Drama that needs to focus on what matters most
Three hours in and it’s still not clear where Black Earth Rising (BBC Two), Hugo Blick’s stylishly murky thriller centred on the horror of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is heading. Yet episode three still managed to feel like it was going off on a tangent.
Last week we left genocide survivor Kate (Michaela Coel) in Paris, narrowly escaping murder-by-swimming-poolcover at the hands of a rogue French spook. Now, she was more determined than ever to disprove the murder charges against Rwandan politician Alice Munozero (Noma Dumezweni). She set about it with gusto, aided in the main by strangers keen to press crucial clues on her for no discernible reason. A mysterious guardian angel trailed around after her, handing over pieces of the jigsaw and leaping to her rescue at convenient moments. An unlikely 10-second encounter with the daughter of a chief conspirator yielded pivotal evidence.
These were not the most credible of storylines, especially when the high-level government conspiracy that Kate was unravelling turned out be based on the murder of a man who was not even dead. Careless of them, to say the least. On the other hand, Black Earth Rising continued to be highly atmospheric and beautifully shot and acted – Coel being especially impressive – which made up for much and helped skate over the more improbable moments.
It also left us in the odd position of watching a thriller about the Rwandan genocide that, so far, has spent most of its time focused on either Kate’s white adoptive mother Eve (Harriet Walter) and the nondeath of a white middle-aged French priest. Given that 800,000 Tutsi people were slaughtered in the genocide, it seems an odd emphasis – even if it does expose the cynicism of French political interference in the region.
The episode’s most powerful scene saw a Tutsi woman, Juliana (Sarah Amankwah), relive being caught up in a Hutu massacre as a child. Unable to speak as a result of her trauma, she signed her story through an interpreter – a story so appalling that Blick turned to animation to tell it with a sensitivity and sense of profundity rare in TV drama. There was an overriding sense that that’s what this series really wants to be about, but hasn’t yet found a way to tackle it head on. But hopefully, now that Kate’s shenanigans in Paris appear concluded, the series will focus on what so clearly matters most.
Also three episodes in is Strangers, ITV’S rival thriller about a British academic, Jonah (John Simm), whose life is thrown into culture-clash turmoil when his wife dies in a car crash in Hong Kong.
Jonah is not having a whale of a time. He’s had to overcome his fear of flying in order to visit, for the first time ever, the city where his wife Megan (Dervla Kirwan) lived six months of every year. On arrival he discovered that she had another husband and a daughter tucked away. And that she was murdered. And that for some mysterious reason, the police are attempting to cover it up.
All of this should make us want to sympathise with Jonah. But I just can’t. He’s such a jelly. And, for a university professor, he’s really not the brightest. Much of the plot so far has hinged on him not charging his mobile phone for almost a week. I mean, really, in 2018?
But Jonah’s not the only problem. His contact at the British consulate, Sally (Emilia Fox) has also had a partner murdered but doesn’t realise it yet. Her sleazy boss (Tim Mcinnerny) is up to no good. Jonah’s wife’s other husband, David (Anthony Wong) is a former cop who’s been involved in some as yet unexplained nastiness. Megan’s daughter Lau (Katie Leung) is an anti-globalisation activist given to sauntering into security-free skyscrapers carrying tiny bags from which appear, magically, football pitch-sized protest banners. In other words, Strangers is trying too hard to be clever and mysterious, and looking neither as a result.
With its top-notch cast and farflung location, it really should be better than this. That’s the downside of having so many terrific drama series on television at the moment – the odd one that doesn’t hit the mark can seem even less good in comparison.
Black Earth Rising ★★★ Strangers ★★