Ten Days in the Valley

I thought this series was about a missing child but after just watching the pilot episode it will not take you long to see the camera rarely wavers far from Kyra Sedgwick as she portrays a TV crime screen writer named Jane Sadler who is recently divorced, and seems to love her drugs in the form of pills and powder, wine, job, and then time permitting, her daughter in this order.

The series has a decent cast which includes Erika Christensen, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Ali Liebert, Felix Solis and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje but even the cast gets little to no face time with the camera focusing almost all the air time on the (well past done) Kyra Sedgwick. In 2015 Kyra starred in a drama/thriller titled Big Sky that was panned by the critics who stated the film lacked tension.

So what does Kyra do to rebound from her 2015 film stinker? She gets involved in a ten (10) part TV series so that we the audience can feel sorry for a somewhat hard working TV crime screen writer who is hooked on pills, coke, wine and her job until the wee hours of the morning, and neglects her young daughter who goes missing.

I intend to watch the next few episodes but if the camera continues to stay focused on just Kyra Sedgwick as it did in the first episode I will be quickly switching to another channel as I would prefer to watch Kyra in re-runs as Brenda Leigh Johnson in the 2005-2012 Closer.

As for Ten Days in the Valley, so far one day was enough for me. I give it a 4 out of 10 rating.

This series increases in suspense and character development with each episode. In spite of varying reviews, I hung in because I love Sedgwick and came to appreciate other characters, like Christianson and Agbaje. It seems fractured and unfocused in the beginning, but morphs into something else altogether. All of a sudden you can't tell who's a good guy and who's a bad guy. If you like suspenseful thrillers, this is a good one.

I looked forward to seeing Kyra again and the character seems so uni-dimensional. Lovely little girl kidnapped, mother frantic. What is new? Is it that we attribute the kidnapping to the working woman dedicated to her job? How '60s! Of course the blatant (and ordinary) use of drugs brings it more up to date.

When will we see Kyra again where she can show what a fine actor she is. I keep hoping I will like this show.

What has happened to her hair?

I love Kyra Sedgwick and was very disappointed with the first episode. Her character is extremely annoying and I can understand the negative reviews. In any case it's 'growing on me' and whilst it's not a great BBC thriller, it's watcheable and there are some good performances. It's a pity that TV productions are judged so quickly in the USA because it doesn't deserve to be cancelled!

I found it very very weird almost premonition like that she was wearing a Tom Petty Shirt and then talking about a "Casino Massacre" as a possible episode subject. The same evening this premieres and there was the Las Vegas Massacre and then the next day Tom Petty passes... So flippin weird!