Freddie Arps

Oh wow, I love this show Down Cemetery Road. I’m on episode 3 and I am sitting at the tip of my chair. I honestly don’t know what the negative reviews are about. Mick Heron is a talented and versatile writer. Obviously this, a P.I. mystery, isn’t going to be the same as a series about MI5 slow horses. It doesn’t have to be. Down Cemetery Road quickly becomes as scary as it sounds. The book Down Cemetery Road that the show is based on is more of a psychological thriller, part of a 4 book series, full of humour and suspense and with interesting characters—none of whom are what they seem to be. The Apple series does a brilliant job showing off Mick Herron’s early novels, and it really gets into the groove by the middle of episode 2. Morwenna Banks and Natalie Bailey have done a very good job of showing off the dissimilar main characters Sarah and Private Investigator Zoë. Both are strong women with a focussed mind, but Sarah is both whimsical and patient (until she is not), while Zoë—played by grand dame Emma Thompson— is punk, sexy and unapologetically no-nonsense. Herron portrays Sarah as someone we almost must doubt, even when we know she is right. Ruth Wilson pulls that off so well, that I wanted to shake her and tell her to listen to her gut instinct for fcks sake ! The other characters are equally well cast. Sinead Matthews’ Wigwam, a social worker and a lovely friend to Sarah, is a mother hen, a bit of an eternal optimist and an altogether free spirit. Zoë’s husband Joe is her P.I. partner and he looks and acts like an old-timey investigator, studious and shabby, sleeping at the office, often forced to take on boring work, but always ready for a real true crime mystery. And when Sarah comes through their door, that is what he gets. What starts out as Sarah wanting to deliver a get-well card to a child made orphan, immediately turns into a scary secret service mess, with rogue operatives and truly frightening characters. One slimy acquaintance turns out to be a goodish guy, while a sweet one… let’s say, the end of episode 2 will give you the heebie-jeebies and have you biting your nails. And oh yes, Sarah’s husband, bland banker Mark… well, in a deeply ironic twist, he turns out to be… you’ve got to see it for yourself. Trust me, you’ll want to push him in a pond. Watch this show. Read the books ! The positive reviewers are right. The negative ones were looking for season 6 of Slow Horses. Sorry, folks, you will have to wait a year for that one. In the meantime, enjoy this Oxford based psychological thriller with Emma Thompson kicking in doors and doggedly pursuing the truth. A rough and tumble private investigator—British style.

Very exciting, scary, visually stunning... love all the strong women characters... male characters good too, positive masculinity included. There is a good balance of characters overall, an interesting view of matriarchy and succession. I was surprised to see lukewarm reviews but did notice a lot of them complain about "girls" and "woke" so looks like incels not liking the series...which is not a big issue really. This series is meant to be for everyone, and it is... (but no, it is not only for basement dwellers).