I watched all eight episodes back to back on Netflix. All those goals I had for the year? Yeah, delayed by a day to watch this powerful show. Cam already watched it previously and recommended it every day until I had the time and was in the right mind set to watch a murder mystery. After it was all over, all I could ask myself was, “Why did I wait so long?”
The show was called the British Twin Peaks on other sites. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve seen Twin Peaks, so I can’t compare the nuances of the shows. The basic similarities are these: a small town, a murder, a outsider detective charged with solving it…and everyone has secrets.
The first episode was so powerful and emotional. Maybe I’m just emotional. The storytelling is so well done, you really feel the pain of the characters. Cam compared the first episode to Buffy, Season 5, episode 16, “The Body,” when Buffy’s mother dies. It enticed a similar feeling of hopelessness and lost. You feel the pain of the family.
Not only did I feel for the family, but the residents of the town. They were all suspect. David Tenant gives a compelling performance as the outsider detective with his own inner demons. He helps a local detective Ellie Miller, played by Olivia Colman, see her neighbors from a different perspective. She always would cast naive doubt when someone was brought in for questioning. As the show goes on, she slowly becomes more and more jaded, realizing that everyone she knows and trusts in town has secrets of their own.
I even felt for those brought in as suspects. I would suspect them in one episode, and the next realize they kept secrets to hide from their own painful pasts. The local media also played a role in smearing a couple of the suspects. People were willing to believe anything about someone they don’t know well enough. They were afraid of what they didn’t understand. They didn’t have all the information, and the sensationalized media helped them fill in the gaps and jump to conclusions.
In the end, some of the characters learned that they were blind to those they loved and were unable to see what they were hiding. Other didn’t learn that lesson. They continued to be judgmental. I learned that you can never really understand what someone is going through unless you experience it yourself. We all judge others, but at least I can make a deliberate effort to examine a situation from all sides before making assumptions about how I would have done it differently.
There were just a few minor things I didn’t enjoy about the show. There is a psychic. For a while, I wondered if he would turn out to be real or fake. I would have preferred fake. Otherwise, I didn’t see how it fit into the story. This wasn’t Medium or Ghost Whisper. The family made national news, so crazies coming out of the woodwork would have made more sense. More development on some of the minor characters would have been nice, although I understand the time constraints. That just makes me want to watch Season 2! I am not sure of the direction Season 2 will take. I do understand that there will not be another murder. As long as David Tenant is still in it, I’ll look forward to watching it!
the geek couple 