"The Red King" is generic in just about every way that matters. It's loaded with tropes - some very old and some very new - and all of them are bad. From the self-righteous cop fallen from grace and excised to a podunk assignment to the lavish conspiracy so obvious that the reveal is actually stunningly simplistic, Red King has next-to-no original thoughts and few compelling performances.
Red King seems to think that its audience hasn't seen Wicker Man or Midsommar, nor has read any British poetry or folklore. It also assumes that if you have, you're going to find a pub called "John Barleycorn" a snapping allusion. It's all quite embarrassing.
Marc Warren is serviceable the grieving drunk father and Mark Lewis gets to play his typical round-faced racist, but the problem lies in Anjli Mohindra's sergeant. We never quite get a beat on who she's supposed to be or why. It's not the actress's fault, but rather the scattered, threadbare characterization. And the script fails pretty much everyone.
In the end, it doesn't really matter who was murdered and why. It's all setup for an elaborately stupid gotcha that doesn't tickle the heart or the brain. It just lies there, stupid, on the rug, desperately wanting to be petted.
Red King seems to think that its audience hasn't seen Wicker Man or Midsommar, nor has read any British poetry or folklore. It also assumes that if you have, you're going to find a pub called "John Barleycorn" a snapping allusion. It's all quite embarrassing.
Marc Warren is serviceable the grieving drunk father and Mark Lewis gets to play his typical round-faced racist, but the problem lies in Anjli Mohindra's sergeant. We never quite get a beat on who she's supposed to be or why. It's not the actress's fault, but rather the scattered, threadbare characterization. And the script fails pretty much everyone.
In the end, it doesn't really matter who was murdered and why. It's all setup for an elaborately stupid gotcha that doesn't tickle the heart or the brain. It just lies there, stupid, on the rug, desperately wanting to be petted.