I don't remember

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#24 : The Tourist

Following his appearance in the Fifty Shades trilogy, this twisty thriller set in Australia arrived as proof that Jamie Dornan is still capable of putting in a compelling performance, as his character wrestled with memory loss, assassins and monster trucks. Add in Danielle Macdonald’s show-stealing performance as a gutsy local copper coming out of her shell – plus the adorable relationship that develops between hers and Dornan’s character – and this was a show that wasn’t just packed with action, but which had real heart.

The lovely Mrs Reed watched this last year and liked it - but I never got round to following her lead.  Until now...

And well, it's got quite the start to it (once Jamie's been to the toilet, anyway) - it suddenly gets very suspenseful.  And from that point on, I'm not really sure how much I can or should tell you.  We are served up with a veritable feast of red herrings - we have an amnesiac, several double agents, one character with multiple identities, one character who doesn't even exist and one episode which is mostly a drug trip!  The tone also constantly switches - it keeps you on your toes in terms of what you're expecting to happen.  It's surprisingly violent - but only rarely, which makes it all the more shocking.  Also, at the same time, it manages to be pretty funny and also quite sweet at times.  And I think that's all the "detail" I'm going to give you.

As long as we accept the overall story is complete nonsense, it is well written - these are characters you either care about or you hate and you find yourself being drawn in to it.  But....

...when I got to the end, I couldn't help but feel a little bit conned - what had I actually learned about anyone over the six episodes I watched?  It felt like it started strongly with a good idea and they had some good twists in there, but looking back it felt they painted themselves into a corner somewhat and then used the drug trip episode to do a load of explaining which would have taken far too long otherwise.  It's well filmed though with the beautiful scenery contributing a lot - the Outback doesn't lack for wide open spaces and it's really well filmed to show it off here.  I'm not entirely sure why they chose to do a lot of the last two episodes in the dark though.

Jamie Dornan is good, but that wasn't a massive surprise to me - I saw him in The Fall and he was suitably menacing in that - here he is a pleasing combination of menace, nice guy and amnesiac. I'm pleased to report I've not seen him in any of his 50 Shades work though - I have a sneaking suspicion I might not be quite so impressed.  Danielle MacDonald is also great as Helen Chambers - it's a good role for someone aiming to show personal growth and she takes her opportunity with both hands and plays it really well.

The rest of the case is good, with a few familiar faces popping up - Shalom Brune-Franklin (Line Of Duty, Great Expectations), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Entrapped, Succession - he's a long way from home!) and Damon Herriman (Justified, The Nightingale).  Greg Larsen (who I didn't previously know) is also worth mentioning, being good in a most unsympathetic role.

So overall, it's a good rather than a great - it's diverting nonsense which is well acted with characters you care about. I felt a bit let down at the end, but I'll still be checking out season two to see where they take things (and it's always possible that a late request for season two contributed to some of issues).  At time of writing, it's available to watch on iPlayer.

#22 - Good rather than great
#26 - A very enjoyable watch