Anyone who’s had brief peek inside the 17th-23rd October issue of the Radio Times (other TV guides are available) or the trailers plastered over ITV should be aware that, yes, there’s a new mystery crime drama rearing its head on the network for the end of October.
The main selling point, apart from the multi-stranded POV plot structure, is that it stars Robbie Coltrane who, depending on the age of viewers, would be met with choruses of “yay, Cracker’s back” or “look, it’s the fat bloke off Harry Potter”. A bit unfair to label him like that, shame on you for doing so.
Murderland Story from different Perspectives
Typically crime dramas tend to follow the police investigation, with the audience given the same amount of clues to work out the perpetrator to oomph up the mystery factor. On rare occasions others, usually longer series, relay information to the audience in a form of dramatic irony waiting for the cops to figure it out for themselves.
Murderland takes the first route but adds ambiguity by following one character per episode and unfolding sections slowly. The central story focuses on the murder of a single mother and the ramifications this has on her daughter Carrie (Bel Powley), who may have seen the killer.
Murderland – Carrie’s Story
The first instalment is from the teenager’s point-of-view and told almost entirely in flashbacks, bar a couple of scenes set in the present day with the elder Carrie (or Carol as she has become known) revisiting the event after placing it in the back of her mind all those years. Before this she was a normal kid with a happy life, but then becomes horribly obsessed with her mother’s murder and the investigating officer Douglas Hain (Coltrane).
Writer David Pirie (behind the BAFTA nominated The Woman in White) creates an interesting dynamic between Carrie and Hain that begins as a paternal relationship, replacing the father she never really knew, but edges towards creepy exploitation as he pushes her to recollect what happened that faithful night. Ultimately it’s quite gripping by highlighting the psychology of the people at the centre rather than the crime itself.
Okay so the idea of retelling the same story through the eyes of different characters is nothing new even in television but it’s always a positive to see this utilised.
A Good ITV Crime Drama
Murderland is a touch light hearted a title for something desperately bleak, it could be a name for a League of Gentlemen style comedy about a crazed band of killers. In context this is a term used to describe someone, mainly a child, who has become fixated on an unsolved crime that eventually takes over their life.
On the whole Murderland is not half bad. In fact this was a good opening largely down to Bel Powley’s brilliant portrayal of a distressed teenager struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death. It's nuts-and-bolts crime stuff though, something that ITV is not short on so a bit of visual flair might have been more appealing.
The conclusion however throws a curve ball twist showing that maybe there’s more to this tale than an unhinged psychopath but something much more disturbing. It’s exciting to see how this pans out and the explanations hopefully put forward in Hain’s story.
Murderland continues on October 26 and November 2, 2009 on ITV1 at 9pm.
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