As I was looking for short series to enjoy during last weekend, I came across this one in HBO Go platform. It was only 10 episodes and said to be based on Stephen King's novel. I had actually seen the title earlier but not sure why I never gave it a chance. Well anyway I did give this a try and I will just go ahead with it now.
Brief Story Line
In Cherokee city, when a young boy was found brutally murdered, detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn - Spies in Disguise, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story etc) was assigned to the case with Georgia state police Yunis Sablo (Yul Vazquez - Midnight, Texas TV series etc). The case drew the attention of the city's people including Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman - Game Night, Office Christmas Party etc) & his wife Glory (Julianne Nicholson - Law & Order: Criminal Intent TV series etc) and also Ralph's wife Jeannie (Mare Winningham - Georgia etc).
Meanwhile Ralph finally found a suspect with testimony from various people including a strip bar employee Claude Bolton (Paddy Considine - Child 44 etc). However the suspect kept on pleading innocence by stating he was out of state and requested the help from lawyer Howard Salomon (Bill Camp - Dark Waters etc) who assigned his own investigator Alec Pelley (Jeremy Bobb - Jessica Jones season 3 etc). And strangely enough there were contradicting evidence of the whereabouts of the suspect.
After a major incident, Ralph was put on administrative leave and substituted by another detective Jack Hoskins (Mark Menchaca) who was very upset as he was supposed to be on holiday. At the same time, Howard & Alec enlisted the help from a "unique" private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo - Harriet etc) to find out on what actually happened. So how would the mystery be solved and what was the reason for such contradicting evidence? Find them all in this amazing mystery drama thriller.
End of Brief Story Line
Well it was really challenging to write brief story line without giving too much detail information. Let's hope the above was sufficient and did not give too much spoiler. OK, when I watched the first two episodes, I could not help feel the gloomy dark sense that the series emit. There was also a sad and rather depressing sense throughout those episodes which I think was contributed by the wonderful directing by Jason Bateman. And amazingly, the subsequent 1 or 2 episodes still felt like that despite having different persons to direct.
But as I continued watching, somehow I could already guessed what happened after the end of 2nd episode. So the rest of the episodes were more like a filler to me with some interesting findings along the way. The introduction of Holly Gibney was the most interesting part. Her character was so fun to watch and after reading more on this series, I found out that she was first introduced in other Stephen King's novels Bill Hodges trilogy (which has been adapted for television and Holly was portrayed by Justine Lupe). Most likely fans of Stephen King who has read his novels would know about her better than I did.
The investigation ran pretty standard like what you could expect in this type of genre where the story was slowly built to a major finale. And to me that last 2 episodes were truly awesome, in particular the 10th which was also last episode. The suspense, thrill and emotions were all maximized in here. Btw, there was a mid end credit scene which should not be missed out. Oh before I forget, this is a miniseries instead of TV/web series, which meant there would not be a second season.
Aside from the interesting Holly Gibney, I thought detective Ralph Anderson was portrayed perfectly by Ben Mendelsohn. He was truly convincing as the type of detective with the kind of background and history he had. His chemistry with his wife was truly lovely to see. Aside from those, there were a number of main cast appeared in the miniseries, including one character whose name was not put as series regular, i.e. the very kind & gentle Andy Katcavage (performed by Derek Cecil) whom I really like. His appearance always gave the warm and calm feeling.
Overall to me this was quite a fantastic miniseries. Something that should satisfy audience who love such genre and/or Stephen King's hard core fans. Though like in other adaptations, sometimes it prove to be a real challenge to make them all happy, but for me personally I found this one to be interesting enough. The mystery was not too difficult to solve (especially if you are accustomed to the kind of story similar to this one). With fantastic openings though a bit slow middle but awesome finale, made this series truly worthwhile to watch till the very end. And if you are worried there would be a lot of horrifying images with supernatural scary effect, there was no such thing. Most images here were more disturbing than terrifying. So if you are looking for some good mystery drama with a bit of mythical element, and if you are fan of Stephen King's novel adaptations, then this is another one not to miss.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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