Collision

Collision, from across the pond, was apparently a five-hour miniseries, cut to just over three for DVD. It stars Douglas Henshall, Lucy Griffiths, Kate Ashfield, Philip Davis, Sylvia Syms, Paul McGann, and Matt Ryan.

It's a sort of Bridge of San Luis Rey with vehicles. John Tolin (Henshall) is a police detective who has had some sadness in his life, though we're not sure what when the story begins. He has a wheelchair-bound daughter (Jo Woodcock) about to go to college and no wife.

Tolin agrees to investigate a multi-car collision on the A12 highway which killed three people. He and another investigator (Kate Ashfield) work together in spite of having been involved in a relationship that ended badly.

The investigation leads to more questions than it answers. Tolin delves into the lives of the people involved and finds corporate espionage, an unexplained death, smuggling, and someone living under an alias; one person, driving an antiques van, has disappeared.

After the accident, there is a murder and another death, and a married man seemingly falls for a younger woman he met as a direct result of the accident.

Low-key, compelling drama that will keep you guessing.

Ten masterfully interwoven human stories that come together and are teased apart in a multi-car highway accident. If they had only given us closure on all the stories involved, I would have rated it a 10. I won't spoil it by getting more specific because this is really worth watching. Douglas Henshall who later played a similar lead role in Shetland is incredible and alone worth the cost of admission.

After a slightly slow beginning and maybe an episode to get used to the several lines of converging storytelling, as well as the numerous flashback back stories, this high quality drama starts to become somewhat riveting. The highly proficient cast do superb justice to the fantastic script, and the viewer will see many faces here that went on to successful careers. It's nearly a decade old but that doesn't seem to distract from the quality or watchability. It's terrific, a many layered jigsaw puzzle that delights. The opening credit sequence is bland, but mercifully short. Everything is working well here. Highly recommended.

This was a thoroughly gripping and unusual series, with good writing; an intriguing multi-strand storyline; well-drawn characters played by a talented cast of well-known British actors; and a few minor (and mostly unexpected) twists.

Some of the individual story threads stretch credibility a little thin, if you analyse too much while watching. Additionally, the presence of so many "dodgy" people with secrets all being on the same section of road at the same time, and then to all be involved in the same collision is certainly a stretch. But if you can accept or ignore the unlikeliness of the situation, the drama that unfolds from it makes for some pretty good television.

There is also a bizarre romance shoe-horned into the series, in the form of two people loosely connected with the collision: one with a dislocated shoulder, the other a helpful bystander. Their storyline runs parallel to the main "investigation" and though initiated by the original incident, is not in any other way a part of the main arc. It is rather sweet and pleasant to watch the two strangers fall in love, and they are beautifully played by both actors. But their story fits somewhat uncomfortably into the rest of the series, as it is essentially not relevant to the plot.

Each individual storyline is explored as part of the main investigative arc, and there are some surprises along the way, but everything is designed to lead in the direction of an ultimate conclusion: what caused the crash. And that is where both the writing and the directing become somewhat clumsy and unsubtle.

If you want to be surprised by the "big reveal" of the culprit that caused the collision, you'll have to switch your brain off right from the start, and keep it switched off throughout. Because for reasons of, I assume, an artistic nature, the writer and director choose to foreshadow the ultimate reveal throughout the entire season, repeatedly and unsubtly, making it almost impossible not to know what happened long before the investigation is concluded. And that's a real shame, because it could have been a fabulous twist if it had arrived without all the signposting.

But despite that, it was gripping and enjoyable enough for me to watch it twice, and I will doubtless be watching it again.

"Collision" is a very engaging, human type of thriller. There's a certain air of improbability to the script, however. It's not so much that there's such a wide cross-section of people represented here (that goes without saying in a country so diverse as England), it's the fact that everyone has such a complicated network of secrets and lies which are directly or indirectly exposed by the crash. The acting is mostly very, very good. Douglas Henshall makes an especially engaging leading man. He acts his character on a more personal level, feels more familiar than most police characters. He's really what makes this miniseries work.

The script is really quite brilliant, in its own way. The final conclusion makes you see the big picture with a sort of completeness that makes all the preceding events come into clearer focus. Not something you could watch twice, but it's certainly worth seeing.