REVIEW: Innocent, Series 1 'Episode Two'

 REVIEW: Innocent, Series 1 'Episode Two'

Being wrongly convicted for a crime you did not predict must play havoc with your mind. It's not hard to imagine that people in that scenario would have all sort of thoughts going through their mind, trying to make sense of how they could be found guilty something that they know for a fact they are innocent of. It would be impossible for the criminal justice system to be perfect, after all. There's bound to be mistakes now and then.

In this episode of Innocent, you get a great sense of how much David's (Lee Ingleby) wrongful conviction is affecting him on an emotional level. He's convinced himself that his best friend Tom (Elliot Cowan) committed the murder and framed him for it, and it shows how much it has been plaguing his mind. This scene really digs into the psychological aspect of it all, and how somebody in this situation would be constantly hunting for that person to be blamed. Their life has been ruined, and there has to be somebody to blame for that.

As his brother Phil (Daniel Ryan) says though, it's time for him to move on from Tom's affair with his late wife Tara. Both we the viewers and Phil can see it's not doing much for his mental state, and there's two nicely symbolic moments in this episode where David and Phil burn flyers regarding David's guilty verdict and photos of himself with Tara. It's a really moving piece of direction that communicates what David must learn to do as a character. 

Tara's sister Alice (Hermione Norris) is quite a sympathetic character. We learn of how she's the one who cannot conceive rather than her partner Rob (Adrian Rawlins), and that she had a heated argument with Tara before her murder, when Tara refused to give her any more money for her IDF treatment. The inability to conceive is obviously quite a serious real world issue, but it's handled with real care and delicacy here. You get the sense that this is understandably an embarrassing topic for Alice, and one that she'd rather hide rather than face it full on. You can understand why she's so determined to hang on to David's kids, as they are currently her only hope of having a family. 

One of David's kids, Jack (Fionn O'Shea), decides to send his Dad a Facebook request and arranges to meet up with him behind Alice's back. This results in a really well written emotional scene between the pair, where Jack confides in his Dad why he feels unable to find a romantic partner. He doesn't want to get too close out of fear that he will lose them as he has done his Mum, which highlights just how much the situation has affected him personally. He's effectively become disillusioned by the concept of life, and he doesn't want to go through the pain of losing someone who means something to him after what happened to his Mum. It really shows just how much a murder can affect the loved ones of the victim who are left behind.

The police DI Will (Nigel Lindsay) has a lot to answer for. In this episode it's revealed that he took the law into his own hands and interfered with the evidence to ensure that a guilty verdict was reached, as he didn't trust the criminal justice system to give what he considered the right result. This is quite a stark reminder of just how corrupt these investigations have the potential to be, without anybody even realising it. Here we have a man who effectively decided to be both judge and jury, and nobody was any the wiser until the case was reopened. It adds an interesting layer to this first series, as we see there's a level of corruption at play. 

Just as Will's corruption comes to light, we are once again reminded that David does have violent tendencies, as he tries to drown Tom, who confronts him on the beach. It's a really effective way to add seeds of doubt into the audience's mind, as even though the show is entitled 'Innocent' there's still that thought in the back of your mind wondering if he was responsible for Tara's murder after all. It essentially places you in the minds of the characters who are stuck in this constant limbo of wondering whether or not David is responsible now he has been let off on a technicality.

Overall, Innocent's first series continues to be an excellent piece of drama. It's a gripping story about a man who was seemingly wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife Tara, with interesting characters and some strong directing behind the camera. With only four episodes in the first series, it means episode two is already the halfway point of the series, but as the old saying goes, 'It's the quality that matters, not the quantity'. 

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What are your thoughts on Innocent's second episode? Let me know in the comments section.