Thirteen

Thirteen taps into the much overdone "I'm back after vanishing for an inexplicable period of time", mystery crime drama, sub genre.

All the obvious questions bubble to the surface yet again. Is Ivy Moxham, the abducted girl, who and what she claims to be? Does she have an ulterior motive or some other nefarious intent, lurking in the background for her relieved but confused family and friends? Will the two intrepid British detectives uncover some hidden, awful truth?

In other words, Thirteen is not really doing anything terribly original. You can pretty much predict the likely plot twists and turns. Naming the main character Ivy is a bit obvious, too. Ivy, a plant that twists and turns and smothers. Not hard to see where she might lead those who suddenly find her in their lives. Nowhere good, that much is obvious, without giving anything away.

Whilst all this may have you reaching for the remote, I can say, thankfully, this series is well cast, with excellent acting talent and intelligent narrative. These factors lift Thirteen above other drama's and films cast in a similar vein and dampen down, the dulling sense, of deja vu.

So what to do I think about Thirteen? Look, like most dramas out of the UK, with a few exceptions, its a quality production. As such, its inherently watchable. Just don't expect anything that has not been done before, in one way or another. Seven out of ten from me.

As I like both British and Scandinavian crime thrillers, I usually watch them by turns, largely relying on IMDb and Wikipedia assessments as life is too short for all of them anyway :) The one in question began to develop from the first moments - which I tend to prefer - and then, in following scenes, we obtained a versatile and realistic picture of both the life in captivity and the one of the rest of the abductee's family; due to certain subsequent events, the intrigue and misery continued, and both the police and the family had to deal with several shadows from the past and changes in the present. Well, the pace was sometimes uneven, particularly in the final episode, when about 3/4 was too slow and then last 1/4 seemed to round up the story in a certain rush. In my opinion, the total of almost 5 hours could be easily reduced by one-fifth or even one-fourth, without impairing the general concept, mood and course of events.

As for performances, the series is strongly dominated by the female lead - Ivy Moxam (Jodie Comer), who is present both visibly and in the minds of all people around her and dealing with her case. The rest were not too memorable, I recalled I had seen Stuart Graham a couple of times in some films and series, and that's it. Apparently the sketchiness of supporting characters did not enable the actors and actresses to "open out"; even the accused was not so special.

Thus, perhaps a 1-episode-too-long, but still a good suspense series by BBC, referring to Scandinavian Noir in many aspects. However, those fond of constant chases, shootings and obtrusive cops should probably find something else.

I actually looked this up to see how old it is because I too was shocked at the insensitivity of the police towards a person who has endured obvious horrors. I thought maybe it was from many years ago before law enforcement understood anything about kidnap victims. It was made clear in the first episodes that she had experienced multiple physical attacks in addition to captivity, demonstrating that she had survived many forms of torture. Even if they did need information, in real life, dealing a person who had survived her ordeal, they would not terrorize her in the process of the interrogation - locking her in rooms and threatening her with incarceration - dahhhh!! I thought it was good generally up until now and I'll keep watching, but this twist in the story line is annoying.

The BBC mini-series Thirteen (available online) follows 26-year-old Ivy Moxam, who was held captive in a cellar for thirteen years. After escaping from her attacker's prison, she returns to her family home outside of London, but struggles to put her life back together. There is an uncanny resemblance to the story in the American television series, The Family.

Thirteen presents the police investigation as a secondary plot and focuses on the victim's situation and psychology, touching upon the Stockholm syndrome and the fragility and unreliability of memory. Everyone closely associated with the crime is also, in some way, a victim. Read the entire review -- "Thirteen"--"An Unlucky Life" at: www.unhealedwound.com and let me know what you think!

A woman escapes from a house in Bristol. At first the police are skeptical of her story but it turns out that she is Ivy Moxam, who was kidnapped 13 years ago at the age of 13. Now begins the task of reuniting with her family and friends and restarting her life. Meanwhile, the police are trying to catch her kidnapper, Mark White, but questioning Ivy makes the details of her kidnapping and imprisonment murkier and more inconsistent. Moreover, it appears that Ivy wasn't always a totally involuntary prisoner. Then Mark White kidnaps another girl.

The plot to this series initially sounded similar to the movie Room, but this is different to Room in many ways. While Room concentrated on the mother and son and how they (especially the son) cope with life on the outside, Thirteen has more of a mystery drama feel to it. It does cover Ivy's having to adjust to life after 13 years of isolation, but it also covers to a very large extent the police's attempts to unravel what happened while she was imprisoned, their relationship with Ivy and their attempts at catching her kidnapper.

Very intriguing, the mystery/crime-drama side, with a few good twists and turns. Even at the outset you aren't sure that she really is who she says she is, and later we start to think she may have been more accomplice than victim. This creates a wonderful greyness to Ivy's innocence, and fuels the intrigue.

The human drama side is also done pretty well, though does feel a bit slow and clumsy at times. Reasonably emotional though.

Solid performances all round. Jodie Comer is OK as Ivy, though doesn't really shine. The best performances probably come from Richard Rankin and Valene Kane as DI Carne and DS Merchant respectively.

Great opening song - "In your dreams" by Dark Dark Dark.

Well worth watching.