Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: John Simm, Amit Shah, Christina Chong, Craig Parkinson, James Tarpey, Kristy Philipps, Richie Campbell, Michael D. Xavier, Mitchell Hunt, Alex Price, Cassie Clare, Rakie Ayola, Owen Roberts, Sidney Kean, Sally Edwards, Laura Elphinstone, William Andrews, Brad Morrison, Henry Miller, Callum Coates, Steven Elder, Darren Tighe, Matt Barkley, Boo Golding, Lauren O’Neil, Nicholas Khan, Adrian Rawlings, Louis Boyer, Austin Hardiman, Robyn Ashwood, Katie Brayben, James Barriscale.
For all that the internet has given us, the freedom, the choice, the novel, and the ability to be more than we were destined to be, it is the darkness, the web encased in shadow and evil that catches the drama, the fear, and gives us a glimpse into a world where the civilised would be shocked, and the dangers of a world caught in the dark web would have us burn our computers in rebellion.
The dark web, a place of sheer malevolence, all of humanities most destructive traits, a bubble that feeds on death, misery, the illegal, and the downright immoral, and one that once ensnared is difficult to leave. For in this web, you are caught by the most hideous of bulbous deadly predators, and the lengths they go to destroy you is unfathomable to the decency of the vast majority.
It is this world that the episode of Grace, Looking Dead Good is shrouded against, a secret world to which Zack Bryce and his wife Sophie, played by Amiy Shah and Christina Chong, are thrust into by the husband’s curiosity at finding a left behind pen-drive on a train which he then, as if he had never heard the Greek legend of Pandora and her box of ills, uses to enter this dark sphere of human existence.
The criminal act, the sites that can be accessed are enough to drain the will of hope, and it is with in mind that Grace and his team, including Craig Parkinson as DS Norman Potting and Laura Elphinstone as DS Bella Moy, can feel their way being dragged by out, strung out, and is a testament to the creatives and the actors that such a theme was handled without sensationalism, without overstatement, just enough on screen to shock but not leave the viewer numb.
Curiosity is a value of humanity, but we have to be aware that like no good deed, it rarely goes unpunished, and even with the ability to police such devious minds and their craft, we have to remain extra vigilant to the real danger that lurks behind the one creation that can solve problems, that has released the freedom we all wish in which to create and share, for as DSI Grace it is a peek behind a curtain he wishes he never made.
A huge concept for the writer and cast to get behind, one that could have been exaggerated for effect, but which thankfully was treated with respect and dignity. Looking Dead Good is grace under pressure forewarned.
Ian D. Hall