Posts Tagged ‘Marchlands’

TV Review: Case Sensitive

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Two parter Case Sensitive was tipped to be a cross between eerie ITV drama Marchlands and a detective programme so we had high hopes for the programme when it kicked off on Monday night.
Unfortunately the first part wasn’t as disturbing, or jumpy as we were led to believe. Yes there were scenes of blood and gore, as well as the obligatory spooky child on a lone swing, but apart from that, it was more the complicated storyline that really grabbed us.

DS Charlie Zailer played by Olivia Williams is the “hero” of the programme, called in to investigate what looks originally to be the cut and dry suicide of a mother who killed her child beforehand. We meet the husband who seems to have a screw loose- but then again you probably wouldn’t be sane if your wife and child were dead – as well as DS Zailer’s sidekick who it seems she had a bit of a thing with the previous week – cue the uncomfortable sexual tension.

We’re at first met with the bodies but then it all gets a bit complicated when a hotel worker – Sally – hears the name of the husband on the tele and realises she had a one night stand with him. So what does she do? She trots off with a card to offer her condolences. When she gets to the house however, she realises he’s not the man she slept with.

While we would think that perhaps it’s a case of too many men with the same name, she spots a picture the guy she slept with also has, with us so far? After being asked to go to the police she scarpers, only to be drugged later on and find herself alone in a boarded up country house.
In the meantime there’s shots of the funny and silent little girl who clearly has a secret to tell.

Yesterday’s episode was a little bit more eerie. Sally comes face to face with her one night stand who has captured her in the house for her own safety. He talks about kids and marriage – not what you’d really expect from a one night stand – but he’s hiding a secret.

Thankfully DS  Zailer is on the case tracking down a Spanish family, which were friends of the deceased and also friends of the eerie little girl.

The little girl also confesses to knowing a chilling secret about this Spanish family, which helps put two and two together and calls for the obligatory race to the old house where it turns out the killer has been haunted by the past tragedy of his 6-year-old daughter killing his wife by pushing an electric lamp into the bath then killing herself by reaching in to try and save her mother – the secret the eerie child was told was that the little girl was actually going to hurt her mother.

At the finale, as he holds a syringe to DS Zailer’s neck, he confesses that all he ever wanted was a loving family and gets arrested.