Gripping writing launches ‘Mr. Mercedes’
Series based on Stephen King tale richly rewards viewer’s patience
The adaptation of Stephen King’s detective novel “Mr. Mercedes” starts out with a bang, but then takes its very sweet time establishing its plot and characters. That’s probably because King is not only a producer of the show, but is also on the writing staff, as is novelist Dennis LeHane, credited with writing four episodes: Television often benefits when novelists are allowed to do their thing.
The series, developed by David E. Kelley, premieres on the AT&T Audience Network on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
Brendan Gleeson stars as retired Ohio Detective Bill Hodges, who lives alone surrounded by depression, regret, empty Budweiser cans and peanut shells. He misses the job, but specifically, he is haunted by a case from 2009 that remains unsolved: Someone wearing a clown’s mask drove a Mercedes into a crowd of job hopefuls waiting in the middle of the night for a job fair to open. Sixteen people were killed (double the toll in the novel, by the way. Apparently, eight wasn’t enough.)
Although the case went cold a few years earlier, suddenly Hodges begins getting messages from the killer, calling himself Mr. Mercedes, taunting him with sophisticated digital posts that disappear as soon as they finish running. It doesn’t
take much for Hodges to take the bait. He gets a local kid named Jerome ( Jharrel Jerome) to help him get more computer savvy and install surveillance cameras around his house. He doesn’t tell the cops at first that the killer has been in touch with him, including his old partner Peter Dixon (Scott Lawrence).
The pace of the early episodes is deliberate and could be dangerous to the success of the series, since we already know that Mr. Mercedes is a weird loner named Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway, playing the role originally designated for the late Anton Yelchin). Brady is an even more Oedipal Norman Bates type who lives with his chainsmoking mother (Kelly Lynch) and works as a tech assistant at a Best Buy-like store for a middle-management martinet named “Robi” Frobisher (Robert Stanton). We know that Hodges will get back on the case, but what we don’t know is when and if Brady will kill again.
Gleeson is more than convincing as Hodges, a man beaten down by his own past and the absence of anything to live for. Yes, he wants to solve the one big case that eluded him, but he also needs a reason to keep living, and work is the only option he knows.
Hodges is fortunate to live next door to a widow named Ida Silver, and “Mr. Mercedes” is fortunate that Holland Taylor agreed to play the role. Ida is unapologetically intrusive, and in a way, everything that Hodges is not. She has no interest in dwelling on the past, but has her work cut out getting Hodges to join her in the present tense.
Treadaway is disturbingly on key as Brady, so much so that it almost feels as though he’s playing the part of the mad killer in one of King’s horror stories. Lynch is almost as disturbing as his mother. Mother’s Day must be a singular trip at the Hartsfield homestead.
The Mercedes used in the original crime was stolen from a wealthy, reclusive woman (Ann Cusack) who was unfairly blamed, in part, for the killings. Her sister, Janey Patterson (Mary-Louise Parker) wants Hodges to reopen the case to clear her memory. Parker is quite good, although her mannerisms occasionally feel forced rather than authentic.
Most of all, the writing is what really drives “Mr. Mercedes.” The naturalistic pacing and character development provide a superior cast with more than enough fuel for a gripping ride.