Anne-Marie Duff's returning crime drama Suspect isn't as good as its cast
Suspect season one was a gripping murder mystery that maintained tension until the very end when it teased there could be more to the murder of detective Danny's (James Nesbitt) daughter Christina (Imogen King).
This 'more' spilled over into season two but sadly, the follow up is a classic example of stretching a story further than it needed to go.
Season two picks up with Danny's wife and psychotherapist Susannah Newman (Anne-Marie Duff). She ends up tracing a similar investigative path to her estranged husband after a client, Jon (Dominic Cooper) makes an alarming confession under hypnosis.
Jon tells her that he is tasked with killing girls and that tonight, he will kill again unless stopped.
As the synopsis goes: "Susannah is forced to embark on her own deadly mission to save a life, the way she couldn't do with her own daughter."
It sounds like an intriguing premise. It was established in season one that Susannah had a fraught relationship with her daughter and so this new venture could offer the absolution she feels she needs. The execution, however, falls short of its potential for richer storytelling.
The narrative feels far too ambitious. While the show is rooted in realism, the events that spiral out of control are far-fetched and rely on coincidence in places.
The same could be argued for season one of Suspect – Danny often pushed and prodded the story further along, landing himself in unlikely predicaments, discovering things that felt implausible for the average Joe but that's why it worked.
Danny wasn't the average Joe, he was a detective whose inquisitive nature coupled with his grief could cause him to spiral out of control.
It was plausible that this desperation could drive him to clutch at any straw within reach until one proved strong enough to be a lead that he could follow, allowing him to uncover that deeper, darker tale that drew us in.
The same cannot be said of Susannah, who copycats her husband with plenty of acumen but none of the police training or the real-life experience of high-pressure situations. Suspect season two compensates for that by allowing her to get investigative wins that just don't feel plausible.
While we loved how the show leans into her skills as a psychotherapist, allowing her to connect with the people she interrogates on a personal level to draw out those answers, the stakes are too high for all of them to divulge what they know so readily.
We can't help but feel Suspect would have been better placed as a limited season. Christina's hint aside, it felt like a succinct, neat story paired with top-tier performances and plenty of tension.
The performances in season two are still top tier, and once again it's as star-studded cast including Eddie Marsan and Death in Paradise's Ben Miller.
Duff is a positively absorbing presence in her frantic, driven grief, Miller's detective superintendent Richard Groves still frustrates and intrigues in equal measures and the relationship between Celine Buckens' Sapphire and Susannah (though quickly established) is complex, uncomfortable and vulnerable.
That bond is also superficial and no doubt will be short-lived, owing to the fact that both come to the table with baggage, which they transpose onto each other – but that's what makes it interesting.
That said, even the performances can't lift the story above its middling status.
Suspect season 2 airs Wednesday 9pm on Channel 4 and is available to watch as a boxset on All4.
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