Mr Mercedes

Retirement has not freed Bill Hodges from an unsolved case. In Mr. Mercedes, contact from the person responsible gives the former detective something to pursue again, whether or not returning to it is good for him.

Brendan Gleeson makes Hodges stubborn and worn down without stripping away his humour. The people around him are important because the investigation is not the only thing missing from his life. Harry Treadaway provides a disturbing opposing presence without the series needing to conceal the basic cat-and-mouse arrangement.

Adapted from Stephen King's Bill Hodges novels, it begins with the texture of a detective thriller and develops a stranger identity of its own. The central performances are a stronger reason to watch than an expectation of conventional procedure throughout.

The opening premise is bleak, but Hodges and his unlikely connections give the series more life than a simple contest of obsessions. Mindhunter offers a more institutional approach to understanding an offender; Mr. Mercedes makes the pursuit much more personally entangled.