Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Barking Murders’ On BritBox, Where Stephen Merchant Plays A Serial Killer Brought To Justice By His Victims’ Families

We get why BritBox has marketed The Barking Murders the way it has here in the States; Stephen Merchant is the show’s best-known star in the U.S., and it shows him in a much different role than we’re used to seeing. But the show, called Four Lives in the U.K., is more about the families of the victims of Merchant’s serial killer character than about the killer himself.

THE BARKING MURDERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “Undergraduate Degree Show 2014. Middlesex University.” A crowd is there to see the show, starting with the multimedia fashion show by Anthony Walgate (Tim Preston).

The Gist: Anthony is close to his mother, Sarah Sak (Sheridan Smith), who was at the fashion show with him and his grandmother. He’s definitely got potential in the fashion business. To make ends meet as a student, he sometimes takes money to have sex with men, who contact him on an escort web site. He answers the request of a man in Barking, who offers 800 quid despite living in the working-class neighborhood.

Anthony is later found at the door of an apartment building, sitting on the ground and unresponsive. Stephen Port (Stephen Merchant), who lived in the next building, reported the body to 999, and his answers to the responding police officer are clipped and monotone. Sarah, who is on holiday with her husband, doesn’t find out for a day or two, but once she’s back home, she gets frustrated with the lack of information coming from the police and the fact that Anthony’s body is still being held.

Port is brought in for questioning, given the fact that his deleted profile is linked to the escort site; the story he gives is rife with inconsistencies, but he finally tells cops that they did had sex and he panicked when he realized Anthony became unresponsive, so he moved him to that doorway.

In the meantime, Gabriel Kovari (Jakub Svec), a recent Slovakian transplant, is befriended by John Pape (Rufus Jones), who, after they go on an online date, offers to rent a room in his flat to Gabriel when he knows they won’t be more than friends. It works out well, but weeks later, Gabriel decides to move out for more privacy. He finds a guy in Barking on a couch-surfing site: Stephen Port. Port introduces Gabriel to his neighbor, Ryan Edwards (Samuel Barnett); Gabriel tells Ryan that when they’re alone, Stephen turns almost dangerously strange. When Stephen tells Ryan that Gabriel has suddenly left, it’s not a stretch to think of what happened next.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The creepiness of Merchant’s performance as Stephen Port gives The Barking Murders the feel of Des, another recent serial killer series from the UK.

Our Take: The Barking Murders, created by Neil McKay, is based on a true story; Stephen Port is in prison for assaulting and killing 4 men between 2014 and 2015. The title is a change from when it aired on BBC One earlier this year; in England, it’s called Four Lives, and that title is a bit more indicative of what this series is really about.

We don’t usually mention a show’s marketing in a critique, but because BritBox is promoting the show here under the new title with Merchant as the draw — watch the funnyman play a creepy serial killer! — it changes the viewer’s expectations going in. While Merchant gives a fantastic performance as the weird, socially crippled and homicidal Port, he is not at the center of the series. It’s about his victims and their families’ search to bring him to justice, and that gives the show a fresher perspective.

Here, Sheridan Smith leads the way as Sarah Sak. She’s frustrated that the family liaison officer she’s assigned, DC Slaymaker (Michael Jibson), isn’t even meeting with her. She’s dismayed that Anthony was selling his body on an escort site to make ends meet. And she’s convinced that he’s not a victim of an accidental overdose.

Her fight, along with the efforts of the friends and families of Port’s other victims, are what’s going to drive the storytelling. That feels like the right way to go, because, as brilliant as Merchant is as Port, leaning on the killer’s perspective is almost always one-note. Here, we get the perspective of not just the people who know his victims best but of his neighbor Ryan, who has somehow befriended Port and will likely have some doubts as the lies pile up about these young men’s deaths.

Sex and Skin: None, at least on screen.

Parting Shot: Sarah explodes at DC Slaymaker over the lack of information on Anthony’s case; the cop hangs up on her and she sobs in grief and anger.

Sleeper Star: Rufus Jones will be a key figure as John Pape. Though he didn’t know Gabriel well, he came to be quite fond of the young man during the time Gabriel stayed with him, and he’ll be the “family” that helps the authorities finally nail down Port.

Most Pilot-y Line: The detectives investigating Anthony’s case keep calling him “Antony,” and his friend China (Isabella Laughland) has to keep correcting them. It might be a sign that the police care very little about the victim because they consider him a sex worker, but it’s one of those details that might pass over viewers’ heads.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you go into The Barking Murders with the right frame of mind, it’s a tense and emotional drama about Stephen Port’s victims and their families.

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, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.