Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Manhunt’ On Acorn TV, A Miniseries About A Real-Life Murder Case That Led To A Serial Killer

British series about murder investigations are always less sensational than their American counterparts. But few are as patient as Acorn TV’s three-part series Manhunt. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s slow or boring. Read on for more on this interesting miniseries…

MANHUNT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We push in on a young woman enjoying a dinner with friends at a bistro. Then a man finds the same woman lying unconscious and bloody on the nearby Twickenham Green.

The Gist: The victim, a young French woman named Amelie Delagrange, dies from her injuries, and a task force is put together to solve her murder. In charge of the task force is DCI Colin Sutton (Martin Clunes), a soft-spoken man who hasn’t had a chance to lead an investigation this size during his long career. As he studies the facts of the case, some of the aspects of it align with another recent murder, and he thinks they’re connected, despite the fact that a suspect has been on a psychiatric hold for months.

He’s not the only one; his closest confidante on the task force, DS Jo Brunt (Katie Lyons) as well as his second-in-command, DI Richard Ambrose (Nicholas Burns), worked on the previous case and he thinks all the earmarks are there, as well. Sutton is proceeding with this investigation in a slow and systematic manner, tracing the victim’s route via CCTV, and trying to piece together information via tiny bits of evidence from the towers her cell phone communicated with to trying to find a vehicle that took a route from the green to the Thames, where her phone and other belongings are dumped. His boss, DCS Andy Murphy (Peter Forbes) gets impatient, because the people in the affluent Twickenham neighborhood are anxious that there’s a serial killer out there and they want answers.

Meanwhile, Sutton’s wife Louise (Claudie Blakley), a police forensic data scientist, not only encourages Sutton to use some of the methods her office has developed, but is packing the house because they’re preparing to move. She also wants Sutton to retire or at least scale back after this case, because she wants to see the happy guy that was around before they got married and his daughter was little.

Our Take: Manhunt is based on a real-life case that happened in the Twickenham neighborhood in London in 2004. The reason why the case was so sensational is because the real-life Sutton and his task force eventually linked the killing to two others and nabbed a serial killer in the process. Murders don’t happen too often in that neighborhood, which made it perfect fodder for the tabloids and local media.

Creator Ed Whitmore (Strike Back) made the wise decision to focus on the police work that went into finding the killer, rather than the more sensational aspects of the case. And Clunes manages to show Sutton’s quiet but highly competent and thorough manner in leading the investigation. Clunes generally stays soft-spoken — except when he yells at French police officials who want him to break the news to Amelie’s parents on the phone — but he also does a great job with Sutton’s confidence in his instincts and convictions. Sutton knows that these cases are linked, and that a slow and steady investigation will turn up a detail that might otherwise be overlooked. If the real-life Sutton is anything like how Clunes plays him, it’s no wonder that the case got solved the way it did.

Overall, the show is decidedly low-key for a show that’s about a murder investigation. Yes, it’s three parts, meaning that there’s a little room to stretch and slow the pace down. But, then again, having only about 135 minutes total to tell this story means that Whitmore can dispense with teases and anything else that stretches out the drama, which is music to a viewer’s tired ears and eyes.

Sex and Skin: Not that kind of show so far.

Parting Shot: After spotting a white van on CCTV footage from near where Amelie was found, Sutton drives along the route where the bus that shot that footage went, seeing if he can find that van.

Sleeper Star: Lyons is pretty good as Jo Brunt; she’s the only one on the team who feels she can challenge Sutton’s decisions, and he welcomes that feedback. It’ll be interesting to see this mentor-mentee relationship play out over the miniseries.

Most Pilot-y Line: Sutton offers Ambrose a coffee from the machine at the hospital where Amelie’s autopsy will be performed. “Cappuccino? Latte? I have to tell you, they both taste exactly the same.” Oh, that dry British humor!

Our Call: STREAM IT. Manhunt examines its real-life case in a way that won’t burn you out and won’t bore you to tears. That and Clunes’ confident performance will keep you watching.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Manhunt on Acorn TV