The Chemistry of Death

Why a West Country accent when it was meant to be set in Norfolk? If actors can't do the accent why not have it set in Devon or somewhere in the west? The landscape didn't even particularly look like Norfolk anyway so why even set it there if no one can manage the accent? Alternatively it could have been set in an unspecified part of the country and had characters use a neutral accent. It is perfectly possible to have a coach for the accent, it was done on the film The Dig so that Ralph Fiennes could do a very credible Suffolk accent. Disappointing as everything else about it made it fairly watchable.

TV shows are made from many different ingredients and in the case of The Chemistry... some are good but unfortunately it's the bad ones that give the flavor. The good ones: main cast is solid, cinematography nice and the overall feel one of a high quality production inspired by shows like True Detective. But the main plot and every second scene just make no sense, so much so that you watch with growing resistance. And it's not just the emotionally incredulous things like having flashbacks of your dead baby girl running happily on a beach while you're in a ruined cottage with a horribly burned and disfigured murder victim or technicalities like having a SWAT team on standby in a small village. It's even mundane things like people wearing rain coats in a storm but never zipped and not putting hoods on, professional police investigators leaving bagged evidence scattered all over the murder scene or knowing a big storm is coming but not securing a body in an already weather damaged shack. I really wanted to love this show. Instead I just grew more and more irritaded with each episode. A shame cause it could've been a really iconic show and Threadway has potential to pull off a complex, disturbed yet charismatic character, the likes of Sherlock Holmes.

This is a great concept and makes for interesting viewing, the acting is good and the background character is well thought out. It's good see an adaptation of the book and great to see Harry Treadway as a leading role, this could have been slow and miserable but it's got a great pace, the only thing I'm getting a bit fed up with is the constant flashbacks, I understand he's a tortured soul. Sam Anderson plays the detective and is really good, the last time I saw him was in Doctor Who and I expected to see him in a lot more following that. A great start I hope it keeps up this level of entertainment looking forward to the next instalment.