Laced with blood and guilt, this five-star drama’s tale is universal

Say Nothing ★★★★★
Disney+

The setting is The Troubles, the brutal asymmetric war fought in Northern Ireland in the final decades of the 20th century, and the detail is intensely specific, but the telling message of this compelling political thriller is sadly universal. Laced with blood and recrimination, Say Nothing observes that political fanaticism, and the violence that extends from it, is a natural accelerant for the young, but for those who live long enough, self-doubt and eventually guilt are a heavier burden than any weapon previously brandished.

Lola Petticrew as Dolours Price in Say Nothing.Credit: Rob Youngson/FX

Say Nothing was adapted from the 2018 book of the same name by American journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. It begins with the 1972 kidnapping of Jean McConville (Judith Roddy), a widowed mother of 10 children who was “disappeared” by the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA) because she was believed to be informing on fellow Catholics to the British soldiers maintaining Westminster’s control of the country. Like so many examples of sectarian struggle, it is a crime carried out by a community that cannot acknowledge it.

Jean’s unknown fate hangs over the show’s central characters, starting with sisters Dolours (Lola Petticrew) and Marian Price (Hazel Doupe). The children of IRA members, the siblings grew up helping tend to an aunt maimed by her own explosives. The young women break the gender barrier, serving under mercurial IRA field commander Brendan Hughes (Anthony Boyle) and his boss, future political leader Gerry Adams (Josh Finan), whose presence on the show comes with a disclaimer on every episode the character appears in.

Say Nothing does not try to explain Ireland’s centuries-old conflict, not does it dwell on those the IRA fought or the victims of their attacks. It is about the hunger to fight your oppressor, and the galvanising thrill that can bring. There are breathless escapes and comical missteps, even as historic crimes are committed, and it’s only slowly, as a ruthless counter-insurgency campaign and fear of informers take hold, that grim realities cloud youthful commitment; Dolours finds herself delivering friends accused of betraying the cause to their execution.

The narrative is framed by the interviews an older Dolours (Maxine Peake) and Brendan (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) gave, after the 1998 peace agreement takes hold, to an oral history project. The connection between the pairs of actors playing the same role is wrenching, particularly Petticrew and Peake. Keefe and creator Joshua Zetumer are American, but the writers, directors and cast are predominantly Irish, and there is a crackling authenticity – and gallows humour – to the dialogue and performances. This is a bitterly brilliant limited series about the need to break the crippling grip of silence.

Aldis Hodge in Cross.Credit: AP

Cross ★★★
Amazon Prime

As with previous Amazon Prime successes, Jack Ryan and Reacher, this detective thriller is a muscular, conventional adaptation of a popular paperback character. Previously played in Hollywood movies by Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry, Aldis Hodge’s Alex Cross is a forensic psychologist and dedicated Washington (DC) police detective. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Cross is a loving father and renowned investigator – when he stares at a clue board, everyone knows to keep quiet.

“Not every case you work is Silence of the Lambs,” a doubting superior tells Cross, but the plot of the show has a retrograde feel despite being newly concocted by the show’s creator, Ben Watkins (Burn Notice), instead of being lifted from one of author James Patterson’s numerous Alex Cross novels. There’s a macabre serial killer and a menacing stalker for Cross to deal with in a race against time that’s capably constructed, if familiar.

What distinguishes Cross is that it actively unpacks the contradictions of being a black police officer in the US, for both Cross and his best friend and police partner, John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa). As diligent as the pair are in investigating the galvanising murder of a defund-the-police activist, they’re wedged between a doubting black community and superiors willing to use them as publicity tools. The criminal pursuit soon outweighs the thorny questions, but they give the show some necessary gravity.

Silo.Credit: Apple TV+

Silo (season 2)
Apple TV+

The second season of puzzle-box television shows are often tricky propositions, and this continuation of the science-fiction mystery about an underground city sealed off from a post-apocalyptic world is no different. The previous finale breakthroughs afforded to roughneck engineer turned reluctant police chief Juliette Nichols (Dune’s Rebecca Ferguson) were thrilling, but following through on them over a further 10 episodes literally requires a second box. Ferguson remains a committed protagonist, but this sophomore season from creator Graham Yost (Justified) has a back-and-forth structure that takes time to gather momentum.

Billy Bob Thornton in Landman.Credit: Paramount+

Landman
Paramount+

A Texan by residence and outlook, Yellowstone and Lioness creator Taylor Sheridan finally gets to bring his streaming empire home with this churning oil industry drama. Working his way through the capitalism-outweighs-climate monologues with pithy, cynical ease, Billy Bob Thornton is ideal casting as Tommy Norris, the fixer to Jon Hamm’s black-gold billionaire, Monty Miller. The drilling rig scenes have a dangerous veracity, but in the initial episodes, the depiction of the female characters – especially Tommy’s privileged teenage daughter, Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) – verges on caricature.

Claude Jabbour, Mandy McElhinney, Jenna Owen, Gia Carides, Steve Rodgers in Nugget is Dead.Credit: Stan

Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story
Stan

Graduates of SBS’s The Feed, the writing and performing team of Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen update the traditional Christmas family comedy with this affectionate portrayal of a chaotic Wollongong clan who drag back in the adult daughter (Zerbst), who has reinvented herself in Sydney, when the beloved family pooch falls ill. The Castle is an obvious forebear, but Zerbst and Owen’s contemporary take is more attuned to class and assumptions of status – the latter steals scenes as a cousin very invested in dispensing eyelash treatments. The humour is snappy and accumulative, but also genuine.

Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook in The Detectorists.

Detectorists
BritBox

A reminder that all three seasons of this affectionately askew British comedy are now available on BritBox. Airing between 2014 and 2017, the show follows two friends – Andy (The Office’s Mackenzie Crook, creator of the series) and Lance (Toby Jones) – whose search for satisfaction is mirrored by their hobby of scouring Essex paddocks with metal detectors. With their distinctly English misadventures and a bittersweet sense of humour that the two leads embody with exemplary, unforced technique, the show is small, wryly amusing and charming, but also quite moving.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.