After the success of Apple TV's still-ongoing Mick Herron series Slow Horses, the streaming platform has brought us more Herron drama. Down Cemetery Road premiered on Wednesday, Oct. 29 with its first two episodes, and some fans were won over from the start.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Down Cemetery Road season 1 episodes 1 and 2
The TV crime drama is only at the beginning, and many things still feel like pieces of a puzzle that don't quite fit — yet. Episode 1 wasn't entirely convincing, but the shocking death at the end and the way episode 2 progressed made Down Cemetery Road seem less like a lost cause and more like "Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson might be a team worth watching."
Mick Herron is on board with Down Cemetery Road changes and pace
Down Cemetery Road season 1 episode 1 introduced us slowly to Ruth Wilson as Sarah Trafford, an art conservationist with a knack for investigation. It also introduced us to Emma Thompson as Zoe Boehm and Adam Godley as Zoe's husband, Joe Silvermann, both private investigators. Sarah turns to Joe for help in finding Dinah Singleton, the girl a government conspiracy is trying to "erase" from all press communications after her house had been blown up by, of course, the same mysterious government agency.
In a TV Insider interview, Mick Herron — who serves as an executive producer on the show — said he understands how important pacing is. The series is making things happen much faster than in the book, but the central elements are definitely there. The thriller/crime drama is all about appearances, mind games and red herrings.
Why Sarah is so interested in finding Dinah is still unclear. The whole "nosy neighbor" image doesn't hold, and I want to believe her reasons are more nuanced, but the show is making us wait. The show also fleshes out Zoe's character more than the book of the same name does, which is great to see, especially as Herron mentioned how the show's Zoe is "very much the character that I invented and Emma is playing her beautifully."
Episode 1 also hints at a wider cover-up — hospital staff and police seem complicit in the government’s erasure of Dinah, while Sarah’s friends and husband think she’s gone too far.
Herron on why he killed off Joe Silvermann and what it means for the show
Returning to Joe, he's the death in the show that we never saw coming — at least not so soon. But Joe's death was as important to the book as it was to the show. Down Cemetery Road really picked up the pace after the shocking episode 1 ending, and it's Joe's apparent suicide that sets things in motion. If it weren't for that, Sarah and Zoe might have never teamed up to get to the bottom of the case. Now it's personal for both of them.
In episode 1, Joe is the one character who raises no conflicting feelings. He's likeable from the start, so Herron is right to say, "it will come as a big shock, that final scene.” Watching episode 2, it becomes clear that Joe's purpose was to establish his relationship with Zoe, to show us a side of her she'd never willingly reveal — that of the grieving widow — and to be a catalyst for the unlikely partnership between Zoe and Sarah.
Episode 2’s ending deepens the mystery. Rufus, Sarah's friend and neighbor — whose real name is Axel, the man Hamza mentioned on the phone — turns out to be the one who blew up Dinah’s house and killed Joe. The sketchy guy following Sarah around wasn’t hunting her, but trying to protect her — intervening just in time when Rufus almost kills her. That revelation proves Sarah’s instincts were right all along.
With Sarah’s relentless determination and Zoe’s sharp investigative instinct, the two won’t stop until they uncover the truth.
Down Cemetery Road airs on Wednesdays on Apple TV.
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