Liar, STV, Monday
Having ignored the first series of brothers Harry and Jack Williams’s crime drama I wasn’t convinced I could pick it up from the “previously on” recap which would inevitably introduce series two. It’s a common problem only partly alleviated by those helpful back-issue boxsets the broadcasters sometimes provide: do you just dive in for the second series of something and hope for the best? Or do you take a completist approach and risk missing the next Broadchurch/Fleabag/Line Of Duty? Decisions, decisions.
I dived in but, having absorbed the recap and watched the first episode of season two, I’m still in a bit of a muddle. But through the haze of incomprehension I can see there’s a pretty decent thriller in here trying to inveigle its way into my life. Track record suggests it, too: the Williams brothers are responsible for anthology series The Missing and were the producers of Fleabag, which are both ticks in my book.
Season one (as far as I can gather) turned on the attempts by newly-single teacher Laura Nielson (Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt) to bring to justice serial rapist Andrew Earlham (Ioan Gruffudd), a well-liked surgeon and pillar of the community whose son was in Nielson’s class. It ended with Earlham going on the lam with the cops not far behind. Series two opened a few weeks later with the discovery of his body – murdered, apparently – in the Kent marshes (cue majestic drone shots). Nielson, as one of Earlham’s victims, was an obvious suspect, at least in the eyes of brassy detective Karen Renton (Coronation Street’s Katherine Kelly) who has been sent in by the Met. She’s one of several new characters who’ll help shunt Liar along, but easily the best of the bunch so far.
Is it a problem that series two follows directly on from series one, Broadchurch style? Not really. Earlham has answered for his crimes (a knife to the throat saw to that) and now the focus turns to a murder investigation which, as episode one ended, had thrown up at least four other prime suspects. There’s also a whole series of muddy domestic relations to work through, particularly those involving Laura. Her sister Katy (Zoe Tapper) slept with Laura’s now ex-boyfriend Tom (a policeman, as it happens), driving away Katy’s own husband Liam (Richie Campbell). Doubtless the new characters will have personal lives every bit as complicated. I hope so, anyway. From the way social standing affords abusers protection to how victims of sexual assault are treated to ideas of justice there’s plenty to chew on here.
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