TV shows we love: Collateral

Thrillers seem to be the most popular TV series genre du jour. From those focusing on intricate scientific police methods to ones depicting tortuous cases in grim criminal courts, there is a thriller for all tastes.

What was absent though was a series set against the back drop of a bleak and hopeless post-Brexit London. Well, not anymore, thanks to Detective Kip Glaspie in Collateral.

Masterfully interpreted by Carey Mulligan, one of the most underrated actresses of recent years, Glaspie tries to shed light on the murder of a pizza delivery boy in a posh neighborhood in the UK capital.

Every clue at first seems unconnected, loose, patchy and with no chance of a viable explanation, at least in the first four episodes.

However, little by little, Glaspie, so emotionally unattached to the events to the point of appearing genuinely indifferent, unveils a series of links between the events involving several British institutions; the government, the army, the media and even the Church.

What the viewer experience is a sense of chill and powerlessness within a city moving closer to dystopia, where the social system seems to have failed those most in need.

Perhaps, that’s the most interesting feature of the series. The murder, no matter how key to the plot, ends up in the background, while other themes such as immigration, poverty and discrimination play a more central role in the narrative.

Through every bit of the series, writer – and acclaimed playwright – David Hare breathes life into a story that manages to use the central investigation of a murder to branch out further.

What Collateral sets out to do is engage in the post-Brexit conversation of the UK’s place in the world, a sort of state-of-the-nation drama, mainly in how news stories are framed to fuel those isolationist sentiments that led the country to where it stands today, in fiction as well as in real life.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.