in despair, as Emma meets Reese/Simon’s mother at the airport (or tin shack to be exact). Her own tale is another harsh example of how reality consumes people. A single mother whose son (who we now find out is actually called Jonathan) is a drug addict that she effectively paid to leave in a desperate bid for him to get clean. It’s a touching moment that gives life to a character we’ve barely seen and that nobody really seems to like.

Meanwhile, Keith ‘helps’ out by stuffing Marley and his girlfriend Jaz on a bus out of town to circumnavigate the investigation. But he hadn’t counted on Jay, who tears after them and hauls Marley off the bus. Jay then proceeds to do what Jay does (“He’s gone rogue!!!” Muller triumphantly alerts Emma like it’s been coming all along) – holding Jay’s head against oncoming traffic to extract a confession. Emma reaches them just in time to save Marley and reinforce what she presumably always felt about Jay (“You’re a fucking lunatic”).

It’d be a career-ending assault in any other way, but dramatic shorthand always finds time for a redemptive action to wipe the slate clean – in this case when Jay goes down into the creek and finds Reese/Simon/Johnathan’s body in the water (in remarkably good condition considering he’d been floating around belly up for a week in scorching hot temperatures), along with the rifle from Tony’s case. Quite why the creek was never searched in the first place is a mystery, but a cursory examination of the missing man shows he had been tied up and shot in the back, execution-style. Now the reality of his death will have significant repercussions for everybody.

It was an odd mixture this week of slow burn followed by huge plot movements, a lurching format that had me a little queasy. I’d bet a pair of dingo’s kidneys that our victim’s death has more to do with Tony and Keith’s dodgy dealings than anything – and maybe even has deeper ramifications for Larry’s guilt going back when he was Council Leader. But the who and why of these things is rarely as fun as the journey to it. We’ve had some great twists and turns so far, and the acting is uniformly excellent. Even without the conclusion being aired so far, I’d welcome a second season of this moreish ‘outback noir’.

Andy D

For our review of Episodes 1&2, click HERE

The 10 Best Crime Dramas This Week (Monday 1st October – Sunday 6th)

We’re edging into October and the seasons they are a-changing. Thankfully there’s some top-quality fare to keep us all entertained as the nights grow darker – the likes of Killing Eve, Mystery Road and The Cry continue this week, while Spanish Netflix series, Elite, starts. Enjoy!

1 Killing Eve *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S1 E4/8
Intel from Berlin points to the existence of a mole, prompting Eve to undertake her first surveillance operation. Meanwhile, Villanelle is sent to England to eliminate a member of British Intelligence – without knowing who the target is – and an emotional Eve realises how high the stakes are. 
Saturday 6th October, 9.25pm, BBC One

2 Mystery Road *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODES* *LAST IN SERIES*
S1 E5&6/6
A corpse found in a sacred spot dredges up a past crime for Emma, while Jay’s daughter Crystal helps him to a fresh discovery. 
Saturday 6th October, 9pm, BBC Four

3 The Deuce *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S2 E4/9
Ashley and Abby resolve to uncover the identity of a 16-year-old sex worker killed in a recent fire. Elsewhere, Candy recruits some new faces to help her out her new film.
Tuesday 2nd October, 10pm, Sky Atlantic

4 The Cry *NEW UK PREMIERE SERIES*
S1 E2/4
Joanna finds herself at the centre of a media circus as the world’s press descends on Wilde Bay to report on the disappearance. She becomes obsessed with people forming theories about her child’s fate on the internet, adopting a fake identity to join in the discussion. As the police investigation continues, she and Alistair are forced to adopt different strategies for coping with the constant intrusion, a pressure which threatens to break their relationship.
Sunday 7th October, 9pm, BBC One

5 Trust *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S1 E4/10
Little Paul gets to know his captors. Meanwhile, Primo opens a channel of communication to his mother, Gail.
Wednesday 3rd September, 9pm, BBC Two

6 Strangers *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S1 E3/8
British professor Jonah Mulray finds himself left adrift when David goes off the radar and cannot be located, so fearing the worst, he decides to track him down. Fuelled by suspicion and paranoia, the search takes Jonah to the gambler’s paradise of Macau, where he comes face to face with David’s dark past. 
Monday 1st October, 9pm, ITV

7 No Offence *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S3 E4/6
The police have just missed out on collaring Beckett – but they have gained a potentially priceless opportunity. With Bonnie and Dennis in the station, Viv and the team now have just 48 hours to get Dennis to betray his best friend and turn police informant. The only trouble is, Dennis is refusing to budge, prompting Vic to tunnel down to his deepest insecurities, unleashing far more than she could have bargained for. 
Thursday 4th October, 9pm, Channel 4

