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The Escape Artist; Episodes 1 & 2


*Possible spoilers*

David Tennant is back in my life! Hooray! And Masterpiece Mystery is back in town. My world is temporarily brighter for it.

Tennant plays a barrister, Will Burton (hopefully a soon-to-be silk), who defends a man, Liam Foyle, who has been accused of sadistically murdering a woman. It's obvious he thinks the man is guilty but, as he says, 'Everyone deserves a defense' (yes, I'm 99.9% sure I misquoted him), and of course everyone is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. But we all know this guy did it. He's nuts, but not in a particularly loud way. The actor portraying him, Toby Kebbell, does an amazing job of getting that across. You can sense the undercurrent of barely controlled rage and psychosis. Unfortunately, Burton is far too good at his job, and Foyle is far too clever a killer. He gets away with the whole thing, and we soon see why this series is called 'The Escape Artist'.

It quickly comes to bite Burton in the ass, however. I wasn't entirely sure how they were going to stretch this series out to two episodes, but I get it now.

My only real complaint is the stupidity of one or two characters. I'm not sure I can elaborate much without spoiling it, so, uh, spoiler alert: if I saw some guy creeping on me from a second story window (or any window, but seriously, second story!!) I would a) not go there alone with my child ever again. Seriously. And b) no really, never again! I would be on friggin' DEFCON level one. I'd surround myself with safe people if possible, and pack some grenades, maybe some knives, and probably a nail gun. Nail guns are interesting. He totally wouldn't see that coming. He would get nailed! I should also mention that it's slightly awkward when a serial killer is attractive. I hate Liam Foyle, but he's easy on the eyes. You don't often see vicious killers played by handsome actors, do you?

For me, the conclusion was both clever and unsatisfying. I appreciate the smarts behind it, but it lacked the suspense and creepy factor that the first episode possessed. Still, it's an overall good two episodes, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good suspense/mystery.

My grade: B+
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