Too HARD SUN

Article first published as TV Review: HARD SUN on Seat42F.

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.

HARD SUN season one is available now on Hulu.

Found My QUARRY

Article first published as QUARRY Review on Seat42F.

It’s 1972 in Memphis. Soldiers are coming home from Vietnam to a public who is ashamed of them and filled with hate for what the military did. It’s a tense, fluid, depressing time in American life. One young man in particular finds it hard to get work and readjust to civilian life. This is the story of Cinemax’s newest series, QUARRY, which premieres tonight.

I’ve reviewed a number of Cinemax pilots over the years, but seldom found one I wanted to watch past episode one. They tend to be bloody pulp fiction, more concerned with violence and gore than storytelling. Or, even when they have a decent narrative, they still have to dress it up in the trappings of most of their fare.

QUARRY is the exception. Yes, there are certainly some violent things that happen, you will see some of the crimson liquid spilled, and death, revenge, hatred hang in the air. And there is even some gratuitous, though not unwelcome, nudity. But that’s not the focus of the series. Those are supporting elements, not the center of every other scene as the first hour plays out.

We are introduced to Mac Conway (Logan Marshall-Green, Dark Blue, Prometheus) pretty early on, the protagonist described in the introductory paragraph. Mac is glad to be back in the arms of his wife, Joni (Jodi Balfour, Bomb Girls), not letting his buddy’s teasing allegations of infidelity dampen his enthusiasm to see her again. But even with his loving gal, he finds it difficult to secure employment, and his interactions with members of the public become combative at times as soon as they figure out he’s a veteran, and he’s haunted by what he did overseas. Thus, Mac finds himself tempted by a less than noble calling that would pay plenty to support his two-person family unit as well as take some of the financial stress and pressure off.

Enter The Broker (Peter Mullan, Top of the Lake, War Horse) and his henchmen, Karl (Edoardo Ballerini, Boardwalk Empire) and Buddy (Damon Herriman, Justified), who want to make Mac a contract killer. This is where the typical Cinemax stuff comes into play, with assassination and dangerous missions entering the plot.

To QUARRY’s credit, it lets Mac wrestle with the morality of The Broker’s offer. Yes, Mac killed people in Vietnam, and yes, as his friend argues, people who have a contract out on them are probably bad people. But even when a large sum of money is on the table, Mac doesn’t want to do this; he is better than this. And while we know he will eventually give in (otherwise there would be no show), the way in which the character gets to that point feels more natural and less forced than what I see in most players on this network.

There are also some additional side stories involving Joni and the wife of Mac’s army buddy, Ruth (Nikki Amuka-Bird, Luther), as is necessary to keep a weekly series going for any length of time. These are less important, but do connect to the more central arc.

But Mac’s journey is what QUARRY is about, and by making this program a more complex character study, rather than just a shoot-‘em-up, I am intrigued. Probably not enough to subscribe to the network, but enough to check out series on its own when it becomes available to view independently. However, if you already have access to Cinemax, this raises the quality level of what the channel generally offers, so I would absolutely recommend setting that season pass and enjoying a modern, well-made tale, at least going by the pilot.

QUARRY premieres tonight at 10/9c on Cinemax.

LUTHER 3 Review

Article first published as LUTHER 3 Review on TheTVKing.

The BBC's Luther recently returned for a third (and final) series on BBC America and on DVD. The show follows a cop with dubious morals named Luther (Idris Elba), the killer he couldn't catch whom he now has a strange bond with, Alice (Ruth Wilson), and the various cases Luther is assigned to. Series 3 adds a fetishist murderer, a vigilante, and even the betrayal of members of Luther's own team to the mix.

The main draw of Luther always has been and always will be Luther himself. Elba captures the nuances of a man on the edge who can never find happiness brilliantly. Luther is tempted by many bad things, often at the hands of Alice, yet he always manages to come out ahead, even if only marginally so. He throws himself into his work more so than just about any detective on TV (and that's saying something!), which keeps him apart from any long-term romantic entanglements, though he does make a go this year with Mary Day (Sienna Guillory). And he's always near the brink of madness, seen in Elba's eyes, and other subtle bits Elba does so well, from time to time.

This personality is reflected in the tone of the show. It verges into the horror genre at times, bloody and scary. A man like Luther exists in a violent world, and Luther does not shy away from that, making Series 3 perhaps more intense than the first two. Dread is Luther's closest companion, as much a part of the show as the characters themselves.