8 Elementary *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S6 E20/21
Holmes and Watson’s deadly conflict with Sherlock’s former friend Michael intensifies when another victim surfaces.
Monday 1st October, 9pm, Sky Witness

9 The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair *NEW UK PREMIERE EPISODE*
S1 E5/10
Marcus explores the link between Nola and Elijah Stern. Harry reflects on an arguably ill-advised trip away with Nola. 
Tuesday 2nd October, 9pm, Sky Witness

10 Elite *NEW UK PREMIERE SERIES*
S1 E1-10/10
When three working-class kids were given scholarships to Spain’s most elite high school, they thought they were in for their big break. But when one of their classmates turns up dead, everyone is under question.
From Friday October 5th, Netflix

REVIEW: Killing Eve (S1 E3/8)

Last week’s realisation on the part of both protagonists that they had met now has tragic repercussions, as their mutual obsession leads to an unexpected casualty.

Well, we say ‘unexpected’, but in fact it was pretty obvious that dear old Bill (David Haig) was going to be a victim of Villanelle’s murderous passion, practically from his first world-weary aside.

The comedy opening to the episode – with a Chinese official being gassed to death while undergoing recreational surgery – is a typically perverse manifestation of Villanelle’s preference for the ‘breathy ones’. She stares into his eyes as he dies, sucking psychic energy from him as he expires.

Her use of Eve’s name as an alias immediately rings alarm bells, but doesn’t seem to raise the obvious question – who is the mole in MI5 (or MI6)? Our money is on Frank Haleton (Darren Boyd), but is that too easy a conclusion?

Implausibly, given Villanelle’s obvious inside knowledge, Eve is allowed to swan off to Berlin, with Bill in tow. Bill jokes to his infant about his imminent death, a joke we know will ring hollow.

As Eve tarts herself up for a dinner with Chinese inside man Jin, Bill reveals intimate details of his swinging lifestyle and experimental past. He certainly knows his way around Berlin’s seedier side, though we wouldn’t let him into any trendy nightclub wearing that dreadful hat.

Villanelle has obviously spent inordinately long amounts of time hanging around outside the kink clinic awaiting Eve’s arrival, and having nicked her suitcase, plays out lesbian fantasies with an unknowing victim dressed up in her clothes.

Eve is obviously equally struck with Villanelle, describing her in salacious terms to a sketch artist. Yet it’s Bill who spots Villanelle following Eve, and all he’s seen is a photo-fit – he’s damn good at jumping to a conclusion.

Unfortunately, we know it’s going to get him killed – he’s unarmed, out of shape, has no backup, and he follows an expert killer into her own territory. When Villanelle descends on him like a raptor in the club, she cuts him to pieces in seconds, leaving Eve (who has somehow caught up after her dinner with Jin) understandably horrified.

As before, one of the joys of this episode is the incidental characters – the masochistic Zhang Wu (Simon Chin), Bill’s old mucker Weber (Anatole Taubman), and randy diplomat Jin (Lobo Chan). We’d like to see more of Jin Yeong, perhaps in a spin-off…

But the real dramatic development, of course, is the death of Bill. Since Game of Thrones killed off Sean Bean’s character early doors, it’s not been safe to assume that even a major acting name is going to survive to the end of a series. Spooks, Line of Duty, and recently Bodyguard, all upped the stakes with premature deaths of major names. This is a terrific development in TV drama, as no longer can the viewer safely assume that the big-name actors will survive to the wrap party. It will certainly keep us on our toes, and opening a dead pool at the start of every series will become much more rewarding.  

As for Killing Eve, the stakes are now of course completely different – Villanelle is no longer an object of academic interest for Eve, but will become a target for her personal revenge. As for Villanelle, what does she want from Eve? – to kill her, to remake her in her own image, to make love to her? Probably all three, though not necessarily in that order.

For Konstantin, too, the game has surely changed – having warned Villanelle not to be naughty, he must surely bring down his wrath upon her for having transgressed. We’re heading for a three-way showdown, and it’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly all over again – though which is which, you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Chris Jenkins

FOR OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW, CLICK HERE

FOR OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW CLICK HERE

Counterpart starts on STARZPlay today – will you be watching?

Such is the huge amounts of crime drama available now, and on so many different channels and streaming services, occasionally one or two slip through the net.

