Thirteen

Jodie Comer...delivers a stunning performance, playing on many levels at once, her growing disbelief as she understands she has spent much of her prime so isolated, convincing and heartbreaking. Thirteen takes white-knuckle turns that elevate it from the expected. Thirteen gives a well-worn premise an intriguing facelift with haunting execution and compelling performances across the board. Underrated . Jodie Comer performance is reason enough to invest 4h 45 minutes to see her acting hauntingly triumph .

So many police and other procedures were breached in this story-line. So little care for the original victim, Ivy, would not only breach her rights but would jeopardize any prosecution against her. For a person who supposedly spent thirteen years locked in a cellar there is no professional support shown. This is an extremely poor drama and any similarities with real life is purely coincidental.

It had so much potential with such an intriguing premise, but unfortunately fell short.

The script was overworked and hindered with unnecessary subplots, ideas and characters which never properly served the central story, but rather diluted it. So many pieces introduced that were left unanswered or just didn't have enough payoff to justify its inclusion.

So much scope for an exhilarating and sophisticated mystery/thriller, but sadly it took an underwhelming and predictable path.

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.

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.