Penance

Rosalie Douglas is devastated by her son's death. The police assumes it to be an accidental drowning with him taking a night dive. Rosalie kicks out her cheating husband Luke. Her daughter Maddie is devolving into drunkenness. Rosalie and Maddie go to a support group where they meet a kindly young man named Jed Cousins.

The plot is basically a Lifetime movie or a sense of Jennifer Lopez in The Boy Next Door. It's that type of story. It's a limited series with a veneer of British masterpiece adjacent. It's fine for what it is. The first section rushes quite a lot. Obviously, they are rushing to get Jed into the show. It may be better if he saves Maddie from an OD. It would be quicker. It also needs an opening with the death. It has three parts so it has the time to lay out the introduction better. I do like the actors but the story is a bit too standard.

Great acting by the cast, especially the younger chatacters. Julie Graham is excellent as the troubled wife and mum. It rips along with an inevitability but it doesn't get in the way of the suspense. Art Malik is also brilliant as the local priest with a protective role over his parishioner friend. If you love a thriller you'll love this.

I would not call this a thriller, as it was easy to connect the dots, and be two steps ahead of the plotlines. It was easy to decipher what was going to happen next. If there is such a thing as a formulatic thriller this was it. Every key action point in the 2nd and 3rd episodes were predictable and sometimes tedious. I won't go into detail and run the plotlines here, but every twist and turn is easily to see coming a mile off. Still I gave it 8 stars, the acting is very good, Graham and Morrissey are veteran greats who did their best with the material at hand. Tallulah Greive is very good with a role that could have been meatier as we discover her hand in events occurring before the movie starts. Nico Mirallegro had the part of a menacing thug down pat, but seemed to lack empathy when trying to be a grieving grandson. Great acting hamstrung by a predictable script.

I was looking for something that I hadn't seen and with the writers and actors strike on going here in America, that's becoming difficult I saw that Art Malik was in the cast and decided to give it a go!

I have to admit that twenty minutes in it was pretty predictable.and a little boring.

Malik did an excellent job as he always does and with this script he had an uphill climb!

The other actors were no one I recognized but all did a good job with a worn out plot.

I would have a difficult time actually recommending this series but others may like it ! Hope to see more of Malik in future projects but I hope he passes on scripts like this.

Lazy script, some decent acting and a story that conveniently overlooks reality!! Watched this to the end but it wasn't great. Is ok for watching whilst in isolation!!