Mystery Road
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When I saw the listing for a show
called Mystery Road I was intrigued.
Then I found out it was based off of a film of the same name, so I
decided I should watch that first. The
film ended up being very grim, which made me wonder how the TV show would
be. Now that I have watched the show, I
can say it’s not the cheeriest thing I have ever seen. Yet, it is definitely not as grim as it could
be, and it is definitely worth watching.
Detective
Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) has been called to a small Australian town to help
the local police force find two missing teenage men. The town is so small, there are only three
main people in the investigative part of the police department, but that does
not stop them from trying.
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Heading
the investigation is Senior Sergeant Emma James (Judy Davis). As the only person available to investigate
until Swan comes to town, Emma sometimes has to do things that would appear to
be a conflict of interest, such as questioning her own brother or dealing with
her ex-husband the defense attorney.
Also, as the only person available to investigate crimes, through the
years Emma has gotten to know the people of the town better than others have. This is helpful when questioning the Indigenous
members of the community. While this
community does not necessarily trust Emma, they are willing to talk to her.
Since
one of the young men missing, Marley Thompson (Aaron McGrath), is of Indigenous
descent, the cooperation of the Indigenous community is essential. One would think since they share a heritage
with Swan, they would be more open to talking to him instead of Emma who is
white. The opposite is true. The people of the community would much rather
talk to Emma than Swan.
Part of the
reluctance to speak with Swan may be because he is new to town. They do not know him. While this is an understandable reason, I
believe most of the distrust comes from Swan’s rough and forceful manner.
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Gentle
is not at all a natural part of Swan’s way of being. A quiet and forceful man, Swan prefers to do
things his own way, without telling anyone where he is going or what he is
doing. This aggravates Emma because by Swan
going off on his own, she ends up doing things twice, slowing down the
investigation. Had she known Swan
already questioned a person or gone somewhere to take in the scene, she would
not do it herself a second time.
Eventually Emma and Swan figure out how to work together, which is good
because not only does the case have twists and turns, it also has lies and
secrets to unravel.
Marley
and his friend Reece Dale’s (Conner Van Vuuren) disappearance is the main case
that needs to be solved. While Reese is
new in town, Marley is a local football star.
They worked together on a cattle station until Reece was fired. The fact that Marley was working at the
station at all is a mystery since he just finished a year playing professional
football. This type of laborious job would
not be one people would expect a professional athlete to do.
Since
Reece was fired, he was not supposed to be on Marley’s rounds as he checked the
cattle’s water troughs. For some reason
he was, and there is video to prove it.
The video shows them together as friends, then they are fighting. After the fight they are gone from the videos
and not seen again.
While
the disappearance of Marley and Reece is the main case that brings Emma and
Swan together, it turns into so much more.
They find out drugs could play a factor in what happened to the men,
although that would not be the whole story either. With so many people telling only partial
truths, lies, or nothing at all, it is hard for Emma and Swan to find out what
is truly going on. The person holding
back the most is Shevorne Shields (Tasia Zalar), a young woman who was raped,
beaten, and left for dead ten years before.
The
man put away for the attack on Shevorne is Larry Dime (Wayne Blair). He has recently been released from prison,
and upon learning his nephew Marley is missing, he returns to the town instead
of moving to the city. No one is happy
to see Larry except his sister, Kerry (Deborah Mailman), Marley’s mother. Kerry has always believed in Larry’s
professions of innocence. No one else
believed him. This is why it is so
strange Marley visited Larry in prison the week before he disappeared. Emma and Swan have to wonder if this visit is
part of the reason Marley went missing.
With this being just one of the many pieces of information and
interesting situations surrounding this case, Emma and Swan must figure out how
to put it all together, implying all these pieces fit together at all.
While
working on the investigation, Swan must also handle his family who has come to
town. First his teenage daughter,
Crystal (Madeleine Madden), arrives. Not
wanting her around the case, Swan isn’t exactly thrilled to see her. Then, when he finds drugs on Crystal after
she gets in a fight in a bar, he really wants her gone. Swan calls his ex-wife, Mary (Tasma Walton), to come pick up Crystal. By the time
Mary arrives, Crystal has gotten a job.
Not willing to leave without her daughter, Mary stays in the town too,
forcing Swan to face the family dynamics he has always avoided.
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I
must say, seeing the film first does make some things more clear (like why
Crystal no longer wants to be at home), but I don’t think it’s fully necessary to
watch in order to follow the show. If
you listen closely, most everything about what happened in the film that
affects the show gets explained. And I
do mean listen closely. This is a quiet
show. It is very easy to miss
something. With so many different
directions the investigation takes, you don’t want to miss anything.
Still,
despite paying close attention, there were some things that puzzled me in this
show, and that was the lack of DNA use.
There was a lot of talk about blood type, which makes me wonder if they
used that for identification because doing a DNA test would take too long. While that makes sense for the current case
they are investigating, I was very surprised it was not brought up with
Shevorne’s sexual assault case. I don’t
recall it being mentioned once, which I found to be strange. In a case such as Shevorne’s, I would think
DNA would have been looked for. It would
be interesting to find out why it wasn’t mentioned. DNA could have changed things entirely.
With
the way the show ended, I’m not sure if there is going to be a second season or
not. I have found out there is a second
film, which I may take a look at. A
second season would be good, though. A
new town. A new case. And who knows, maybe Swan will have learned
how to get along better with people from the start. Or maybe not.
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