The Red King — Discredited cop digs into creepy island folk horror mystery

Review by C.J. Bunce

The Wicker Man, The Prisoner, Hot Fuzz minus the funny. The Red King is a very different brand of police procedural, although its roots are strongly tied to historical underpinnings. Celtic rituals, Scottish rites, Britain and its neighbors all have been explored for ages with an eye toward native customs, some trickling into the world of today. Pagan rituals in Britain predate the Roman invasion. In modern fiction stories all seem to get swallowed up in the genre of folk horror, and The Red King is definitely that. When a discredited fish-out-of-water cop is exiled to the fictional Welsh island called St. Jory, instead of getting distracted by the strange totems and costume parade she digs into what happened to a missing young boy.

Anjli Mohindra (Vigil, Doctor Who, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) is Detective Sergeant Grace Narayan. She accepts her fate at St. Jory with a certain aplomb. Despite what everyone says, she is a good cop, incorruptible even, after 25 years working cases. As she digs into the crime she learns that the island has some secret believers in the Old Ways. Here that’s via a cult called the True Way–a cult they deny still exists, even if they publicly display it for tourists. But when the tourists leave, something happens. Is it tied to a strange storm called Widow’s Wail that arrives every year and shuts down the island’s communications and ability to leave? In six hour-long episodes viewers will learn who is in the cult and who is not, and how that relates to the missing boy.

The approach isn’t as disturbing as the likes of folk horror flicks like Midsommar or even The Wicker Man, although Brits have made it clear that they must have some kind of recurring collective nightmare of this brand of pagan horror since it keeps coming back. Oddly enough the framework of this entry into the genre follows that of the Cornetto Trilogy comedy Hot Fuzz, down to the exiled cop, the seemingly peaceful community hiding a big secret, and the green young cop under the wing of the new cop. Any humor here comes from the viewer hanging on to Grace’s side as she encounters and responds deadpan to all the strange brands of the unusual that pepper the community. But it also comes from the refreshing Maeve Courtier-Lilley (Gran Turismo) as Winter Bain, daughter of pub owner Lowri (played by Death Valley’s Lu Corfield). Winter is one of those young women who is stuck where she was raised and would do anything to get out. She clings to Grace to the point of distraction, yet her personality even makes Grace fall for her charms.

James Bamford (Luther: The Fallen Son) plays Owen, the young cop Grace must redirect and teach to unlearn all he was taught under former detective Gruffudd Prosser, played by Mark Lewis Jones (Master and Commander, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), who refuses to let go of his role in the community. Owen is from the same mold as Finn Bennett’s Peter Prior in season four of True Detective. He’s the kind of guy you want in law enforcement, and he’s willing to be loyal to the new boss, even if that means putting him at odds with his family, especially his young wife.

Van Der Valk star Marc Warren is Dr. Prideaux, who Grace first encounters in the drunk tank at the local jail. He’s also the father of the missing boy named Cai. Why does the community seem so disinterested in finding Cai? Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton) plays Lady Nancarrow. She owns nearly all the property on the island but doesn’t immediately seem like a good suspect. And who would ever suspect the local preacher on an island of pagans? He’s played by Sam Swainsbury.

Most Americans have no idea how diverse and varied the British Isle communities are even today. You get a glimpse of these–especially all of those accents–if you’ve ever watched the multiple decades of the Antiques Road Trip show, which takes viewers throughout the realm. Viewers will get lots of Welsh culture mixed in with the fantasy, like the fact that Gruffudd (like in Ioan Gruffudd) is pronounced Griffith (and you will want to watch this show with the benefit of closed captioning to catch all the dialogue).

It’s the kind of series you could pair with similarly creepy shows like Picnic at Hanging Rock, Requiem, and The Gloaming, and the cult examination in The Clearing. My only reservation in recommending this show is a choice in the final episode, where I don’t believe the writer served the lead character with her final actions. Still, some good acting, a short season to get it all in, and nicely filmed cinematography make this one worth checking out. The Red King is now streaming on AMC+ via Prime Video.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, or Acorn TV) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including The Artful Dodger, Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Deadloch, Troppo, Case Histories, Vigil, This is Going to Hurt, Black Snow, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell. After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Population 11, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Red King, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, 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 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, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, 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 episodes were a disappointment).