Guilt

Absolute masterclass in black comedy. Howlingly funny yet also a compulsively watchable, hard-edged thriller. Such a bold, cinematic show - it's a real treat. Gutted it's only a 4-parter!

Two brothers driving home a bit worse for where hit a pedestrian and kill him. As it turns out he has terminal cancer so the brothers return him home, his body is found and everyone from the police to coroner assume he died from the cancer. What can go wrong? Well quite a lot as it seems. A suspicious relative, a nosy neighbor and a recovering alcoholic private detective determined to rebuild his career by solving the suspicious death. The writer Neil Forsyth has struck the perfect balance between comedy and drama to make this hugely enjoyable four part series. 8/10

The first series is good, darkly comic and great chemistry between the two brothers. The second series starts well but then feels rushed and it loses its way very badly.

The first season of Guilt is one of the most interesting, tense, and well-written suspense shows in recent times. It's full of intricate, well-crafted twists and turns, characters who feel like real people, side-plots that come together in wonderful ways. The acting is superb, especially Jamie Sives and Emun Elliot, but all the others are good. All in all, it makes for perfect binge watching.

The second season doesn't work nearly as well as the twists and turns that make the first so effective become laborious, complex, and eventually, way too hard to understand. By the third episode it's almost impossible to understand every character's motivation because they've all been switched and changed so often. The ending is nearly incomprehensible. And as good an actor as Mark Bonnar is, the camera tends to focus on him for interminable amounts of time, almost as if his face is actually part of the plot.

So the advice here is, indulge in the first season, skip the second. Apparently the third is in the works, and with luck, the show's creators will revert to their original intentions and pretend the second season never happened.

This is a very very good miniseries. Full of twists and surprises. Great fun.

Certainly not too be missed!!