LIAR, Liar

Article first published as TV Review: LIAR on Seat42F.

Sundance has a new drama premiering tonight called LIAR. It’s actually a co-British program that is being aired here on Sundance at the same time it’s still running across the pond, albeit viewers in the UK are a few weeks ahead of us in the story. In LIAR, schoolteacher Laura Nielson accuses surgeon Andrew Earlham of rape after a first date. The audience is left to wonder which one of them is telling the truth as Andrew insists the intercourse was consensual, and Laura apparently finds forged evidence. So it’s a psychological thriller mystery.

The lead performers, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) as Laura and Ioan Gruffudd (Forever) as Andrew, are excellent. We’ve seen Froggatt play a rape victim before and Gruffudd do creepy and mysterious, so they do feel very familiar in the parts. But there’s also new ground here, with the slow pacing and the surprise reveals, each sticking very firmly to their own version of events. For much of the first hour, I wavered back and forth over who was telling the truth.

I do think society influences our impressions and how each person would approach this. My instinct is to trust the woman making the accusation, and others will, too, although some will fall on the other side, especially when Laura’s mental stability is called into question. Part of the value of LIAR is making us think about our preconceived notions and evaluate them, as well as call attention to some of the complex issues and difficulty building a case in situations like this. For that, it is invaluable.

In terms of storytelling, I’m not sure about this show yet. By the end of hour one, I felt like I had a plenty good idea of what happened, and was no longer on the fence. Reading a review of hour three, which aired this week in Britain, it seems viewers that far along are all falling on one side. Though, I expect there are still some twists to come that may shift things back the other way, or further explain what’s been revealed. This is the kind of thing you’d really have to watch all six parts of before deciding if the tale was well done or not, the conclusion mattering as much as the journey.

There are some very positive signs, besides the excellent acting. For one, the series is by Harry and Jack Williams, the brains behind The Missing, another excellent, twisty thriller. For another, the production is high quality, looking fantastic and grounded, paced pretty good, no obvious plot holes, fine scoring, terrific directing, all pluses. Some of the characters have major possibility, like Andrew’s son, who is Laura’s student, and Laura’s ex-boyfriend who is not what he initially seems. The supporting cast, including Zoe Tapper (Mr. Selfridge), Warren Brown (Luther), Shelley Conn (Terra Nova), Richie Campbell (Eve), Jamie Flatters (So Awkward), and Danny Webb (Humans), seem solid, too.

On the negative side is how every character seems to have their secrets, not just the leads. This can be all right, and may still be here. But other shows have fallen into the trap of making every single other person the leads cross paths with too shady or untrustworthy. I hope LIAR doesn’t fall into that trap. I don’t think it will, despite a couple things that seem a bit forced in the premiere, but that’s something to be careful with.

Having only seen a single installment, I am willing to tentatively recommend it. My feeling is that it will be worth your time, although, as I’ve cautioned, I can’t guarantee it at this stage. However, if you like a good British mystery-thriller, this will probably be right up your alley, and the pilot is already better than most others in the genre I’ve seen.

LIAR airs tonight at 10 ET on Sundance.

HAP AND LEONARD Review

Article first published as HAP AND LEONARD Review on Seat42F.

I’ve been missing FX’s Justified something fierce ever since it left the air, but Sundance has a new series that might just fill that void, for awhile anyway. Premiering last night, HAP AND LEONARD is the story of two men in Texas who get roped into a heist. Based on a story by Joe Lansdale (Cold in July), the titular characters inhabit a very specific world that is caring without being showy about it, and violent when it needs to be. It’s hella entertaining.

Leonard (Michael Kenneth Williams, The Wire) and Hap (James Purefoy, The Following) have been friends for a very long time. They work together in the rose fields, they exercise together through boxing, and they accept one another unconditionally as best friends, defending the best interests of the other when someone threatens to interfere with that. They are as close as two men can be.

But that’s not immediately obvious from the first scene. In the modern world, nerds and geeks and metrosexuals have become the new norm, and the macho type isn’t disappearing, exactly, but isn’t as taken for granted as it once was. Leonard and Hap are definitely macho, and their bromance doesn’t fit the current definition of the word, finding a way to display their feelings while not losing this identity.

As a happy nerd myself, I never aspired to be the type of man they are, but Raylan and Boyd on Justified, among others, taught me how cool that type of character could be. HAP AND LEONARD is and are cool in almost every sense of the word.

