TV is positively loaded with thrillers right now. But the quality in this persistently popular genre can vary dramatically: for every Task there’s a City of Shadows. Never heard of the latter? You haven’t missed anything.
There’s a particular, delicious feeling that comes with finding a good one. That buzz of getting hooked on a meaty mystery, the can’t-look-away tension, the potent sense of danger, the pressure to uncover answers.
Thrillers can be set anywhere: a glittering metropolis, a rundown rural town, an isolated outpost. They might dazzle with nail-biting action sequences. Or be rich with clever twists, revelations that keep you glued to the screen. They might offer a probing perspective on simmering undercurrents in a society or small community. And wherever they play out, they need compelling characters – men and women whose fates you care about.
All released since the start of the year, these compact, six-episode series are rewarding examples of how to make thrillers exciting.
Unfamiliar (Netflix)
Meret and Simon Schaefer (Susanne Wolff and Felix Kramer) appear to be a happy couple, running a well-regarded Berlin restaurant while raising their feisty teenage daughter (Maja Bons). But they’re also a proficient pair of former secret agents who’ve built a double life operating a safe house for spies.
Several suspenseful early sequences convincingly establish how sophisticated their covert operation is and how effectively it’s managed. However, as is often the case in espionage thrillers, murky truths about the past rear their ugly heads and threaten to destroy carefully constructed facades. Here the disruption comes in the sinister form of Josef Koleev (Samuel Finzi), a Soviet military intelligence officer whose wife (Genija Rykova), is set to become the Russian ambassador to Germany.
This accomplished German spy series has a wealth of assets. Creator and co-writer Paul Coates did a substantial chunk of his training on English soaps (Emmerdale, Hollyoaks) and he knows how to plot and pace a story. The well-oiled relationship between the central couple is deftly established before things start to go awry, with Meret’s cool, ruthless assurance and physical prowess recalling Keri Russell’s Elizabeth in the standout spy thriller, The Americans. The series is also boosted by adrenaline-fuelled, expertly staged chase sequences.
Taut and engrossing, Unfamiliar became one of the most popular series on Netflix globally following its release. A second season has yet to be announced, but here’s hoping.
Steal (Amazon Prime Video)
The debut screenplay for Sotiris Nikias, this polished and propulsive heist thriller grabs attention from the get-go as a coldly efficient crew of crooks invades a London financial management firm and absconds with £4 billion in pension fund savings. Having worked for a financial services company, Nikias knows the money management business from the inside, and it shows: the insights into the nature of high-level transactions and their implications are illuminating.
Steal’s London glows as a shiny capital of commerce. But the worker bees who find themselves at the pointy end of the robbery, Zara (Sophie Turner) and her pal and deskmate Luke (Archie Madekwe) don’t share in the benefits that others at Lochmill Capital enjoy. As an intricate web surrounding the theft is exposed, the series takes in a police investigation team headed by DCI Rhys Covac (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), a cluey financial analyst (Andrew Koji) and agents from MI5, as well as wealthy clients of the company. The level of trust between the various stakeholders isn’t high and nothing is quite as it initially appears.
Lead actress Turner has made some interesting choices since her Game of Thrones days, including the title role in Joan, which dramatises the life and crimes of a notorious 1980s jewel thief. She’s terrific here as a dispirited woman at the white-hot centre of the crime and its aftermath. There’s also a strong supporting cast, including guest appearances from Peter Mullan and Anna Maxwell Martin.
Under Salt Marsh (Binge)
Traces of Broadchurch are discernible in this wintry Welsh crime drama. There’s an investigation of the death of a child, a unique coastal setting, an insular community and an uncomfortable duo of detectives on the case – although here it’s an unofficial pairing. But while there are some common elements, this atmospheric production – created, co-written and co-directed by Claire Oakley – also goes its own distinctive way. An exceptional feature is the landscape of the fictional village of Morfa Halen – meaning “salt marsh” in Welsh – a region that looks eerily unlike any other.
The community is at risk of being washed away by rising tides and the townsfolk are committed to the construction of a seawall to protect it. The death of a local boy sees the arrival of a police team headed by the brusque Eric Bull (Rafe Spall), who has a troubled history in the area involving schoolteacher Jackie Ellis (Kelly Reilly). Secrets tumble out, covert activities and connections are exposed, and Bull and Ellis are forced to confront events in their past, as well as questions about their current conduct.
Morfa Halen is a town still wounded by a case involving the disappearance of a young girl, and it looks like a place in mourning. The palette is predominantly gloomy greys, with Reilly’s red hair in vivid contrast. Chilling winds and rain are persistent and there are increasingly urgent warnings about a potentially catastrophic storm approaching.
The series, which features some impressive digital effects, was filmed in north-west Wales in and around towns such as Barmouth that are themselves facing an uncertain future due to severe weather.
Gone (Stan)
David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) cuts a coldly commanding figure as Michael Polly, the headmaster of a prestigious boys’ school outside Bristol. A no-nonsense and no-excuses disciplinarian, he towers over his cherished institution, a stern authority figure accustomed to being obeyed. But when his wife goes missing, his orderly world is upended and suspicion falls on him – along with unwelcome attention on his family and school.
As an investigation begins, an initially prickly relationship develops between Michael and Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles), the dauntless detective assigned to the case. It’s just one of the discomfiting relationships between men and women in the series.
Creator and writer George Kay (Hijack, Lupin) has fashioned an absorbing whodunit, using the disappearance as a springboard to examine male behaviour, with the mystery growing into a thoughtful study of male aggression, frustration and confusion.
Want more TV? We’ve got you.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
