Three must-watch TV series
Glue
Glue proves that the English countryside, with its grain silos, barley fields and paddocks, is the perfect setting for a teenage murder mystery caper. The eight-part E4 series begins with the discovery of a body: an adolescent member of Britain’s Romany community is found dead underneath the wheels of a tractor. Hours before, he and his thrill-seeking friends were at an illegal woodland rave celebrating someone’s 18th birthday. The crime not only exposes the secrets, lies and coiled histories of those in the tight-knit community, but also reveals the sinister side of bucolic England.
Writer Jack Thorne — who penned E4’s beloved Skins and episodes of Channel 4’s This Is England — has packed enough elements to shock viewers in the best way possible, from ketamine abuse and sex tape blackmail to full-frontal nudity. But ultimately it’s the fresh-faced cast that turns Glue into, quite possibly, the latest can’t-miss rural drama. Yasmin Paige, star of the 2010 film Submarine, reinvents herself as a police officer brought in to investigate the killing, while Jordan Stephens, one half of platinum-selling hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks, makes his acting debut.
There are four more episodes to go and, I assume, more darkness and anarchy to come.
The Fall
When it aired in 2013, The Fall became BBC Two’s highest rated drama in eight years. Starring Jamie Dornan as sadistic serial killer Paul Spector and Gillian Anderson as DSI Stella Gibson, the hardened detective who pursues him through the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, it proved to be anything but typical.
Set 10 days after the end of series one, a finale which drew online criticism for not delivering a satisfactory ending, the follow-up will presumably build on the hunter/hunted dynamic between two main characters. Dornan, set to play the lead in the upcoming film Fifty Shades of Grey, hinted that the action may even move to Scotland.
Whether the change in location is for the plot or merely for the shoot remains to be seen. Audiences will have to wait until November, when the six-episode British TV event returns.
How To Get Away With Murder
With a story that toggles between timelines with ease, the new ABC legal thriller How To Get Away With Murder demands your attention. The hour-long legal thriller is a Shonda Rhimes production and if her previous successes, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, are anything to go by, this drama will almost certainly last multiple seasons.
The Help’s Viola Davis is tough-as-nails criminal law professor Annalise Keating, who instills fear and inspires admiration among her students. While she is the star of her Criminal Law 100 course — what she calls “How to Get Away with Murder” — she is not without her flaws. She cheats in court and cheats on her husband with a detective. Her brightest pupils are put to the test when she provides them with case studies to dissect, which are actually current ones her firm has taken on.
Alfred Enoch, best known as Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films, is here as Wes Gibbins. His doe-eyed enthusiasm makes him easy to root for, the yin to Annalise’s morally grey yang. After three episodes, it’s clear that the show’s over-the-top narrative makes it fun to watch. As backstories come to the fore, it should be interesting to see how the ensemble bounces from one delicious scandal to the next.
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