A British crime drama as good as Broadchurch
Under the Salt Marsh ★★★★½
There are so many British crime dramas. I know it, you know it, and those who continue to employ them almost certainly know it, too. But if there’s an endless stream of six-episode series about terrifying discoveries, dogged researchers, and what they reveal about troubled communities, that also means the best entries can’t help but stand out. this is it! Under the Salt Marsh to do. Set in the North Wales countryside and produced with great care, the show is extraordinary. Put it next to season one broadchurch.
It was created and directed by British filmmaker Claire Oakley. Under the Salt Marsh it captures harsh, striking beauty: the storm-ravaged ocean off the isolated town of Morfa Hala, cloud-covered valleys, and Kelly Reilly’s face. Saritas The star plays school teacher Jackie Ellis, whose pale skin and red hair stand out like a beacon in the throes of the night; It is unclear whether this is assistance or a warning. His pain increases even more when he finds the body of a student in a ditch. Something similar happened three years ago.
As a mystery, the show is restrained and somber. Information about the case and those involved, including Jackie, is carefully apportioned. You will see the reaction before you discover the cause; This is evident when Jackie learns that the precinct police have sent Eric Bull (Rafe Spall) as the lead detective. Their history is fragile but their familiarity is clear. Closeness as colleagues, friends or family is always a double-edged sword here.
There are so many threads mixed together, but the show is able to accommodate them all because it offers a palpable sense of community, geographically and socially. I don’t remember a British show that looked this evocative; While the colors carry a deep resonance, the landscape has a panoramic weight. Ben Salisbury and Suvi-Eeva Äikäs’ traditional folk instruments pose a fitting threat to a region where outsiders are viewed with suspicion and where town elder Soloman Bevan (Jonathan Pryce) manipulates the residents.
Morfa Hala, though torn by the child’s death, is preparing for a devastating storm to cross the Atlantic. Despite experts’ advice, the town’s hope is that a sea wall under construction will protect them. It’s a fascinating reflection of the obstacles individual characters put up, whether it’s hiding from the truth or from intimacy.
Reilly and Spall give contrasting but complementary, lived-in performances: Jackie is an exposed nerve, Eric is repressed. Getting the answers they need can devastate them. These carry dramatic risks.
Craig Mathieson is the TV, film and music writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X.
