Where to find it: Disney+ Star, apparently
Length: Seven 45-minute episodes
Synopsis: A Mormon police detective investigates a brutal crime which causes him to examine his faith and church
Recommendation rating: 4/5
What I like about it: the use of flashbacks to create mounting tension and explain LDS history, absorbing acting and writing, prestige TV without long boring opening titles
What I don’t like about it: it is yet another dark prestige true crime miniseries
Review:
From the first episode of this series, we are thrown into the weird world of Utah – its expansive rural families, unique religious vocabulary and inescapable smell of theocracy – and it’s as fascinating, dark and hard to leave as the state itself. Andrew Garfield channels the spirit of Ned Flanders to portray a small-town detective investigating a standard Fincheresque grisly murder while trying to accomodate his new partner, a Paiute Native hardened Vegas cop – a fun dynamic. As their investigation progresses, flashbacks show their victim marrying into a very large and prominent Mormon family and gradually finding herself at odds with their patriarchal lifestyle. A second set of flashbacks go back even further, to the early days of the Church of Latter Day Saints and particularly its history with polygamy, and are used to make connections between the fundamentalist beliefs of the murderers and the historical events that inspired their mindset. All very psychological and interesting.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder (femmicide, infanticide), child sexual abuse, controlling patriarchal behaviour
