Z Ran

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***SPOILERS*** Twisted leftist fantasy written by someone with deep hatred of men Great acting, decent cinematography and great editing couldn't save this mess from being divisive crackpot propaganda that reveals absolutely nothing about the human condition Talk about someone who believes "women can do no wrong" the writer contrives a way to blame the husband for the wife's infanticide This jealous husband trope is ridden with glaring errors which belie zero research and no real-life experience. School teachers and village doctors appear to live in multi-million pound mansions. Police procedure would be routinely interview the husband as a suspect immediately, the use of insulin as murder weapon making it quite obvious from the outset and for which no further evidence would be required to get a conviction (yet somehow they manage to go weeks without clocking on and only do so when druggie witness, who CPS would never allow to take the stand in any event, making coercion-twist totally dull). Perhaps more importantly, whilst it is absolutely true that many wives are complicit in their husband's domestic abuse upon them, the readily available research on this matter is that such bonds are based on a deep sentimental attachment and / or financial dependence in working class households; the wife in this appears cold / indifferent to her husband, even when they are alone together. We never learn who her father / mother are or why they're not in the picture. She's incredibly close to her best friend though, who is evidently a safe emotional space for her, making it hard to imagine she wouldn't confide. When the policeman's wife reveals to him she had sex with the suspect, he is understandably upset; however, aside from her never apologising (well, a little bit towards the end, and even then more out of a desire to make him stop blubbing than any real remorse, as her excuse about 'being lonely' follows shortly after proves), they somehow feel the screen time needs to be used up showcasing how this man is also a would-be rapist, violent thug, drugged up alcoholic. These clues belie a writer with an agenda; 2/2 male leads fulfil every negative stereotype about men between them, while the women in the story are all pardoned from any wrongdoing and depicted as saints just doing their best to survive under tyrannical male patriarchy. Ugh. Very offensive and unhelpful. Hard to watch stuff like this and not feel the liberal media do indeed have an agenda.

Great acting from Joanne Froggart in lead role (I mean, really, considering the following) but... What motivated her not to go to the police when 'Ed Harrison' threatened to murder her husband in her name? He told her the missing woman's body was buried at that exact site and had photographic evidence to prove it. Following her arrest, why wasn't she given legal representation? Why didn't she tell the police about the domestic abuse? Why didn't she ask the police to speak to the dentist who treated her for missing tooth? Why didn't she tell the police about her husband's suspected affair with missing woman? Why didn't she ask the police to examine the photographs on her phone of love letter and nude selfie taken by missing woman? We know she still had her phone, as later the husband uses it to track her. Why didn't the police question any of the other school mums? Would they have not had suspicions of domestic abuse, as strongly implied when collecting the kids for Halloween party? Is this the one school in the world where no one gossips? Why did the police not find it suspicious that she not one single friend or family member she was close to? That is a classic trait of abusive relationships, whereby the abuser isolates their partner. Why did she abandon the witness to Ed Harrison's existence, the cashier from the petrol station who was tied up and beaten by him? Following the beating up of the cashier, she confronted her husband and demanded he confess, which he did. Why did she not use her phone to record the confession, knowing she was going there to 'force' him to confess? What were the chances the villains were both reading the same book, to get the ripped off plotline from 'Strangers On A Train' going? Why did the school allow her to collect children in the middle of the day? Were they not aware of her 'mental health disorder' and court ordered restraining order? Again, is this the one school in the world where no one gossips? Had her absence for 6 months not been noted by the teachers? If the man running the trailer park had the foresight to identify her husband as a threat, and withhold identification, why didn't he warn her of his arrival? Her collaboration with Theo - highly illegal in numerous ways - is a preposterous plan. Apart from criminalising herself in earnest for the first time, it secured the truth of what really happened from ever getting out. How on earth she could trust Theo, after all that had happened and who was already heavily invested with her husband, is totally unbelievable and completely goes against the character we have been following for six episodes. Everything she has been through, one would have expected to give her trust issues with men, especially repeat offenders who only pretend to have a change of heart. Why would Theo be any different from her husband? All in all it was just so ridiculous I regretted watching it to the end, which I only did as the opening scene was so traumatic and upsetting, I really wanted to see justice for Angela... the lack of effort made by the creators, the assumptions, the misconceptions, the lack of research into real-world abuse survivors and their stories all manifest as a truly terrible plot. Conspiring to then murder Theo by giving him up to his victim at the end was the final insult and condemns her character as a nasty piece of work, far from being the empowered woman and good mother she is then portrayed as in the closing scenes. I mean, is the moral of the story revenge is a good idea?? So naïve. Very exploitative, of both audience's emotions invested during first episode and real-world survivors who deserve better.