Yet, they are flawed, complex men, too. There’s a lot more going on with both than what is immediately apparent on the surface.

The story of HAP AND LEONARD begins when Trudy (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men), an ex of Hap’s that Leonard does not like, shows up and offers them a get-rich job. Since they are both out of work and could use the money, they accept, Leonard a heck of a lot more reluctantly than Hap. They’ll have six episodes to get the work done, and viewers will have to wait awhile to see if Trudy and her most recent guy, Howard (Bill Sage, Nurse Jackie), are trustworthy.

I can honestly say, I don’t care if they succeed. I think I could greatly enjoy the run with or without a pot of gold at the end. For me, it’s all about the chemistry between Purefoy and Williams, and that’s enough. I enjoy the dialogue and the interplay between them. I like seeing Leonard open up to Hap and be protective of him. I like seeing Hap return the favor with Leonard’s homophobic uncle (Henry G. Sanders, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman).

The fact that Leonard is gay is pretty much an afterthought, not a driving plot point, reinforcing the themes mentioned above, and seems so where Hap is concerned, too. Williams has already proven he can buck the stereotype on The Wire, and he does it again here. It’s extremely important to have a variety of homosexual role models on television, and it’s nice HAP AND LEONARD chooses to give us someone as realistic and relatable as Leonard.

HAP AND LEONARD is a period piece that doesn’t feel like one. It’s set in the late 1980s, but aside from the guys not having cell phones, I couldn’t really tell. The setting is one in which you wouldn’t expect to see the latest gadgets or automobiles. It just feels like an authentic place that would resist changing with the times, and I appreciate that.

HAP AND LEONARD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Sundance.

Traveling THE RED ROAD

Article first published as THE RED ROAD Review on Seat42F.

Sundance’s second original drama, THE RED ROAD, premiered last night. It’s set in a New Jersey town near New York City, but the community is quite rural, with a significant Native American population sort of segregated from the whites in territory, though not in story. The first episode, “Arise My Love, Shake Off This Dream,” introduces us to a number of different characters in both of those communities, each with secrets and connections to a number of other different players. Basically, there is a lot going on.

THE RED ROAD does not stop and lay out what the story and characters are, exactly. We’re dropped into the middle of the tale, and it is very hard to sort things out at the start. Because the action jumps around between so many different people, viewers are left trying to puzzle out the chess pieces on a murky board. Which means it’s not very accessible.

The tone is dark, slow, and dramatic, much like a number of other high-level crime shows. Stylistically, THE RED ROAD fits into a group that includes The Killing, Top of the Lake, Rectify, True Detective, Low Winter Sun, and others. This very clearly shows us that Sundance’s brand will be along the lines of the best of HBO and AMC, very good quality indeed.

But this particular series doesn’t quite live up to that. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I’m not finding the connections I have in those other shows. The actors do a fine enough job, with several really great showcase moments, so I don’t think it’s their fault. I blame the writing for feeling just a bit shallow and flat in an otherwise realized world. Also, the setting doesn’t seem that defined, with audiences left confused how this can be so close to New York and look so very different.

The stand-out actress is Julianne Nicholson (Masters of Sex) as Jean Jensen. Jean is the wife of cop Harold Jensen (Martin Henderson, Off the Map). They’re going through some strife in their marriage as Jean gets sober, not necessarily well handled, as she has mental problems to boot, and the lack of alcohol may be letting them out in a bigger way than before. So we get a number of crazy-Jean scenes that show us just how good Nicholson can be, which is very.

Henderson does a fine job balancing her out, playing the kind, loving husband. When Jean makes mistakes, Harold tries his best to cover them up and protect her. When their teenage daughter, Rachel (Allie Gonino, The Lying Game), runs off with a Native American boy, Junior (Kiowa Gordon, Twilight), Jean takes off with her rage and a gun, but Harold calms those in Jean’s wake and safely finds the girl. His other daughter, Kate (Annalise Basso, Bedtime Stories), feels comfortable coming to Harold because she trusts him. All of this says a lot about the man.

The third main cast member is Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) as Phillip Kopus. Phillip has a history with Jean, perhaps romantic, definitely tangled up in her brother’s drowning. Now, he’s fresh out of jail, working for a crook who happens to be his father, Jack (Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan), and not exactly patching things up with his mother, Marie (Tamara Tunie, Law & Order: SVU), and kind of being big brother to Junior, in a way. And before the end of “Arise My Love, Shake Off This Dream,” Phillip has Harold right where he wants them.

