The new ITV series is so much more than a police drama.
Let’s get the tough stuff out the way first – when it comes to Passenger, I’ll be honest, the series is pretty much undefinable.
“You’ll have to watch it to find out for yourself” is far from the most helpful of statements to kick off any review of a TV series, but the new ITV drama doesn’t fit neatly into any genre category. But you know what? That only further adds to its elusive charm.
Penned by Broadchurch and Better actor Andrew Buchan (in what is his screenwriting debut), Passenger is as much a character study on people in close-knit English towns as much as it is an exploration of being an outsider, having an unshakeable need to escape and the fear of the unknown.
Through the six episodes, we follow DI Riya Ajunwa as she struggles with the stagnant nature of investigating what she deems to be trivial local crimes, instead wanting to get her investigating teeth into something meatier. Played superbly by the BAFTA winning Wunmi Mosaku, Riya is determined to get the people of Chadder Vale to listen to her concerns over the mysterious goings-on in the town.
Falling often on deaf ears – aside from her trusty and hilarious pair of trainee officers Nish (Arian Nik) and Ali (Ella Bruccoleri) – Riya wants people to wake up to what is going on in this small village. Surely two women can’t disappear and nobody cares to know where they actually went?
While Riya’s primary focus is on the vanishing of local girl Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson) and Nina Karlson (Synnøve Karlsen), there’s also growing tension on the local fracking site, a dead stag which winds up on a forest road and random potholes which start forming randomly.
There’s something seriously afoot in Chadder Vale and if you’re looking for instant answers, Passenger certainly won’t provide them.
In a world of procedural dramas that often satiate our need for one-off cases and come with a tidy wrapping up of answers at the end of each episode, Passenger only drums up more questions the further you get into the series.
Sure, I have no doubt it’ll prove annoying for some viewers but I think, in an age of TV that can often be too easy to suss out, Passenger offers up an alternative. Something darker, grittier, a little other-worldly that you can’t quite put your finger on. In that very essence, it’s fun. It’s the kind of show you can’t switch off, the kind of series you don’t really want to end but also desperately want to get to the bottom of.
Passenger makes you – as a viewer – work for the answers, providing just enough insight into everyone’s lives to make you equally intrigued and suspicious, but still manages to pull off a finale that will leave many with their heads fit to exploding.
That’s why it’s hard to pin Passenger down into one genre, making it something that will shine in its own right among regular TV schedules and especially in ITV’s repertoire. It’s almost science fiction in parts, a horror in others and certainly a pulsating thriller throughout.
It has notes of Happy Valley in Riya’s no-nonsense dialogue, while the monster in the forest will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Stranger Things and the more recently released True Detective: Night Country. But really, while Passenger can certainly be compared to the aforementioned, it radiates in its own right and is a feat of storytelling from debut screenwriter Buchan.
Most importantly, though, Passenger has the infectious humour of northern towns even amid the dark and unknowable. Each character, while dealing with their own heavy burden, also expertly delivers their own witty lines and affections with the delivery of a stand-up comedian.
Mosaku especially drives this series forward – as you would hope any lead would – but here, she comes into her own as endearing, confident and formidable in both her career and personal life as well as being downright hilarious.
The essence of the north runs deep in the series, with it having been shot in Cornholme and also boasting a stellar northern cast with the likes of David Threlfall, Daniel Ryan and Jo Hartley all bringing their own murky characters’ stories to life. Here, Threlfall fits into the ‘outsider’ category of Chadder Vale and is a quiet wonder in Passenger, not only being one of the only southern accents in the series, but also brings a King Lear sense to his enigmatic role as a fracking site manager who is regularly protested against.
The notion of not fitting into the regular conforms of a place like Chadder follows many of our characters like Riya but also Jakub (Hubert Hanowicz), Eddie (Barry Sloane) and Kane (Nico Mirallegro), all for their own reasons.
In a small town drama like Passenger, it’s easy to see the draw of setting a series like this in such a claustrophobic setting. The close proximity of Chadder Vale’s people makes the case at hand feel almost stifling, both for Riya and for the viewer. But in this community, we have so many tales and personalities to contend with, providing a sure-fire recipe for a series that you simply want to get further stuck into.
Aside from the stresses of employment, money, reputation and the like, many of Chadder’s inhabitants are contending with more personal issues. While Chadder is a fictional place that likely isn’t that far away from Manchester, Katie has hopes of moving to the big city and has conversations with her family akin to her revealing she’s moving to Australia.
It’s in her characterisation, though, and a lot of the young people’s stories where a lot of the emotion of the series lies, with one tense confrontation scene between Katie and her mother Joanne (Natalie Gavin) being so brutally honest, it almost leaves you breathless.
And that’s what Passenger nails on the head, this effortless exploration of such different personalities and backgrounds while also retaining the generally good pacing of any unmissable police drama.
While there are parts of the series that wind round in a slower manner, the final episodes almost corral past with such speed that you may miss a thing or two. There are often ‘blink and you may miss it’ moments with clarity being something that isn’t exactly offered up in plentiful supply here.
Really, the main criticism of Passenger is that I just wish there was more of it to allow all the show’s many crossing paths and characters ample enough time to breathe. But the time we do spend with the glorious Riya and the people of Chadder Vale is most certainly unforgettable.
Passenger premieres on Sunday 24th March at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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