Luther is sort of an anti-hero. While he is a cop, and so on the right side of the law, he often skirts over the line. His tormented personality keeps him from being noble sometimes, and he succumbs to his weaknesses far more than one in his position is expected to. He isn't anyone's role model, and perhaps deserves to be locked up himself, after all he's done and whom he associates with.  That outcome might be a good deal better for him than living with his darkness any longer, though that would leave the streets less safe for everyone else. It's this edge that makes the character unique and interesting.

And Luther might just be taken down. In Series 3, an out-of-retirement investigator named George Stark (David O'Hara, The Departed) gets on Luther's case, working tirelessly to bring Luther to justice. With everything else Luther must contend with, keeping an eye out behind him is not convenient. But it does add some more delicious tension to the installments.

The bond between Luther and Alice is a strange one, but highly satisfying for the viewer. We know Alice is wicked, we know she has committed some serious crimes. Yet, it's hard to root for her to get caught because that would limit her interaction with Luther, one of the strongest elements of the show. I don't know that I want them together romantically, if only because that just might destroy the last of Luther's soul, rather than save him. But I do enjoy seeing them in the games they play, which we unfortunately get less of in Series 3 than in the past.

The other characters in Luther are great, too, but none of them get all that much to do. This is solidly Luther's show, and so while we see some amazing glimpses of Justin Ripley (Warren Brown), Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley), Benny Silver (Michael Smiley), Erin Grey (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and others, none of them get their own serious subplots.

Series 3 more or less picks up where Series 2 left off, with implications from those events echoing into this new batch of episodes. Characters are shuffled and replaced in different positions, and a couple of loose ends are tied up. Yet, I still wished for just a hair more of a serial nature to this drama, as it does get a little repetitive as it goes on, like American cop procedurals are wont to do. It also skirts realism a bit, but the performances are more than enough to make up for these drawbacks and keep the show worth watching.

Sadly, this two-disc DVD release has only a single extra, a Making Of featurette. One would love to get into the heads of the star and the creator, but sadly, this is not to be, at least not here.

Luther Series 3 is available now.

Luther 2 takes things to the next level

BBC's Luther ends its first series on an incredibly dark note, with Detective John Luther (Idris Elba, The Wire, The Office) having been betrayed by his best friend and devastated by the murder of his wife, Zoe.

As series two, which consists of four hours split into two stories, begins, Luther has been wasting away working cold cases. He is given the chance to come back to investigate current crimes, but with his old unit gone, he will now serve under Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley, Raw, Bleak House), a former police complaints officer who, with good reason, isn't sure that Luther should be a cop at all. Working with the ambitious Detective Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird, The Omen, Bad Girls), Luther also recruits his former partner, Justin Ripley (Warren Brown, Savage, Dead Set) to assist. The two, with their very different opinions on the titular detective, provide a nice counterbalance to each other.

Other familiar faces return, too. Mark North (Paul McGann), Zoe's guy at the time of her death, is now a good friend of Luther's. He even helps during a case. This is a strange reversal, as the two are so at odds previously, but it's nice that Luther retains McGann's talents in any fashion.

There is only a little bit of Alice (Ruth Wilson) in series 2, as she is in jail. One misses her presence, and it changes the tone of the series to have her out of the game. While it may be a relief to have a cold killer like her off the streets in real life, Luther needs her involvement to be the best show it can be. Hopefully, she will be freed be the time series 3 begins.

Luther, himself, is quite a bit different. He is still in a depressing place, occasionally contemplating suicide, but he no longer contributes to the darkness. In fact, he would like redemption for his wrongs. His conscience continues to bother him, but he's working to balance the scales in his favor. He may still be grieving, but he is finally moving on from the events of the first episode, and that's a good sign.

Luckily, Luther doesn't get much chance to dwell in his sadness, because there are two strings of killings that must be stopped in Luther 2. The first is done by a serial murderer who thrives on causing fear. He is played by the wonderful Lee Ingleby (White Heat, Inspector George Gently). The second villain is more elusive, and less showy. It takes all of Luther's considerable skill to take on these two criminals.

Elba is the heart of the series, and always will be. He shines brilliantly in this second batch of episodes, taking a character he already soars with, and adding new layers and depths. The accolades continue to pour in for his performance, and every one of them is deserved.

The sole fault with this release is the lack of extras. At least the first series boasted one, while Luther 2 has none. It is a great show, one that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. But it would be nice if some behind the scenes information was given, letting fans take a peek into how the show is made. Instead, the episodes are expected to stand alone.

Which isn't necessarily a terrible thing. After all, Luther is one of BBC America's most popular programs for a reason. It has complex, intelligent characters and stories, and is populated with some great actors delivering some truly impressive work. So if any gritty crime drama wants to stand alone, with no bonus features to support it, then Luther is the one to do so.

Buy Luther 2, on DVD now.

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