I just finished watching this crime drama mini-series over the past few days. I was interested in it because I like mystery shows, and I also liked Anna Gunn in Breaking Bad. Only after I started watching did I find David Tennant was in it as well, and that got me even more excited.
The show is about the murder of a local boy in a small town, and the lives of the people there and how they are affected. Anna Gunn plays a detective, who’s promotion is given away while she is on vacation to a new hire who is now her boss, played by David Tennant (who I didn’t even recognize at first with an American accent).
The dynamic between the two is not what I expected it to be, and was the first mild letdown. Anna Gunn is frustrated with losing the job she thought she had to this new guy, and he is a brash jerk who doesn’t care about feelings, niceties, etc. I expected there to be more clashing between them, but Anna kind of just rolls over for him after token protest, obeying his every command. Maybe a small thing, but I expected more sparks to fly, and her to be more forceful and give more push-back and maybe be right more often.
The mystery itself was good for most of the show, I suspected many different people throughout. The acting I thought was mostly good, and the writing was very good. David Tennant I thought could have done better, the character didn’t seem very interesting or deep and felt sort of one dimensional ‘tough guy with a good heart’ role. I didn’t detect much of his own flavor added to it.
I felt that the ending of this series fell short for a few reasons:
[SPOILERS]
So, I know it’s good to be surprised by the badguy, but I felt that this one was just too far out of left field to be enjoyable. Yes, all the clues were there for the crime, but none for the criminal. We get the hint from Ruth about not knowing her spouse was an abuser and killer, we get the hint of pedophilia from Jack, we get the hint of Tom knowing something from various places. But there was no hint that I noticed, in his actions or otherwise, that Joe had anything to do with it. So the ending was kind of just… ‘what? Oh.. okay… I guess’ and not very satisfying.
[END SPOILERS]
The build-up, though, was very good and enjoyable and, I think, worth the time to watch, especially if you’re a fan of either of the leads.
The structure of this show reminded me somewhat of The Killing, though it wasn’t as good as that one, I don’t think (though I’ve only seen season 1 of that show).
I’d recommend this show to any murder mystery/ crime show fans, or any fans of Anna Gunn or David Tennant. Enjoyable, but not stellar.
Jonas David 