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Ellis: Series 1
R0 - United Kingdom - Acorn Media Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (18th January 2025). |
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The Film
 Returning from an extended period of leave, Detective Chief Inspector Ellis (Holby City's Sharon D. Clarke) is saved from desk work by her Assistant Chief Constable Leighton (Allison Harding) who sends her to take over a murder and a disappearance in "Hanmore" (91:54) . Essentially put in charge of the investigation due to the former Minister mother (A Dark Song's Catherine Walker) of the murder victim calling in a favor, the local force give her a frosty reception over the perception that they are lacking, particularly territorial DCI Jim Belmont (Wrath of Man's Chris Reilly) who has already alienated the community by arresting the girl's stepfather (MI-5's Michael Wildman) under suspicion of murdering his stepdaughter's boyfriend, putting the victim's father (Still LIfe's Wayne Foskett) on the warpath. As Ellis and her assigned local Detective Sergeant Chet Harper (Outlander's Andrew Gower) delve into the social lives of the missing teen and her murdered boyfriend, Belmont pursues his own leads, and the two end up undermining one another with their alternate approaches of circumstantial physical evidence versus the "funk in between the notes" of human motivations. Having burned his bridges with his former DCI, Harper joins Ellis on call as she is sent to "Callorwell" (93:54) when the disappearance of a female detective vanishes shortly after the arrest of local drug baron Carla Duffy (Orla Charlton) who is subsequently released on a lack of evidence. While Duffy and her small-time crook son (Cardboard Gangsters' Fionn Ó Loingsigh) seem as likely suspects as the suspect (Ballywalter's Paul Mallon) in a series of sexual assaults whose blamed the detective for leaking his name to the press and ruining his reputation, Ellis makes known right away her lack of trust in the department due to the botched arrest. Upon learning that the detective planned to wage a complaint of bullying against her DCI (The Infiltrator's Tim Dutton), Ellis must weigh the opinion of department spokesman DI Morrison (Daemon Mind's Sam Marks) of a woman scorned in a relationship with her superior with the charges of the missing detective's husband (The Ones Below's Jonathan Harden) of a police cover-up (especially when the death threat letters she received that he turned over to the police were conveniently destroyed). When the detective's body turns up and the coroner discovers that she was fourteen weeks pregnant, her husband and stepson (Michael McCloskey-Ooi) become just as credible suspects; yet, Ellis puzzles over the victim's extracurricular interest in the cases of a colleague (Aoibheann McCann) including a girl who overdosed just before Duffy's arrest. Finally, in "Brindleton" (92:45), the disappearance of newlywed social Rachel (Jade Matthew) and Oz Hoffman (Tama Matheson) is suspected as a possible joint suicide or murder-suicide when drops of blood are found on a ledge over the legendary Swelt Bridge, the river underneath of which has claimed multiple lives. This time around, local DCI Cotton (The Other Man's Amanda Drew) and her young sergeant Dent (Last Tango in Halifax's Josh Bolt) are eager for the help from Ellis and Harper, with the public perception of the investigation swayed by Rachel's father (Wilde's Michael Simkins) insisting that she was murdered by the groom, and various "citizen journalists" and true crime aficionados tracking the case on social media and overrunning investigation sites. When the forensic team turn up a seemingly unrelated severed hand at the crime scene, Ellis wonders whether the possible deaths of the celebrity couple might have been incidental to another crime. As she and Harper look into the couple's private life and Rachel's local circle of estranged friends and former bandmates, more motives and possible suspects crop up while the social media interest in the case continues to erode the reputation of the local police department.  Created by Paul Logue (Shetland) and Sian Martin with two out of the three episodes helmed respectively by Ryan Tohill and Andy Tohill, the latter pair probably had more of a hand in shaping the series' dreary Nordic noir-influenced tone that it shares with the their co-directed episodes of the dull Dalgleish reboot. Clarke's Ellis is in the "haunted" protagonist mode with a trauma hidden from the audience, some scenes indicating a strained relationship with her daughter, and an abrasive manner that puts off people both already inclined not to like her and those that try to get close. Clarke's and the character's best moments are when she is allowed to let slip the mask and convey some humanity be it compassion or annoynce; however, many other such moments seem more calculated and she comes across more like a detached grief counselor when she is trying to connect with family members of victims. Reilly's DCI in the first episode is a bit more of a heavy foil compared to the more passive aggressive supers of the second episode and the more sympathetic DCI of the third episode; but even with these small variations the formula is obvious from the first episode and with only three feature-length cases in the first series, monotony sets in right away and the extended running times are filled with thrown in characters and twists to make up for the lack of any substantive interaction between Ellis and the departments she and Harper visit. Gower's Harper makes a nice change to the rest of the show's tone with some comic relief, missing some protocol and details without coming across as overly-bumbling; indeed, the revelation that he has started long-distance courses in psychology seems less like another potential for comedy than a realistic dissatisfaction with his career path. The first case is relatively-diverting with a good reveal; however, the second case feels like more of the same. The third case is perhaps the best-realized, although one could argue that does not fully skewer the true crime armchair enthusiasts and how damaging they can be to ongoing investigations. Stylistically, the show is rather tired-looking with some hazy filters, shallow focus, and backlighting, and Ellis' visualizations of the ways crimes possibly unfolded with various suspects seen striking the death blow from the victim's POV distract from other scenes where we get to see Clarke conveying Ellis deductions non-verbally before she shows up her colleagues with a revelation; and she may be a little tone-deaf since she shows up both unlikable and likable colleagues for their missteps equally. If the show is to continue on, cozy mystery viewers would perhaps best enjoy it by focusing on the cases themselves rather than anticipating the usual slowly-revealed backstory and series-wide character arc which is sure to be as uninteresting as every other such haunted character in recent U.K. detective series. 
Video
Shot in high definition with plenty of landscape and drone shots, Ellis' anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen image is let down less by standard definition compression than by the post-production tinkering that gives the show a hazy, dreary look. The show's mastering was obviously optimized for streaming and digital television transmission as there is little in the way of fine detail apart from some close-ups. 
Audio
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track is dominated by dialogue and washes of music with some sedate atmosphere and a few pointed uses of the the stereo field for directional effects like the omnipresent "droning" of the first episode that clues the protagonist in to the missing girl's whereabouts. Optional English HoH subtitles are generally helpful but feature some transcription errors like sometimes referring to the first episode victim "Rowan" as "Ryan" due to the accents of some of the speakers. 
Extras
Extras are featured on the second disc including an image gallery and a behind the scenes (7:50) featuring the episode directors and the two leads discussing the approach to the material, the chemistry between the leads, and perhaps offering a clearer explanation of the basic premise than the series actually offers.
Overall
If Ellis is to continue on to a second series, cozy mystery viewers would perhaps best enjoy it by focusing on the cases themselves rather than anticipating the usual slowly-revealed backstory and series-wide character arcs.
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