Review by C.J. Bunce
TV writer-producer Debbie O’Malley (All Creatures Great and Small, Around the World in 80 Days, Humans) hit a home run with this year’s late release, six-episode Scotland series from ITV called Payback, streaming now in the U.S. on BritBox. Great writing is usually the difference between the same-old thing and compelling television and this tightly written story is evidence of the latter. Viewers will figure out quickly that this is not your typical mystery. It has two leads, Morven Christie as Lexie Noble, whose husband dies in the first hour of the series. The co-star is Peter Mullan as Cal Morris, a local mob boss Lexie’s husband was apparently working for secretly as his accountant. Only Lexie never knew about Morris, and soon she learns she didn’t know a lot about what her husband was up to lately. It gets worse, as Lexie becomes the prime suspect in her husband’s murder just as Morris blackmails her into finding almost 30 million pounds her husband stole from him back–one way or the other.
You should know Glasgow native actor Morven Christie from her run on the series The Bay (reviewed here), which was a great series up until she left because of her ability to play a put-upon cop who cannot balance the work-life dynamic. Christie reflects well the pressure her characters are put under. She’s also acted in Doctor Who and was a key player in the ensemble cast of the Agatha Christie adaptation Ordeal by Innocence (reviewed here), along with a recurring role in Case Histories (reviewed here).
The distinctive Scottish voice of Peter Mullan will be familiar to anyone who has seen him in Braveheart, Children of Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Westworld, and more, but it’s his role as The Broker in the adaptation of Max Allan Collins’ Quarry (reviewed here) that must have prepared him most for his latest loathsome villain (you probably won’t recognize him as a Death Eater in the first Harry Potter movie).
Lexie was getting ready to rejoin her husband at their old accounting firm, which she had left to raise their two kids. But just as she’s preparing to go back to the office, her husband is murdered. For five episodes viewers won’t know whodunit, but the clues, the secrets, and some red herrings are smartly laid out to observe. Was Cal Morris behind it? Perhaps one of his underlings, like his nephew, played by Jack Greenlees (Shetland, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Outlaw King) a young thug assigned to keep close tabs on Lexie? Or maybe it was Cal’s majordomo and head of security and operations, played by prolific genre actor Steven Mackintosh (The Muppet Christmas Carol, Memphis Belle, Doctor Who, Luther, Kick-Ass 2). Or maybe it’s the lead investigator after Morris, played by the similarly prolific genre familiar Derek Riddell (Shetland, Bodies, Crime, Fantastic Beasts, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Doctor Who).
A Scotland Yard copper played by Andi Osho (Shazam!, Sea of Souls, Good Omens, The Sandman) is fixated on Lexie for her husband’s murder. Prasanna Puwanarajah (The Crown, Line of Duty) plays the only good cop–a sympathetic investigator working for Riddell. He instantly believes Lexie’s sincerity, especially when Morris kidnaps Lexie’s kids to scare her into doing his bidding. Did I say Morris was particularly loathesome?
One the of the best of the red herrings (or is she more involved than she seems?) is Lexie’s Eastern European nanny Doris, played by TV newcomer Eileen Duffy. Every episode Doris is there, yet how did she get there? What is her backstory? And why doesn’t Lexie seem all that concerned with who murdered her husband? Even as the cards start to fall, and the murders are revealed, how do we know who was behind them? The story isn’t all that layered, but the tension and intrigue (and lack of extraneous, filler scenes) will have you believing that six-episode UK seasons are better than the U.S. ten.
We’re always on the lookout for the next great British / Irish / Scottish / UK / Aussie / NZ police procedural or mystery. Payback narrowly misses our top tier of British mysteries, which includes Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Van der Valk, Zen, Guilt, Case Histories, Shetland, Annika, The Hour, Hinterland, and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? But Payback comfortably lands among that high-quality second tier of British series, with Grace, Troppo, Professor T, Luther, Traces, Glitch, Mystery Road, Requiem, Marchlands, Lightfields, The Secret of Crickley Hall, Quirke, and the first season of Sherlock, and it is steps above series like The Bay, Unforgotten, Crime, Ordeal by Innocence, The Pale Horse, Collateral, Roadkill, A Confession, Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Salisbury Poisonings, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Stay Close, Thirteen, or Broadchurch.
It’s one of the best TV series of the year–in a big year of great series. Catch all six episodes of Payback now exclusively here on BritBox via Amazon in the U.S., and available via ITV in the UK.
