Roush Review: A Deadly Cat-and-Mouse Game in ‘We Hunt Together’
Review
Behold the tale of two odd couples, on opposite sides of the law. It’s hard to tell who’s more mismatched in We Hunt Together, a grisly and gripping six-part British crime drama.
Representing law and order: Det. Sgt. Lola Franks (Torchwood‘s terrific Eve Myles), brusque, humorless and none too pleased to be partnered with the relentlessly chipper Det. Insp. Jackson Mendy (a disarming Babou Ceesay), ostensibly her superior but new to homicide from the internal affairs division.
Their first case together—”serious, heavy-duty stuff,” Lola observes at the initial crime scene—puts them on the lethal trail of a very funky twosome: amoral Freddy (Hermione Corfield, sly and chilling), a deceptively girlish phone-sex worker with a very murky childhood who seduces the haunted Baba (soulful Dipo Ola) into becoming her murderous protector. Baba, an African immigrant seeking redemption from his brutal youth as a child soldier, is in way over his head as the smitten, conflicted Clyde to this remorseless Bonnie.
Freddy is a master manipulator, urging Baba to do her bidding as she settles grudges, eventually pulling her brutish but emotionally vulnerable companion into the darkest recesses of her past. She also enjoys toying with the cops, who are less than amused by her antics as they defy their bosses to keep pursuing a case with multiple dead ends (sometimes quite literally).
(BBC Studios/UKTV/Ludovic Robert)
“I’m used to feeling smarter than most people I meet,” Freddy smugly informs the detectives in an interview, later teasing, “Some people just have a darkness inside them.” As if we didn’t know.
The closer Lola and Jackson come to snaring their prey, the more their styles clash. It’s par for the course these days for the forces of good to battle their own psychological demons, and these heroes are no exception. (Lola has guilt and addiction issues, while Jackson’s home life is far from perfect.) But as the season reaches its inevitably bloody climax, with the net tightening around the fugitive lovers in a tense standoff, we’re left hoping there will be many more hunts in their future.
We Hunt Together, Series Premiere, Sunday, August 9, 10/9c, Showtime
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