Series Review: Unforgotten

 

It is not possible to do an unbiased review of the 6-episode series. (Season 1)

The entire series is based on Nicola Walker's belief in the human-ness of a skeleton that is found in a basement. She wants to bring justice to the family of the victim, and to the person that this victim was. One cannot remain untouched by that much humanity in one person. The dogged pursuit of justice, not for the sake of justice, but for the sake of the person - this difference in focus is very, very important. Most of the cold case series and films are based on a policeperson's need to "restore justice". This one is not. And therefore, that aspect of the storytelling must necessarily colour the rest of my review - positively. 

The screenplay is adequate. I am a sucker for great writing and great dialogues. While the series is very well written, the brilliant dialogues are conspicuous by their absence. 

My other grouse with the series is how uniform the characters are - even their visuals. They come from very diverse socio-economic segments, yet one cannot even tell them apart from dress and hairstyles! 

Their emotions follow a template, almost. There is no diversity. After a while, the mishmash becomes so weird you can't tell the characters apart. You can't think, "Oh, Philip would do this." or "That's not like Robert." 

The lighting would have to take the third brickbat. The series is dark as it is, some great cinematography would not kill the makers. In fact, it is almost criminal to have great locations and then show them in such poor light - literally and metaphorically.

Having done the brickbats, one must now come to the bouquets. The editing should take a bow. It is not easy to stretch a single crime across 6 episodes, spanning multiple threads, and still keeping the reader engaged (with no help from costumes, writers, cinematographers, music directors, and the like). The editor and the writer have achieved this feat. The storytelling is taut and every scene matters. It adds to the plot in some way. 

The multiple plots are woven together - not brilliantly, but well enough. Some things are unclear to the viewer till the end, but that's ok.  If a viewer were to die at the end of this series, it would be out of boredom, not curiosity. 

If I were to do this my way, I would completely remove some of the sub plots (Philip and Beth, for instance), focus on the 2-3 main players and their families, draw out the individuality of these characters, give some of them that great British sense of humour, and make the series at least two episodes shorter. 

Should you watch this? 

For the superlative acting by Nicola Walker and Frances Tomelty (she plays Maureen). If you generally like dark suspense kind of content. Sure. Do watch.