The Missing; Drama at its best

"Home is not just just a place, Tony. It's whatever there is in your life that stops you feeling alone."

These are the words spoken by Julien Baptiste half way through the series finalé of what could possibly be one of the greatest dramas to have graced our TV screens for a long time. I tend to stray away from watching TV as it seems to periodically get slightly worse, but programmes like Broadchurch, Last Tango in Halifax and The Missing keep the faith growing. Some may say that The Missing 'drags out a bit' but the length of time it takes to get to some form of solution simply reinforces the idea of reality... cases like those do not resolve themselves simply and quickly, so it would be wrong for The Missing to have finished after the first 2 episodes, for example. It was richly layered with multiple narratives, and sub-plots, all created with a sort of enforcement on dramatic equality; so that we not only focus all our attention on Tony and his struggles and the 'abduction' of his son but so we connect with the lives going on around it just as much. James Nesbitt has always been a favourite of mine when it comes to actors so I always knew he would be fantastic, but his acting surpassed even my original expectations, he was perfect for the role and exuded such a beautiful sense of a debilitated, and horrifically angry childless father. Just as much as Frances O' Connor who played Emily, whose character was actually quite refreshingly different to Nesbitts' in the way that she was quite a bit stronger, so it was only right to give her character the final resonating speech that tied all the narratives together. Of course, with dramas like this every single character lends itself to its success and truly every single character was enthralling, and perfectly performed. Sometimes too many characters with too many stories can become confusing but Harry and Jack Williams managed to develop everything and everyone in a way that along with the complimenting acting kept it entertaining. Praise must also be sung to the Williams' for the whole story and their ending. It's only natural with these sort of programmes that people watching will attempt to solve the case themselves, as they should, why not, right? So to bring the audience back down to earth, and keep them focused on the story and the reality of these cases, to have an ending that almost no-one could have predicted was absolutely genius. Yet the ending also left a little doubt in our minds, a little doubt as to the truth of the case, that, as is only right wont ever be fully found out. It's by no surprise that it's already been given a second series to focus on a different case.

If you watch anything; watch The Missing. Oh and Broadchurch when it comes back because that was incredible; 5th January y'all.