REVIEW: Big Sky, Series 1 Episode One 'Pilot'

 REVIEW: Big Sky, Series 1 Episode One 'Pilot'

Ever since Disney Plus launched last year in the UK, many of us have been asking for adult content to be added to the streaming service. And so, here we are. Disney Plus now has a whole section named 'Star', dedicated to content deemed unsuitable for family audiences.

When a new section is added to anything, there's always one question you ask for yourself: 'What do I watch first?' For me, I decided to go with Big Sky, a new Star Original series concerning detectives investigating into a missing persons case involving two sisters and a prostitute, and a mysterious trucker.

This series was shot during the pandemic, and so there are repeated references to the current COVID situation the world has been faced with since March 2020. Other than characters referring to the pandemic, however, in this first episode at least it's not so noticeable. Characters still stand fairly close to each other and don't really socially distance, and it does feel as though they could have done more to establish the time that this drama is set in. Perhaps they could have shown characters wearing face masks, or squirting hand sanitiser onto their hands?

On the other hand, the cinematography is beautiful. There are some wonderfully eery nighttime shots of the forest scenery as the truck passes with the missing people inside, helping to create a cold and unforgiving vibe to proceedings.

I like the set up also, with our protagonists, private detectives Jenny (Katheryn Winnick) and Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) both madly in love with Jenny's ex Cody (Ryan Phillipe). Jenny believes she still has a chance of making things worth with her ex husband Cody, whereas Cassie has been led to believe that things are over between him and Jenny, and it creates a really unique vibe for these detective partners to be at each others throats rather than working together in the typical detective/assistant partnership you normally get in these type of detective crime thrillers.

At first I wasn't sure what to make of police detective Rick Legarski. Something seemed strange about the way he referred to his wife as 'Mother', and his whole demeanour whilst helping the tourist with the Ford Focus did not appear entirely natural to my eyes. So I was not all that surprised when the reveal came, and it ended badly for Cody. John Carroll Lynch plays Rick brilliantly; he conveys this presence that feels ever so slightly off, his performance projecting this general unease that really makes you start to question who can or cannot be trusted in this murky world.

Equally brilliant is Brian Geraghty as Ronald Pergman, who embodies his character with so much sinister threat and menace. This really is not a truck driver you would want to encounter on a dark night. Much like with the best villains that are portrayed in film and television, Ronald is a character who you can immediately sympathise and understand, even if his motives are unjustifiable and wrong. His mother displays a complete disregard towards him, almost as though she sees him as a blight on her family, and it seems almost as though she doesn't even want him around. You can see why a man like Ronald would turn out this way, and you wonder had his mother shown a bit more consideration for a man clearly down on his luck, if things may have turned out somewhat differently.

The first episode of this drama series is let down by something that could easily be a turn off for many viewers, and that's a pair of very annoying characters who never fail to infuriate whenever they grace the screen. I'm talking of sisters Danielle and Grace Sullivan, who are the most loud and overbearing 'damsels in distress' you could possibly imagine. Before Danielle and Grace are even kidnapped, these characters are irritating, with their constant whining and arguments between one another over whether the car is running out of fuel or has a radiator problem.

Danielle is the worst of the pair, constantly disregarding everything her sister says, and generally acting like a jerk. She even decides it a good idea to race the truck that Ronald is driving after Ronald shows a sign of aggression on the road, and then acts surprised when he seems to be following them! She is so irredeemably stupid and self-centered that it's no surprise when she ends up getting herself and her sister kidnapped. She's the dumbest character I have seen on television all week, possibly of all time, and I'll be surprised if any other character ever comes close to her lack of intelligence. She makes Joey Essex look like he has an Oxford degree!

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What are your thoughts on Big Sky's first episode? Let me know in the comments.