`HARD' CHOICE, EDGE
Thrilling British drama finds ‘Hard Sun’ setting for life on Earth
So you find out the world is ending.
What do you do?
That's just one of the crises two London detectives must confront in Hulu's intense “Hard Sun,” created, written and produced by “Luther” mastermind Neil Cross.
Charlie Hicks (Jim Sturgess, “Geostorm”) dotes on his pregnant wife and daughter. He also has a mistress, the widow of his partner, who died in the line of duty. Maybe.
His newest partner, Elaine Renko (Agyness Deyn, “Clash of the Titans”), couldn't be more of his opposite, but she can't slide by on good-ol'-boy charm. She brushes back her colleagues' sexism while carrying out her duties. Informing all her actions: She was almost stabbed to death and set aflame by her unstable teenage son, Daniel (Jojo Macari), who now languishes in a mental hospital.
Elaine, for example, doesn't accept the convenient evidence left at the flat of a hacker who apparently threw himself 15 stories to his death. She is correct. Elaine and Charlie's investigation puts them squarely in the path of a terrifying conspiracy surrounding a global extinction event: NASA has evidence all life will be wiped out in five years.
There's an “X-Files” vibe to “Hard Sun,” but it wanes. Elaine and Charlie are no Scully and Mulder. He's more emotional, she's more cerebral, both are quick and able to defend themselves.
In one of the most thrilling bits in the opener, the two find themselves on a dark street surrounded by what seems like a mob of 20 formidable government agents determined to kill them. British law enforcement agents are armed with batons, not firearms, and watching Charlie and Elaine improvising makes for exciting viewing.
“Hard Sun” is a Hulu-BBC co-production, and it burns through story in one hour what American shows would take a full 22-order season to get through. The final scene in the premiere would easily be the cliffhanger to an ABC version.
And after that?
With news of the extinction event spreading — and then being debunked as “fake news” — London residents don't know what to believe. “Truthers” emerge, with bloody mayhem following.
And the conspiracy led by the MI-5 operative Grace (Nikki Amuka-Bird, in a performance designed to stir nightmares) seems to infiltrate every aspect of Elaine's and Charlie's lives.
As much as the two detectives are forced to trust one another, they each have good reason not to, and that tension could lead to catastrophe for everyone they hold dear.
Cross brings to this six-episode season all the intensity of “Luther” with some deeper questions about personal responsibility in the face of overwhelming disaster.
How would you live your final days if you knew there was nothing you could do to protect your loved ones? What would you make of your time?
In “Hard Sun,” the end of the world is just the beginning.