I used to be given two episodes upfront, and made my method via them. Though they had been crammed with clunky dialogue and a few unusual narrative decisions, I discovered myself comparatively compelled, not least as a result of I merely did not have a clue the place it was all heading.
I assumed to myself, “OK, it is constructed up over the primary two episodes, now let’s examine the place it goes over the remainder of the season” – fully unaware on the time that the remainder of the collection was only one episode.
As soon as I received my arms on the third and last episode, my perceptions shortly shifted – instantly what appeared like a slow-burn thriller that was legitimately unknowable grew to become an inexplicably structured mess, with a narrative which went virtually nowhere past its top-line premise.
I say virtually, as a result of the ending to Concern is fairly one thing, and actually needs to be seen to be believed.
For context, Fear, which is out there in its entirety now on Prime Video, follows Martyn (Compston) and Rebecca (Mohindra), dad and mom to 2 younger kids who transfer their household from London to Glasgow to reside of their dream residence.
They quickly meet their downstairs neighbour Jan (Solly McLeod), who rents the basement flat and who at first appears heat and welcoming, if a little bit odd.
Nevertheless, issues quickly take a darkish flip when Jan makes inappropriate, leering feedback about Rebecca, and we come to be taught that he has (in some way) discreetly hacked into each single one of many good gadgets of their residence.
Quickly after, they get a letter via their door which is from Jan however addressed the police, informing them that he believes Martyn and Rebecca are abusing their kids.
By means of quite a few twists and turns, a few of them pretty baffling (Martyn unwittingly stories the accusations to social providers himself), it will get to the purpose that Rebecca feels the necessity to depart the home with the children to be able to preserve them secure.
An enraged Martyn turns to his considerably estranged, gun-loving father Allan (it is established in episode 1 that he loves weapons and also you simply type of need to go along with it) for recommendation. He turns up on the home with – you guessed it – a gun, and tells Martyn that Jan’s involvement of their lives must cease now.
Convincing him that he wants to guard his household, Allan tells Martyn to go downstairs and shoot Jan useless, assuring him that he would take the blame for the crime and go to jail. He tells Martyn that if he would not do it, he must step in and shoot Jan himself. Both method, Jan can be useless inside two minutes and Allan can be going to jail.
I really feel like we have to pause there – already this case has gone from zero to 100, with solely the thinnest of character motivations for Allan to be so determined not solely to kill a person he is by no means met, but in addition to spend the remainder of his life in jail.
Sure, Jan’s intrusions into their life have been horrifying and disruptive. Martyn having his personal darkish ideas about whether or not to kill him, whereas excessive, may be on some degree comprehensible. However Allan’s solely very just lately been made conscious of this case and is instantly all in on homicide as the one recourse. It is frankly psychotic.
Up to now, so bonkers. Allan tries to persuade Martyn that he could not be capable of reside with himself if he would not homicide a person in chilly blood (sure, that dialog does occur), nevertheless it’s to no avail – Martyn cannot convey himself to do it.
Allan takes issues into his personal arms, and Martyn does nothing to cease him. The daddy goes downstairs, methods his method into Jan’s flat, tells him that is he is made his son’s life “a distress” and shoots him useless. It is throughout extremely shortly.
Over the subsequent few scenes, we see Allan being arrested, Martyn being taken in for questioning, and he and Rebecca subsequently reconciling. Queue a montage of scenes with Martyn trying unhappy, together with one the place he is inexplicably clutching maintain of a satsuma because the digicam zooms in on his mopey face.
The investigation into the claims Jan made towards Martyn and Rebecca is dropped at a detailed and the couple are exonerated, earlier than attending Allan’s trial.
Throughout the trial, it’s revealed that Jan had suffered emotional, bodily and sexual abuse all through his childhood, explaining his later misery and his jumps to conclusions. We’re informed that he had beforehand admitted himself to a respite clinic to handle his compulsion to make wrongful accusations.
Allan is sentenced to 18 years in jail, and is informed he’ll solely be eligible for launch after these years have handed. The belief is he’ll spend the remainder of his life in jail.
Then, we come to it. The actual kicker, the twist we have all been ready for.
In a flashback, it’s revealed that we did not see every thing from Allan and Jan’s encounter within the basement. It seems that mere moments earlier than Allan pulled the set off, Martyn walked in behind him, grabbed the gun from his hand and dedicated the homicide himself.
He then went upstairs, and performed out Allan’s authentic plan, with the daddy taking the rap for the son’s crime.
You see, that is why Martyn’s been down within the dumps – not as a result of he conspired together with his father to homicide a person and did nothing because the crime occurred, that may be foolish.
No, it is as a result of he pulled the set off himself on the final second and is due to this fact wracked with guilt, each for his father ‘innocently’ rotting in jail, and for taking the lifetime of an evidently disturbed particular person.
From the slow-mo staging of the homicide to Jan’s response and visual shock at Martyn’s direct involvement, it is all abjectly hilarious.
Why did we’d like a twist? Whether or not Martyn himself pulled the set off or not, what he did was nonetheless heinous. As he struggles to regulate again to regular life together with his household, we by no means query why he is glum, there’s already loads for him to be glum about.
Watching the ‘reveal’ genuinely made me guffaw at how ridiculous it’s on each degree, which itself then left one thing of a nasty style in my mouth.
The factor is, Concern is coping with some actually darkish, severe and delicate subject material, and it ought to actually have been given its due. That is to not say you possibly can’t marry these topic issues with style thrills and twists and turns. It simply signifies that any missteps really feel extra seismic.
Given Jan’s tragic backstory, we should always really feel queasy about Martyn’s actions, and the demise scene must be a sombre second. As an alternative, it is all so fast, pointless and unusually staged as to be comical.
Now, I do know what you are considering – we’re solely in February, to say that one thing is the something ‘of the 12 months’ at this level is each untimely and redundant.
Which may be true, however for my very own half I can not keep in mind the final time I discovered a scene so unintentionally humorous, and it is honest to say that the present’s last minutes do not in any method justify the decision-making behind it.
All that occurs is that Martyn confesses the reality to Rebecca and he or she tells him she already knew. He tells her he needs he hadn’t performed it, which is sweet, and the pair stroll off collectively, unsure whether or not their relationship can survive the truth that one among them murdered a person.
What are we meant to remove from all of it? On one degree, this can be a story about how simply false accusations can spoil your life, whereas additionally addressing the hazard of leaping to conclusions.
However by upping the stakes a lot within the present’s last half-hour, the waters get so muddied as to be fully opaque.
If the lesson right here is “do not let your unhinged, gun-loving dad persuade you to shoot your downstairs neighbour”, I would wish to assume the makers of Concern can be talking to a really area of interest viewers for whom that may ever be a consideration.
Regardless of the considering behind it, the ending to Concern is one I will be left serious about for a while to come back – for all of the mistaken causes.
Concern premieres on Prime Video on Tuesday 4th March – you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial.
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