McQualude

This show is a tragedy, in more ways than one, but its details are stereotypically murky, revealed piecemeal over several episodes. The town blames one young man that survived this tragedy. He moves away, only to return and face his father's declining health, emotionally charged looks from his ex, uncomfortable silences when he enters a room, and bears the brunt of angry outbursts from those who resent his survival.

Also there is a side mystery: a missing girl no one talks about and the police never investigated. Her disappearance is only remembered by a random blogger stirring things up. Every scene feels familiar, as if I've seen it a hundred times, because I have. The acting is baseline TV, and naturally, the actors are given lots of dialogue that is flatly delivered. It's low-effort television.

The writers must be big fans of police procedurals and mysteries but unfortunately haven't seen the good ones, any set in the 21st Century, or any that used police procedures newer than 1940. DNA? Fingerprints? Motive? Nah, we'll just chase red herrings. They may have been raised in a barn in Kansas, given their knowledge of pop culture. For example when the old bad guy is intimidating a teenager in a cafe, the kid sits there tearing up when in reality he would have screeched, "BOOMER!" and the nearby gang of teenagers would immediately have turned and recorded pa-pa bad man with his hand on Junior's leg. Oops, bad man is now all over social media looking like a pedo - career over.

The show has two leads, the detective and the victim, and both are uninteresting. And the more we learn about them, the less interesting and likable they become until you find yourself rooting for the bad guys. The detective struts around like he owns the world. The cop who breaks all the rules yet for some reason his captain fights We know he's smarter than everyone else because we are told, and yes he is smarter than everyone because everyone is dumbed down to make him look smart. Except for his assistant, Akram, from Syria, who is a bad guy hiding inside of a good guy hiding inside of a bad guy. Akram talks softly, politely, and breaks your bones until you answer his questions. Then we have the victim who is also smarter than everyone else, a sociopath that deep down cares for people, maybe, and also hawt! All the alpha males and alpha females desire her, we are told. But she is tough and just uses men for sex. They have to tell us she's hot, because, well, she's not remotely.

The plot, who cares? By the time any of it starts to make sense you won't, care. It's a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, concealing a conspiracy, that's hiding in plain sight.

It's not good but it doesn't ask much so it is watchable. And it does have the enigmatic Akram from Syria, and the ginger sidekick DC Rose who has every modern mental health issue popular among the kids, are the actual smart and interesting characters. They should give them a series. It's bad so I would be shocked if the show doesn't get another season.