Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Jing Lusi, Richard Armitage, Lesley Sharp, Jemma Moore, Dan Li, Cash Holland, Tai Yin Chan, Thomas Chaanhing, Mido Hardada, Aiden Cheng, Lucianne McEvoy, Jonathan Aris, Xiangyi Tan, Steph Lacey, Parker Sawyers, Daphne Cheung, Elaine Tan.
The detective drama could be said to have eaten itself, a truth of this can be found in its ever-increasing ways in searches for a way to be unique, to have the ‘room’ in which the murder occurs be as far from the drawing room mystery of old as possible, and perhaps be almost considered at times to be more concerned with the seemingly unerring device rather than the character of the piece.
Murder has found a way to have its cake and eat it, and whilst some will openly satisfy the hunger of the armchair detective with its novel way of expressing the hideous deed, there are many than have opted for position over substance, and some that huddle somewhere in between in the hope that the audience will be bowled over by the situation in which they ask the detective on screen to fulfil the deductive skills of the reasoned many but with an air of slickness that defies gravitas, that confronts reality and realism.
Red Eye is such a series that borders a place of detective possibility and unlikely scenario, a murder that has a man on the run fighting for his life is a reminder that the late, great Cary Grant made it look suave, elegant and progressive in his prime, now takes sheer understanding to even break sweat of the audience’s mind, and it is too that end that Richard Armitage does his level best to convince, but sadly fails, to emulate in his role as the hunted Dr. Matthew Nolan as he is accused mysteriously of murdering a woman whilst at a nightclub in Beijing.
The six-part series deals with the reality of Britain’s reliance on atomic energy being in the hands of a foreign power, one to which a close ally will feel goes against their own interests in U.K. politics and the repercussions of that decision play out across an airplane journey filled with tension, the pressure of proving innocence when guilt is overwhelmingly presumed is unyielding, and when placed against a race against time to stop further murders; such is the outcome that the premise, though well intentioned, soon falls into a mire of production and unreliability.
Red Eye has aspirations, of that it cannot be faulted, but like so many series conceived with high hopes, the finality of it all suffers from the turbulence of reality crashing in with little regard for the honesty and integrity of the drama.
In the end Red Eye departs with little consequence to the viewer’s life, it glides easily enough, but has little power to stop it from leaving nothing but vapour trails in the sky of detective dramas.
Ian D. Hall