Review by C.J. Bunce
What prompted wealthy magnate Jack Wright to change his will then promptly kill himself? Was it blackmail? Or was he murdered? Too bad–you don’t get to know–at least in the first season of the new BritBox series I, Jack Wright, an otherwise nicely orchestrated drama centering on family members contesting the family patriarch’s will. Will there even be a second season? We don’t know that either. Often we encounter one-season series that get canceled too soon (we discussed that yesterday here at borg). Then there are series that spectacularly do all they need to do in only one season (like The Queen’s Gambit, Station Eleven, The Outsider, Culprits, Mrs. Davis, The Offer, The Last Tycoon, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?). In every way I, Jack Wright felt like it belonged in this latter group. Did they really need to stretch this story out beyond six episodes? The series aired last month in the UK and finished its weekly release on BritBox in the U.S. this week. The finale ends with only a few major questions answered and a cliffhanger “to be continued”–without any second year renewal confirmed.
The series is good, a fine mix of mystery writing and top actors. Leaving behind two ex-wives, a young current wife and lots of children and grandchildren, Jack Wright led a life that was a mess–but only certain people knew the details. Director Tom Vaughan and writer and Unforgotten creator Chris Lang succeeded in revving up the intrigue to maximum effect. The only piece missing was the payoff in the season (now series?) finale. Bookended by snippets from interviews with the key players a few years after the death of Jack Wright and the case at the heart of the tale, Wright v. Wright, viewers already know some of the ending. The all-star British cast includes John Simm, Gemma Jones, Zoe Tapper, Harry Lloyd, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, and Nikki Amuka-Bird, with Amuka-Bird in the leading role as Sally, Jack’s third wife of 17 years. In the end–which we saw in those snippets from the first episode–she finds herself in jail, and hints point us to what happened in the finale. But we don’t know anything for certain.
When the will is read, a will she saw written but was surprisingly re-written, she learns she inherits basically nothing to continue her high lifestyle. Her son gets nothing, too, but her daughter is left a million pounds. Jack’s first wife, played by Gemma Jones, is dying of cancer, and maintained a civil relationship since her divorce. She gets a good inheritance, too. But Jack’s two elder sons don’t fare well either. At least viewers get one big answer: The outcome of the court case itself. But the judge’s decision is only about whether the estate should be re-apportioned, not whether anyone actually caused Jack’s death. U.S. audiences will be surprised by the nuances of will interpretations in England, vastly different than how they are typically handled in the States.
Jack’s son Gray, played by Doctor Who and Life on Mars star John Simm, is a gambler and a loser by all counts, repeatedly beaten up by loan sharks, always drinking and doing drugs, always begging family for money and blaming everyone but himself for his plight. Simm has expanded his profile of good and bad roles fully now to completely fill out the Dungeons & Dragons ethical alignment chart. Gray is not the “chaotic evil” of the Master he played in Doctor Who, but he’s far less like Simm’s Sam Tyler on Life on Mars and nothing like his good-guy detective on Grace. That translates to six episodes that are worth watching for Simm’s performance alone. The other characters are a bonus, like his well-intentioned brother John, played by Daniel Rigby, who excels here at showing angst and disappointment at all levels. His future is a curious one viewers were hoping to learn more about.
If there is angst for the audience, it’s probably with the handling of Gray’s young entrepreneurial daughter Emily Wright (played by Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, daughter of actor and director Andy Serkis), who inherits most of Jack’s money and the top job at the company until the will is challenged by her father, uncle, and step-grandmother Sally. We learn one of her secrets, that Jack assaulted her while she was a teen. The police don’t appear to show any sympathy for her. And did that even lead to a conspiracy for Jack’s murder? No, we don’t know that answer, either. (Seems like a red herring, no?) The one major character that gets short shrift is John’s wife, played by Simm’s Grace co-star Zöe Tapper, who revs up her vile side for this role, which is ultimately not fleshed out enough.
As much fun as watching John Simm’s Gray Wright be smarmy (and getting nearly beaten to death for it), is Counterpart, Legion, Doctor Who, and The Lost King star Harry Lloyd as the man responsible for figuring out this mystery, DCI Hector Morgan. The first hint that the season is going to end unresolved, that this story is intended to extend beyond the first season, is when DCI Morgan’s personal life gets sent into chaos in the first half of the season finale.
Is it all that bad that Simm, Lloyd, Amuka-Bird, Rigby, Jones, and Serkis all will need to be back for the next season? Heck no. This is a compelling story. It may also give the writers the opportunity to do more with Tapper and Hijack’s Liz Kingsman, who plays Morgan’s lieutenant in all the sleuthing, DC Katie Jones. But it does feel like the writers are trying to squeeze more out of the story than is there. Will we ever learn what really happened? That’s in the hands of the studios now. Until then, for some good writing and even better acting, catch the first six episodes of I, Jack Wright, now streaming on BritBox via Prime Video. Hopefully we learn of the second season renewal soon before the cast take on other projects.
Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series, beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including Van Der Valk, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, The Day of the Jackal, Professor T, Supacell, and the first season of Sherlock, plus Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, (I, Jack Wright would fall here), Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The One, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.
Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include police procedurals Luther and Case Histories, fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and “cozy mysteries” Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later seasons were a disappointment).
