As big-budget shows are going out of vogue, I think Netflix is turning towards murder mysteries set in small towns as their bread and butter. This year alone, I have witnessed a barrage of shows and miniseries that the streaming platform has commissioned from all over the globe. Hound’s Hill was what got the ball rolling, and that was followed by the equally abysmal Missing You. We got two more Harlan Coben classics (pun-intended), Just One Look and Caught. The Snow Girl returned for a second season, and although it was slightly better than the first one because of its critique of organized religion, it was still a slog to get through. Watching The Glass Dome right after that was like experiencing deja vu, even though one was from Spain and the other was from Sweden. Adolescence and Secrets We Keep were masterpieces in comparison to their peers in this genre, not just because of the relevancy of the themes they dealt with, but also due to their exceptional visual storytelling. Catalina Sopelana became a victim of typecasting because of this trend, as she showed up in two very similar shows, The Gardener and The Crystal Cuckoo. Untamed, led by Australia’s very own Eric Bana, and The Survivors, which was set in Australia, were watchable but ultimately incredibly forgettable. Now, Playing Gracie Darling has arrived to complete this Down Under trifecta. Has it succeeded in doing so? Well, let’s find out.
Miranda Nation’s Playing Gracie Darling, with the episodes being directed by Jonathan Brough, starts things off in 1997, where we follow Joni, Gracie, Jay, and Anita as they head to a shack near their town in New South Wales to perform a seance. Initially, it seems like one of the four kids is mischievously moving the marker across the Ouija board by pretending to be the conduit for the spirit named Levi. But things get serious, and Gracie suffers a full-on fit, which prompts Joni, Jay, and Anita to make a run for it, abandoning Gracie in that shack. We meet with Joni 27 years after that incident. She works at a psychiatric hospital for kids in the city. She has two daughters from two different relationships, Mira and Lulu. Things are relatively fine in her life, but she is forced to return to her hometown after she learns that Frankie, Gracie’s niece, has gone missing and the circumstances under which she disappeared are quite similar to those of Gracie. Jay, as a part of the State Police, is heading the official investigation into this matter. In the meantime, Joni commences an unofficial investigation by questioning Frankie’s classmates—which includes Jay and Anita’s daughter, Raffy—and she is horrified to learn that apparently all of them have been summoning the spirit of Gracie and they have encountered an entity known as Levi. Given how Joni is guilt-ridden by her decision to abandon Gracie in that shack, she decides to dive headfirst into this case and keep digging until she uncovers the truth behind the possessions and the subsequent disappearances.
If you have watched as many of these murder mysteries set in small towns as I have, you have a fair idea of what you are going to get. There will be a group of people who used to be friends but then drifted apart due to one reason or another. They’ll have some kind of beef between them, and the reason behind it will seem controversial, but eventually it will turn out to be a simple matter of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Then you’ll get to the parents of this group of friends, who will bring personalized packages of trauma to the table. And one of them is going to turn out to be the mastermind behind the crimes, because nobody would expect one of the geriatrics to be a murderer. And there’ll be one massive red herring who’ll be the subject of scrutiny, but they’ll eventually be proven to be innocent, thereby serving as a commentary on society’s tendency to judge a book on the basis of its cover. Playing Gracie Darling is no different. The only difference between this and the aforementioned shows is that it has a supernatural element to it. But even that’s not really exploited to its fullest. So, all you are left with is a tepid analysis of religion, guilt, and trauma. Great.
From a visual and tonal standpoint, Playing Gracie Darling is weirdly inconsistent. The color grading changes from scene to scene. Many movies and shows do that to convey the ever-changing mood of the narrative, but it’s usually pretty subtle and only noticeable on a rewatch. In this case, the transition is sometimes so jarring that you are compelled to check if it’s the result of some technical error on the device you’re watching the show on. I am not kidding. There are several scenes shot in broad daylight that look so different from one another that I had to pause and make sure that my laptop wasn’t malfunctioning. As for the tone, and I don’t want to sound like a prude, it seems like the show was trying to fulfill some quota for sensual and provocative plot points. And they are placed so awkwardly in the middle of this uber-serious murder mystery that you can’t help but wonder whether Brough and his team have any idea of how human beings function in stressful situations. Despite having only 6 episodes, the show takes forever to get to the meat of the issue. And when it does get to the eye of the storm, the makers decide to just end it as abruptly as possible, thereby leaving you with more questions than answers. If that was the aim of the showrunners, then, well, they have successfully completed their mission.
The cast in Playing Gracie Darling is quite talented. It was great to see the legendary Harriet Walter on the small screen again after watching her deliver an amazing performance in Silo. Most of the heavy lifting is done by Morgana O’Reilly, who is great. Rudi Dharmalingam, Chloe Brink, Eloise Rothfield, Peter Carroll, and the rest of the supporting cast are decent. Now, although I am usually not very critical about the young members of the cast, because they have just stepped foot in the world of show business, I have to bring Kristina Bogic into the spotlight, because the way she has been treated is really strange. The writing around her and the amount of screentime that she gets despite being the titular character might make it seem like Bogic’s acting ability is really limited. However, I am willing to bet that that’s not the case at all. I am certain that in the hands of better showrunners, she would have been the most interesting aspect of the show. However, here, she was apparently dealt a bad hand, and, in my opinion, she made the best of this situation. With all that said, is the show a good entry into the aforementioned Australian trifecta, and is it worth a watch? Firstly, no, and secondly, if you have become addicted to the small-town murder mysteries that Netflix has been offering, this’ll be right up your alley. If you are immune to this trend, stay that way; you’re not missing out on anything monumental (maybe give Adolescence a try).
