TV reviews

In the US: Sundays, 10/9c, USA

On the face of it, Eyewitness isn’t a hard show to understand. An adaptation of NRK Norway’s Øyevitne (Eyewitness), it sees two teenage boys witness a horrible murder of a gang of criminals out in rural New York state. The killer gets away but knows someone witnessed his crime. However, the two boys would rather no one know what they saw or that they were even together, so don’t tell anyone.

And that’s basically the plot for the first three episodes. It’s complicated somewhat at the end of episode two by the revelation that the murderer is actually (spoiler alert) the new local head of the FBI and that the foster mother of one of the boys is the local sheriff. It’s also diluted by a side-plot about the fact the two boys are gay, but only one of them has really come to terms with this. But that’s more or less the show.

Which is what’s hard to understand. So used am I to big twists, plots within plots, hugely serial storylines involving large ensemble casts that something so ordinary, so regular, so meat and potatoes is hard to fathom. What’s the selling point? What’s the big reason for watching? I can’t see it.

Sure, it’s a bit edgy, with some nice direction by Twilight‘s Catherine Harwicke. The evil, unstoppable, Terminator-like bad guy in a position of authority from whom the boys are trying to escape is also a hebephile – because he wasn’t evil enough – which is unusual. There’s a LGBT storyline that for a change is not about pretty lesbians but pretty boys, which is also unusual. There’s an obvious The Killing vibe to the whole piece, with just a touch of No Country For Old Men, with the community grieving and the sheriff in particular struggling to cope while El Terminator cuts a swathe through the population of local teenagers with ruthless efficiency. There’s also a bit of moral compromise, with a local FBI agent having to cover up her sister’s involvement in the case.

And all of this would work very nicely with a Norwegian accent and two hours of daylight, but in a sunnier, more hopeful American context, everything feels very vanilla and apple pie rather than claustrophobic and exposing of the horror deep in the core of the human spirit. It’s not bad, but it’s also not a huge step above the average episode of Law & Order.

I might keep watching for the prettiness of the direction, but Eyewitness is probably a show that worked a whole lot better as Øyevitne than as Eyewitness.

Barrometer rating: 3
Would it work better with a female lead? N/A
TMINE’s prediction: It’s an anthology show, so everything changes at the end of the season, so it might get a second chance if it’s lucky.

In the US: Saturdays, 9/8c, BBC America
In the UK: Netflix. To be made available December 11

Dirk Gently is still odd. Dirk Gently? Only a little.

Following in the footsteps of BBC Four, BBC America’s adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency isn’t really an adaptation at all, more a continuation, in which Dirk is relocated to the US where he and hapless new sidekick Elijah Wood have to investigate the weird death of rich guy Julian McMahon, who’s killed in a hotel room by a shark – and who predicted he would be, months before his own death.

The first episode simply went from odd, inexplicable thing after odd, inexplicable thing, all seemingly unconnected, but in actuality laying out the clues that would all come together later on. Naturally, that’s meant the subsequent two episodes have both been about tying everything together and explaining what’s so important about a particular corgie, why there’s such a thing as a holistic assassin randomly murdering people and why a missing girl is holed up with Chief Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica. And by episode three it all seems to be coming together quite well – squint and you can see what’s going on – while still adding on the occasional new bit of odd.

Now, on the one hand, this is all divorced from the book(s), following none of their events. On the other, it’s got direct lifts from the books that have been altered to reflect more American concerns, with (third episode spoiler alert) time machines being built into basements of old houses rather than old Cambridge colleges, more familial elements, the CIA (of course) and – oh the horror! – an unnecessary origin story of sorts evolving for Dirk himself. 

What it definitely still is is bonkers, offering something that is as close to an American equivalent of a Douglas Adams story as I can remember. It’s not blessed by his genius when it comes to original ideas or comedy, but it comes reasonably close to a decent emulation and is actually pretty clever.

This new Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency isn’t must-see TV by a long-chalk and Samuel Barnett is only just about tolerable as this new incarnation of Dirk. But it’s better than the BBC Four version, closer in spirit to the books and is more imaginative. If you fancy believing six impossible things before breakfast, give it a whirl. 

Barrometer rating: 3
Would it be better with a female lead? Yes. Or Richard Schiff
TMINE’s prediction: Might well get a second season, but Netflix will get the final say.