Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Victoria Haralabidou, Greg Larson, Conor MacNeil, Olwen Fouéré, Francis Magee, Réginal-Roland Kudiwu, Diarmaid Murtagh, Nessa Matthews, Mark McKenna, Nathan Page.
The first series of The Tourist was the kind of instant television hit that had the nation talking, the sun-baked Noir outback of Australia’s dusty landscape acting as the perfect accomplice to the mystery that saw Jamie Dornan’s amnesiac Man search for the answers to his predicament and the salvation in which he comes to understand as his life becomes one of cat and mouse, of damnation.
Arguably the series was given its huge appeal due to the combination of Jamie Dornan, riding high in the public’s affection on the back of The Fall and films such as Anthropoid and A Private War, and the Australian duo of Danielle Macdonald and Greg Larson; their interactions adding a conviction that might have been lost in lesser hands.
The fact that all three returned for a second series of The Tourist is to be acknowledged, and by moving forward in the most appropriate way, of finding a resolution to the conundrum of a name, the heading home to a war between families in rural Ireland is a convincing drama, one that runs deep in the blood for some, one that focuses the mind of continual revenge and retribution.
The second series continues with the in-depth fear of the unknown, and whilst it seems that by going back to Ireland, driven by false information and unlocked secrets, and the inclusion of three stunning actors from the country, Conor MacNeil, Francis Magee, and Olwen Fouéré, is a process of drama that was required, and it catches the throat when you understand that the family dynamic and sense of honour is so deeply imbedded, that even one person who shows sympathy to the other side could be deemed a danger to everything they hold dear.
A seriously designed drama, one that does waste time with flippancy or the unnecessary, but one that finds solace in a comfort of the rugged Noir. The Tourist continues to roam free with conviction.
Ian D. Hall