[7.5/10] So for starters, how many damn people in this town have terrible secrets that involve dead kids? I guess we just have three: the Latimers obviously, Jack Marshal, Susan Wright (and maybe D.I. Hardy if you want to be generous with it.) But it feels like a like of convenient plot twist worthy stuff for a sleepy, beachside town.
That said, Pauline Quirke does a tremendous job selling Susan Wright’s monologue about what happened to her family. Again, there’s a little too much “crazy plot twist” factor on this show for my taste, but her acting sells the story of family sexual abuse, lingering traumas, and resentments better than the plotting ever could. She does a good job of explaining why she would tell the police she saw Nigel, out of a fear that he has too much of his father in him, making her feel like one of the best-realized and most complex characters on the show. I instinctively roll my eyes at the “two characters are secretly related!” shtick post-Star Wars, but the performances boost a soap opera twist.
Likewise, the reveal of what happened with D.I. Hardy at Sandbrook is a little unsatisfying, but David Tenant’s acting helps sell it. The fact that he took the heat for the case falling apart to protect the wife that was cheating on him (or protect their daughter from finding out) is a little too over-the-top selfless guilt-ridden routine for me. It would also have been more interesting if Hardy had genuinely fucked up the case rather just fallen on the grenade in a family situation. But I guess the answer is the answer, so we’ll just live with it.
Again, I’m actually liking the time we’re spending with the Latimer family now. Their conversation about whether to keep the baby once again gets a little overblown, but I like the two of them trying to pick up the pieces after all of this.
Otherwise, most of this is just teasing the finale. We get some decent material effectively sparing Susan and Nigel from the suspect list (despite a pretty obvious feint with Nigel), and a lot more clues about what really went on. Some of it’s a tad cheesy, but on the whole, I’m still champing at the bit to find out who did it, so they must be doing something right!
Final Top Suspect List:
-- 1.Reverend Coates -- I don’t know. He’s just got some shit. There’s some time that’s not accounted for. He knew both Tom and Danny. He was out and about the night it all happened. It fits the “someone close to Danny” rubric from psychic guy. There’s just something weird and unaccounted for with him.
-- 2. Mark -- I’m almost sure he’s a red herring. They’ve come too far with him. But now I’m thinking it’s a double bluff! They play him up for suspicion, then tamp it back down to lull the audience into a false sense of security. But then he seemed genuinely surprised about Dean’s comment that Danny used to sneak off with him at night. I dunno, he still has some unaccounted for time too.
-- 3. Joe -- Look, I have so little to support this other than the fact that it would be another crazy plot twist and also fit the “close to Danny” rubric. There’d be irony to the fact that Ellie’s own husband did it, and it would be proof that she was too close to the case. I stick by this being a stab in the dark, one that’s probably wrong, but I can’t shake it.
-- 4. Nigel/Psychic Guy/Postal Guy -- I really doubt it’s any of these guys. Nigel seems too obvious at this point, so you gotta know they want to swerve the audience, but he’s technically still a horse in the race. The psychic guy has been flashed to too many times not to be a suspect, but frankly, I’ll be mad if he’s the killer because it would seem too random. And we still haven’t heard the full story from the postal guy, so maybe he’s involved somehow? But he hasn’t been developed enough to be a satisfying culprit.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-10T04:31:00Z
[7.5/10] So for starters, how many damn people in this town have terrible secrets that involve dead kids? I guess we just have three: the Latimers obviously, Jack Marshal, Susan Wright (and maybe D.I. Hardy if you want to be generous with it.) But it feels like a like of convenient plot twist worthy stuff for a sleepy, beachside town.
That said, Pauline Quirke does a tremendous job selling Susan Wright’s monologue about what happened to her family. Again, there’s a little too much “crazy plot twist” factor on this show for my taste, but her acting sells the story of family sexual abuse, lingering traumas, and resentments better than the plotting ever could. She does a good job of explaining why she would tell the police she saw Nigel, out of a fear that he has too much of his father in him, making her feel like one of the best-realized and most complex characters on the show. I instinctively roll my eyes at the “two characters are secretly related!” shtick post-Star Wars, but the performances boost a soap opera twist.
Likewise, the reveal of what happened with D.I. Hardy at Sandbrook is a little unsatisfying, but David Tenant’s acting helps sell it. The fact that he took the heat for the case falling apart to protect the wife that was cheating on him (or protect their daughter from finding out) is a little too over-the-top selfless guilt-ridden routine for me. It would also have been more interesting if Hardy had genuinely fucked up the case rather just fallen on the grenade in a family situation. But I guess the answer is the answer, so we’ll just live with it.
Again, I’m actually liking the time we’re spending with the Latimer family now. Their conversation about whether to keep the baby once again gets a little overblown, but I like the two of them trying to pick up the pieces after all of this.
Otherwise, most of this is just teasing the finale. We get some decent material effectively sparing Susan and Nigel from the suspect list (despite a pretty obvious feint with Nigel), and a lot more clues about what really went on. Some of it’s a tad cheesy, but on the whole, I’m still champing at the bit to find out who did it, so they must be doing something right!
Final Top Suspect List:
-- 1.Reverend Coates -- I don’t know. He’s just got some shit. There’s some time that’s not accounted for. He knew both Tom and Danny. He was out and about the night it all happened. It fits the “someone close to Danny” rubric from psychic guy. There’s just something weird and unaccounted for with him.
-- 2. Mark -- I’m almost sure he’s a red herring. They’ve come too far with him. But now I’m thinking it’s a double bluff! They play him up for suspicion, then tamp it back down to lull the audience into a false sense of security. But then he seemed genuinely surprised about Dean’s comment that Danny used to sneak off with him at night. I dunno, he still has some unaccounted for time too.
-- 3. Joe -- Look, I have so little to support this other than the fact that it would be another crazy plot twist and also fit the “close to Danny” rubric. There’d be irony to the fact that Ellie’s own husband did it, and it would be proof that she was too close to the case. I stick by this being a stab in the dark, one that’s probably wrong, but I can’t shake it.
-- 4. Nigel/Psychic Guy/Postal Guy -- I really doubt it’s any of these guys. Nigel seems too obvious at this point, so you gotta know they want to swerve the audience, but he’s technically still a horse in the race. The psychic guy has been flashed to too many times not to be a suspect, but frankly, I’ll be mad if he’s the killer because it would seem too random. And we still haven’t heard the full story from the postal guy, so maybe he’s involved somehow? But he hasn’t been developed enough to be a satisfying culprit.
On to the finale!