STARZPlay, which is available via Amazon Prime, has an intriguing new, sci-fi-tinged thriller starting today. Counterpart stars Oscar-winner, JK Simmons, as Howard Silk, a low-level agent whose career is winding down at a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency, unwittingly learns the answer. Upon discovering his organisation is harbouring a secret, that of a gateway to a parallel dimension, Howard becomes immersed in a mysterious world of espionage, intrigue, and government conspiracies. There, the only man Howard can trust is Prime, his almost identical counterpart from a divergent reality.

It’s being tagged as a spy drama, but look at the trailer below… it has assassins and all sorts.

With a cast that includes Stephen Rea, Olivia Williams and Babylon Berlin favourite, Liv Lisa Fries, this might be one to watch.

Finnish series Hotel Swan

We haven’t heard too much from Scandinavia and the Nordic lands for a while, but here’s some news: a new Finnish series is on the way.

The 10-part series Hotel Swan follows Ella Linden (33), who has just landed her dream job as director of the Hotel Swan Helsinki, a popular and well-established, luxury hotel in the centre of the city. On Ella’s first day of work, her predecessor is found dead in one of the hotel’s suites, kicking off what will become a rollercoaster of events, driven by Ella’s inexperience and the hotel staff’s doubt in her abilities.

It’s created by Olli Tola and Outi Keskevaari and has a director attached: JP Siili (pictured). According to Nordic Film Fond, financers are being sought at Canne’s upcoming MIPCom.

Not much news yet, so stay tuned.

Stephen Graham to star in Line Of Duty V as Balaclava Man

The fifth series of British cop show conspiracy thriller, Line Of Duty, isn’t due on our screen until next year so we weren’t expecting the BBC PR wheels to start grinding until later in year.

Not for the first time we were wrong.

This appeared on the BBC’s Twitter feed this morning:

Leaked: CCTV image of a suspect AC-12 wish to talk to as part of an ongoing investigation. #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/b9VfB59uAW

— BBC One (@BBCOne) September 28, 2018

This, of course follows by the briefest of teasers shown at the end of another Jed Mercurio series, Bodyguard, last week.

So what can we deduce? Well, Arnott has a beard and he’s running about again, and the mysterious Balaclava man looks as though he has been revealed, at least in actor terms. His name? The brilliant Stephen Graham. He’s fantastic in everything he appears in, so it’s safe to say we’re officially excited.

FOR ALL OUR NEWS AND REVIEWS OF LINE OF DUTY, CLICK HERE

Netflix announces Elite transmission date

Netflix has done it again. Or will do it again.

We’ve had a lot of Spanish crime drama over the last few years (see it all here) and now Netflix is getting in on the act. The streaming ogre has its tentacles in so many territories these days, a Spanish series was never very far away.

So now we get Elite, described by Digital Spy as a ‘Spanish Gossip Girl’.

When three working-class kids were given scholarships to Spain’s most elite high school, they thought they were in for their big break. But when one of their classmates turns up dead, everyone is under question. Welcome to Las Encinas.

Here’s a trailer:

And here’s the transmission date announcement.

it’s all fun and games until you wind up in a sexy murder mystery. Elite, 5 October pic.twitter.com/dWZZb4HlZq

— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) September 27, 2018

Sky Atlantic announces Get Shorty transmission date

When it was announced that there was to be a TV series based on the classic Leonard Elmore novel, Get Shorty, many rolled their eyes. Did we need one? Did we want one?

Thankfully, the first series of Get Shorty – shown here in the UK – was half-decent.

It follows Miles Daly, a hitman from Nevada who tries to become a movie producer in Hollywood with the help of a washed-up producer, Rick Moreweather, as a means to leave his criminal past behind. It stars Chris O’Dowd, Ray Romano, Sean Bridgers, Lidia Porto, Megan Stevenson, Lucy Walters and Carolyn Dodd.

In the show’s second season, Miles Daly (O’Dowd) struggles to reconcile his ambitions as a filmmaker and a family man with his skill set as a career criminal. His progress in Hollywood is jeopardized when the washed-up producer (Romano), with whom he partnered in season one, agrees to wear a Federal wire. Miles faces off with criminal financiers and with a Hollywood power-broker who could be the most dangerous of all. Former Major Crimes star Raymond Cruz joins the cast in a recurring role for season two.

Get Shorty (series two): Thursday 11th October, 9pm, Sky Atlantic

The Killing Times Podcast – Episode 3, Ivy Pochoda

Born and raised in Brooklyn and now living in Los Angeles, Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley and Visitation Street, published in the UK by The Indigo Press.

Wonder Valley won The Strand Magazine Critics Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as being chosen as an NPR and Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Visitation Street was selected as an Amazon Best Book of 2013 and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. She teaches creative writing at the Lamp Arts Studio in Skid Row.

We managed to speak with Ivy during her appearance at London’s Festival America.