When we see the first episode of a mystery thriller throw out a lot of potential storylines, we are equally interested in seeing them all come together and concerned that there’s just too much being thrown at us to make for a cohesive narrative. We got that feeling from a new British thriller on Acorn TV.
Opening Shot: As we see someone in a protective suit putting protective paper up on walls and building shelves, a voice quotes a poem that starts, “My love for you is as endless as the sea.” We then see a chest freezer in this otherwise empty room; the person in the suit slides the shelves over the doorway.
The Gist: DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles), who works for the police department in Bristol, has a busy home life, especially as she makes sure her artist husband Alex (Raphael Sowole) is on top of things with their son and things like emptying the dishwasher. Her longtime partner, DI Lou Stanley (Dougray Scott) comes by and Kilburn’s son calls him “Uncle Lou.” Before she even leaves the house, she gets a call about the body of a young man found folded in a suitcase outside an office building.
In the meantime, Dr. Sophia Craven (Katherine Kelly), a psychotherapist, is called upon to evaluate Carl Lowry (Trevor White) a dentist who was arrested for being in possession of child abuse images with intent to distribute them. She’s interviewing him on behalf of his defense attorneys, to see if he’s fit to stand trial. His arrogance knows no bounds as he calls what he’s doing “the natural order of things,” doesn’t confirm or deny that he may have sexually assaulted children, and tries to turn things back on Sophia by talking about her father.
Sophia deals with some pretty severe cases, as we see when she tries to calm down a patient with what looks like DID threatening people across the street from her office. But she’s haunted by a former client, Victoria Burkeman (Clara Rugaard); Sophia plays the recordings of their sessions as a means to relax.
As Jeanette and Alex investigate the death of the John Doe with the help of her team, DC Mike Dilliston (Elliot Edusah) gives her the information that the office outside of which the body was found was Lowry’s dental practice. Naturally, she wants to question Lowry as a person of interest, but her boss, Superintendent Verity Pound (Victoria Hamilton), tells her that doing so would compromise the case they already have against him. She needs to get information from the defense’s psychotherapist — Sophia Craven.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Crow Girl, created by Milly Thomas and based on Erik Axl Sund’s novel series, the show gives off similar vibes to Happy Valley, mainly because it’s as much a psychological thriller as it is a crime drama.
Our Take: There are three distinct stories in The Crow Girl that are designed to come together: Jeanette’s investigation into the murders of young men who are found naked and often crammed into luggage, Sophia’s dealing in the Lowry case and her obsession with Victoria Burkman, and a case about asylum seekers that we see a bit of as a man named Amar (Roger Nsengiyumva) purposely tears up his passport in order to seek refuge.
There is a lot going on in this first episode, which includes Jeanette’s father berating Alex about not earning his keep in the family and the various dangerous clients that Sophia deals with. It makes us wonder how effectively Thomas is going to be able to bring it all together in the span of six 45-minute episodes. Given that the show is also infused with a snarky sense of dark humor that sometimes feels out of place, The Crow Girl at times feels like it’s a show in search of a tone and style.
It was hard to latch on to any one piece of any of the stories, mainly because the first episode so awkwardly lurches from one story to another. The way Jeanette first encounters Sophia is also awkward, with a minor confrontation in an elevator before either of them knew who the other was. That is going to establish that they’re not going to like dealing with each other, but they’re going to have to do that. But it feels a bit convenient and cheeky, and it makes us wonder how many more distracting directions this story is going to go in before it focuses on the murders.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Late at night, a person in a hoodie stumbles around with a suitcase; the person dumps out its contents, and you see the naked body of another young man lying in the street.
Sleeper Star: Dougray Scott brings a lot of snarky Scottish levity as DI Lou Stanley. For instance, while Jeanette is briefing her team about the murders, he’s showing Dilliston a meme involving Carl Lowry, and when she upbraids him for doing it, he seems unbothered.
Most Pilot-y Line: When the detective in charge of Lowry’s case gives Sophia’s name to Jeanette, she puts her arm around him and kisses him on the cheek as she thanks him. Yes, we get that they’re old friends; she tells him to send her love to his wife. But is that supposed to show how warm she is or how much of a rule-breaker she is? Jeanette may think she’s a rulebreaker, but she’s also a DCI at a relatively young age, so how many rules has she really broken?
Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re a bit wary that all the stories the first episode of The Crow Girl introduces won’t come together, and it’s a tonally inconsistent episode. But we’re also going to keep watching, mainly because of the potential twists and turns involved with those stories merging at some point.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.