The answer to that headline is: the cops. Detective Lancing and her crew, who make up their minds about the case and then bulldoze through any suggestions that they're wrong.
Second question, Who are the civilized ones in this story? Answer: The defendants, who display a vulnerablity, empathy, and humanity that is neither unkind (like the cops) nor cynical and uncouth (also like the cops, for whom the f-word is indispensible).
Aside from the fact that the writer/director Ed Sinclair doesn't seem to be aware of either of those things, the worst problem with this four-episode non-mystery is that it's spectacularly over-directed. Sinclair and his collaborators seem to think that any wild idea they have should be called creative and crowbarred into the story. We leave a scene and walk into the backstage of the set, we find ourselves in a Western landscape with six-shooters and chases, we flip from color to black-and-white. When such liberties are taken, there has to be a reason for each. I couldn't deciper any consistent reason. Were black-and-white meant to be the husband's perspective? Or the wife's? Or was she the Western scenes?
At one point in Ep.4, the judge says, "I can't see any reason to distinguish between the two of you." Neither could Sinclair.
The rating is for Olivia Colman, whose expressions bring everything to her character that the script lacks, and David Thewlis, who has the best dialog and his sensitive, calm delivery creates a center for this reeling, wildly over-directed piece.
Second question, Who are the civilized ones in this story? Answer: The defendants, who display a vulnerablity, empathy, and humanity that is neither unkind (like the cops) nor cynical and uncouth (also like the cops, for whom the f-word is indispensible).
Aside from the fact that the writer/director Ed Sinclair doesn't seem to be aware of either of those things, the worst problem with this four-episode non-mystery is that it's spectacularly over-directed. Sinclair and his collaborators seem to think that any wild idea they have should be called creative and crowbarred into the story. We leave a scene and walk into the backstage of the set, we find ourselves in a Western landscape with six-shooters and chases, we flip from color to black-and-white. When such liberties are taken, there has to be a reason for each. I couldn't deciper any consistent reason. Were black-and-white meant to be the husband's perspective? Or the wife's? Or was she the Western scenes?
At one point in Ep.4, the judge says, "I can't see any reason to distinguish between the two of you." Neither could Sinclair.
The rating is for Olivia Colman, whose expressions bring everything to her character that the script lacks, and David Thewlis, who has the best dialog and his sensitive, calm delivery creates a center for this reeling, wildly over-directed piece.