Article first published as TV Review: HARD SUN on Seat42F.
HARD SUN season one is available now on Hulu.
Hulu
premiered all six episodes of a new drama called HARD SUN last week. A
co-production with the BBC, HARD SUN follows two cops in a
pre-apocalyptic world. Yes, pre-, not post-. An event known only as
“hard sun” (hence the title of the show) is being kept secret by the
government, even though it predicts an extinction-level event in a mere
five years time. As more people begin to find out about it and react,
our heroes not only have to continue to do their jobs keeping the peace,
but they also get drawn into the conspiracy coverup.
HARD SUN sounds like a really neat idea.
After all, so much time has been spent examining how people would deal
with the aftermath of a big event. It’s cool to finally get into the
psychology of how they would react when the disaster is looming, but has
not yet arrived. Painting it as a secret that leaks out and is, at
first, only believed by conspiracy nuts makes it all the more intriguing
because the series can take its time getting around to various types of
people reacting differently to the news.
The problem is, HARD SUN doesn’t really
delve into the psychiatry so much as uses it as a distraction from the
main story. Several of the six hours are mostly made up of our leads
trying to catch a bad guy doing something horrible because he (always
he) believes the world is ending. This could be very interesting if the
focus wasn’t just on catching him, or if there were more variation in
the execution. But despite some good guest star turns here, these
stories are mostly unsatisfying and seem to just be in the way of
getting back to the plot most viewers will care more about. This is the
way a 22-episode network season would stretch things out; it doesn’t
work for a six-episode short season.
The through line story is pretty good,
but HARD SUN spends too much time ignoring it. DCI Charlie Hicks (Jim
Sturgess, Feed the Beast) is a complicated man. He cares deeply for
people and wants to protect them, and has done some pretty bad things
while pursuing that goal. His new partner, DI Elaine Renko (Agyness
Deyn, Hail, Caesar!), is put in place specifically to catch him, until
she bonds with him during their duties. She also has her own issues,
with a violent son she loves, despite the fact that he tried to kill
her. This baggage is pretty inconvenient when Hicks and Renko have to
spend so much time avoiding would-be assassins from MI5, in particular
Grace Morrigan (Nikki Amuka-Bird, Luther).
That is a LOT of story just for our two
leads, so having to watch them do their jobs around it is too much. HARD
SUN should have just focused on the complex set of circumstances they
built, and if we saw Hicks and Renko working at all, keep it to routine
duties or a single case, not extra-complicated serial killers.
I admit, I was caught up in HARD SUN,
watching all six hours before sitting down to write this review. Part of
the reason I waited was to see if the end paid off the time spent
slogging through the middle hours. It does, with bright promise for a
second season, should one be ordered. But that doesn’t change the
criticism above, which still stands upon completion. I expected a bit
more from writer Neil Cross, who is best known for his excellent British
crime series, Luther.
Also, HARD SUN is very graphically violent. If that bothers you, you might want to skip it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.