I hesitate to say there are any obvious good guys or bad guys in THE RED ROAD. Phillip isn’t exactly on the up and up, but there’s also something magnetic about him. Harold, by contrast, is good to his family, but not always on the right side of the law, so there may be consequences for him. Jean is in a terrible place, causing her to do horrible things, but she might be fine if she can get cleaned up and calmed down. So the show lives in a world of grey.

Too bad it’s not a world that sucks you in. The ingredients are present that this should really be a show to watch, but I just don’t quite feel it. I’ll keep tuning in to see if it changes because it’s still better than most broadcast offerings, but it doesn’t seem destined to the critical darling and award winner that its peers have managed to be.

THE RED ROAD airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Sundance for the next six weeks.

DVD Review: ‘Top of the Lake’

Article first published as DVD Review: ‘Top of the Lake’ on Blogcritics.

The BBC recently released on DVD its miniseries Top of the Lake. Airing last year in the U.S. over seven weeks on the Sundance Channel, the six-episode series follows Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men) as she investigates the case of a missing girl in the town where she grew up. This particular incident brings back memories of Robin’s teenage years, as secrets are spilled, and not everyone is who they appear to be.

Robin is a compelling character, even more so than the case she is working. She’s native to this part of New Zealand, but has horrible memories of a night after a dance, in which some boys treated her poorly. Unfortunately, those boys are still around, all grown up, and makes Robin tense and angry. Coming to terms with her feelings, for her rapists, for the guy she still likes, Johno (Thomas M. Wright, The Bridge), even though she’s engaged to someone else, and for her dying mother, make up Robin’s story.

Johno isn’t the only one interested in Robin. Her boss, Al (David Wenham, The Lord of the Rings), takes a shine, too, offering protection as well as love. Robin doesn’t return his feelings, however, and Johno does seem to let Robin be who she is more, so Al is never a true suitor for her affections, making for an interesting and atypical chemistry.

Johno’s family makes up much of the rest of the cast. His sister, Tui (Jacqueline Joe), is twelve years old and five months pregnant when Top of the Lake begins. When she disappears soon thereafter, she becomes the subject of Robin’s investigation. Who is the father? Where has Tui gone? How can such a young girl handle having a baby in her belly? And why does she wade into the cold lake?

One of the prime suspects for both being the father and for making Tui vanish is her father, Matt (Peter Mullan, Trainspotting). A cruel drug dealer, as shown right away in the first installment, Matt is prone to fits of anger and wants to control everybody and every thing in his life and in the town. He has a lot of kids, some he claims. He sees himself as an elder leader, but he’s really a scumbag, though how much of one is a question Top of the Lake answers little by little.

I really like how Top of the Lake develops its villains. Not just Matt, but others who are revealed as the tale plays out. Some are obvious, some are not, and it tends to be the less visible evildoers that are the worst. All seem authentically painted, more than just one thing defining their personality, and they have raw motivations that make sense, even as one does not agree with the characters’ actions.

Rounding out the cast is a group of women who live in shipping crates on the shore of a lake. Led by the cold GJ (Holly Hunter, Saving Grace), the place, dubbed Paradise, is a refuge for those who have been through tough times. They settle on land that Matt, while not owning, thinks he has a right to, and provide a haven for Tui and Robin at key times. Thus, they are central and important.

The settlement is an interesting one, with ever shifting rules and hierarchy. Just as one thinks they might have the dynamic figured out, it shifts and becomes something else in the next hour. This makes sense, given the loose leadership, and provides a glimpse at an uneasy anti-society, one that cannot possibly survive in stasis, and is doomed to ever be temporary. An important story point concerning this at the end seems inevitable in retrospect, but it’s hard to decide if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

What’s cool about Top of the Lake is that it doesn’t concern itself with a fully cohesive, linear narrative. It presents a bunch of varied individuals who look and feel like real people, follows them through a transformative time of their lives, and then concludes with finality by coincidence and circumstance. It’s not at all formulaic, though there are a familiar archetype or two slipped in, and presents something original and interesting.

Unfortunately, there are no special features in this release to examine the fine acting, intriguing writing, shocking twists, or beautiful landscapes. It’s just two bare discs with no extras, and is not even in HD. A miniseries like this deserves so much better than such a meager release. However, I’m grateful it has seen the light of day on disc.

Top of the Lake is available now.