Not everything works in the first episode of the crime drama \u2013\u00a0but the central case is gripping enough. <\/p>
By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Monday, 16 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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Nicola Walker might have said goodbye to DCI Cassie Stuart on Unforgotten<\/a>, but it seems her crime-solving days are far from over \u2013 and she stars as enigmatic detective Annika Strandhed in new procedural drama Annika<\/a>, which arrives on Alibi this week.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not cold cases she\u2019s investigating this time, though, but rather murders by the sea \u2013 as the new head of a specialist Marine Homicide Unit somewhere in Scotland. And from the outset, it quickly becomes clear that this series is also markedly different in tone from the altogether more sober Unforgotten, with a far more playful approach taken by writer Nick Walker, best exemplified by the frequent fourth-wall breaking from the central character.<\/p> In the very first scene, Annika directly introduces herself to the audience via a reference to Moby Dick \u2013 a source she\u2019ll return to at various points throughout the episode. \u201cCaptain Ahab spends a year hunting Moby Dick, and it\u2019s a pretty challenging year by anyone\u2019s standards,\u201d she says, before launching into a full synopsis of the novel. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible voyage,\u201d she concludes. \u201cEveryone goes mad and no one even knows if the whale dies or not. One thing I do know? This great white whale definitely did.\u201d<\/p>\n The great white whale she is referring to here is the episode\u2019s first murder victim: a man who has been killed by the somewhat brutal method of a harpoon to the head. It soon emerges that this unlucky customer is Arthur Hendry, the owner of a wildlife tour boat business and a father of two, who was recently reported missing by his wife. The rest of the episode sees Annika and her team \u2013 which includes characters played by Guilt\u2019s Jamie Sives and The Nest\u2019s Katie Leung \u2013 attempt to solve the case, with all manner of twists and turns in store along the way, and a couple more innocent victims dispatched in the process.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we\u2019re also introduced to Annika\u2019s personal life \u2013 which seems to mainly consist of regular spats with her bad-tempered teenaged daughter Morgan, who is disgruntled about her new school, and who is taking part in what seems to be the most hastily rehearsed school play of all time. This particular plot strand feels fairly generic and underdeveloped thus far \u2013 although it seems likely we\u2019ll further explore the dynamic between Annika and Morgan in the remaining three episodes.<\/p>\n The central case is gripping enough and ensures the 50-minute runtime passes at a fairly zippy pace, while the performances are solid, if rather unremarkable, from a reliable cast of actors who aren\u2019t always helped by some occasionally unconvincing dialogue. Walker\u2019s central character is of a similarly mildly eccentric bent to Rakie Ayola\u2019s DS Holland in Pete McTighe\u2019s recent BBC Two drama The Pact<\/a>, constantly diffusing the seriousness of the investigation with a series of quips and quirks \u2013 and this ensures the drama comes across as fairly light-hearted and even a little offbeat despite the relative barbarity of the crimes.<\/p>\n Not everything in the first episode works by any means \u2013 I wasn\u2019t particularly enamoured with the aforementioned Fleabag-style monologues to camera, for example, which is presumably a hangover from the programme\u2019s roots as a popular Radio 4 drama. But at least this feature offers the series something which makes it stand out a little from the rather crowded field of run-of-the-mill detective dramas, and perhaps as we get to know Annika more these direct insights into her psyche will be more welcome.<\/p>\n The Scottish coastline \u2013 the series was shot in the West Coast seaside village of Largs \u2013 makes for a stunning backdrop for Annika\u2019s investigations, and it will be interesting to see what future sea-based murders fall under her scrutiny in subsequent instalments. For now, though, this is a solid start.<\/p>\n Not everything works in the first episode of the crime drama \u2013\u00a0but the central case is gripping enough. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3138,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/annika-review-a-solid-start-for-nicola-walkers-light-hearted-coastline-police-procedural.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Not everything works in the first episode of the crime drama \u2013\u00a0but the central case is gripping enough.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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