This isn’t an easy TV show. BBC One’s new four-part legal thriller, The Victim centres around a tense and knotty court case that’ll have you uncertain who to trust and which side – if any – to be on. Ready to question the power (and detriment) of social media? Prepared for a weeklong ride of being unsure about the very premise of justice? Poised to be sucked into another wildly fascinating thriller? If you enjoyed Cheat, you’ll have a lot of time for this one, too.
In this series, we take a trip to Scotland. We’re introduced to Anna Dean (Kelly Macdonald) on Halloween. Fifteen years ago, her 9-year-old son Liam was murdered and to this day, she feels like justice wasn’t quite served. Her son’s killer, Eddie J. Turner, was given a new identity after being released from a seven-year sentence and, until now, no one has known who he was. At least, that’s what it seems.
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We soon meet Craig Myers (James Harkness), a bus driver with a young daughter who he’s promised to take trick-or-treating in the local area. Back home towards the end of the night he answers his front door, expecting trick-or-treaters, but is instead brutally attacked by someone in full fancy dress with a mask concealing their identity. It’s terrifying and very, very bloody.
D.I. Grover (John Hannah) is on the case and soon discovers that Craig was attacked after a photo of him outside his house was shared on Facebook with a caption claiming that he is the notorious child murderer, Eddie J. Turner. It’s unclear who attacked Craig, but it wouldn’t be a huge jump to presume that whoever turned up at his house on Halloween was prompted by the social media post – at least that’s the lead the police seem to be following. Is it a case of mistaken identity? It seems so, but there’s something else lurking behind Craig’s story and his relationship with his wife, Rebecca.
Throughout the episodes we jump around in time, in- and outside the courtroom. It’s a little unclear who’s really on trial, though. Is Anna on trial for inciting an attack on an innocent man, or is Craig up against it and a few questions away from being outed as the man who killed her son? Who’s really the victim in all of this and can there be more than one?
The entire series is a web of stories that criss-cross one another, revealing just enough from each person's perspective for us to jump to premature conclusions. You'll find yourself questioning who's at fault for what and whether or not our moral compasses are calibrated correctly. It gets heavy very quickly and you won't be ready for what is lurking in the shadows in every corner.
As with all good thrillers, a sense of foreboding lingers like a dark cloud above many of the characters and Anna is definitely one of them. In an early scene she's getting ready to leave work – she's a nurse with a patient who refuses to speak to anyone but her. On taking a small bottle of pills from the mysterious young man who's waited for her, she tells him: "Act like a victim and you’ll be treated as one." We've got four episodes to see just how far the sentiment applies to her, too.
The Victim starts on BBC One on 8th April and will be shown over four consecutive days