Fight crime in darkest Alaska
Huskins was kidnapped and Quinn was soon being interrogated as the prime suspect. Then when Huskins reappeared, seemingly unscathed, she was accused of faking the kidnapping.
In 2015 true-crime wasn’t what it is now so I can’t accuse the detective of playing to the interview-room cameras, knowing that he might be on Netflix one day. Nevertheless, Matt Mustard – cue the Beatles song “Mean Mr Mustard” – is glimpsed very much enjoying his role. Indeed, given his name, you’d have to say he relishes it (ouch).
“I put a lot of puzzles together – I am the puzzle-maker,” he says. “How do I make it so you look like a monster?” He doesn’t believe Quinn’s version of events. The kidnapper was wearing a wetsuit and swim goggles? That’s too much detail.
The detail intrigues defence attorney Dan Russo. “This is insane,” he says. But he reckons Quinn is telling the truth. “I believe him in my heart but no one in f **** n’ North America will.” Russo is straight out of Central Casting but I don’t think he’s hamming up his part. He seems like the kind of brief you’d want on your side against Mean Mr Mustard. Huskins’ return isn’t the end of it, however. The lurid fascination of the TV news networks ramps up when someone remembers the plot of Gone Girl – had Huskins suspected Quinn was cheating on her and contrived the abduction? I won’t tell you how American Nightmare ends but suffice to say: is it any wonder women who are victims of crime are reluctant to come forward when they’re treated like this?
Before he starred in the TV show of the year if not the decade – you know the one I’m talking about – Toby Jones was a weekend treasure-hunter in the comedy Detectorists. Now for a drama about metal-detecting, called Finders Keepers (Channel 5) and featuring Neil Morrissey who gets a buzz out of the hobby and sometimes a shrill beeping but it’s never anything other than a rusty coke can or somesuch junk.
Then one afternoon down Somerset way Morrissey’s Martin happens across Anglo-saxon gold. He wants to do the right thing, “surrender it to the Crown” and wait for the possible reward. But his wide-boy soon-to-be son-in-law (The Inbetweeners’ James Buckley) suggests they try and sell it to a collector for half a million. “Charlie doesn’t need any more gold,” he says. “Have you seen his coach?”
Under financial pressure, not least from the cost of the wedding, decent, dull Martin agrees. He’s never done anything like this before. And, judging by next week’s trailer, a pleasant little show is about to get heavy (metal). But what will real detectorists think? That their pastime is being traduced, or sexed-up?
Newcomer Kali Reis gives as good as she gets as the Indigenous sidekick
Channel 4’s comedy Big Boys is back for a second season and for Danny (Jon Pointing) and Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) a second year at uni, so they should be getting the hang of campus life, but they’re not having nearly enough sex, and especially when compared to their Scottish mate Corinne (Edinburgh’s Izuka Hoyle).
Jack Rooke’s semi-autobiographical show is profound about male friendship and pleasingly clarty with it. Jack is gay and Danny straight but they couldn’t be tighter, always there for each other, and that’s despite the latter’s preferences for “Lynx Africa boxsets and Jeremy Clarkson’s bull **** books”. There are jokes about Liz Truss who must be the softest of targets for comedy but I’ll forgive Big Boys that.
True Detective (Sky Atlantic), American Nightmare (Netflix), Finders Keepers (Channel 5), Big Boys (Channel 4)