All the Psychos Have Gone to Durham County

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

I am a big fan of mysteries, both in print and on the screen, and I have a particular fondness for the mysteries and police procedurals produced by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) which I regard as essentially the cream of the crop as far as television programming goes.  (I subscribe to Brit Box, a service that delivers the best in British comedy and drama straight into my living room.)  Lately I have found myself in the unique position of having seen most of the mysteries which are currently available from the BBC, and there are many, so I have been looking elsewhere for my entertainment.

A couple of weeks ago I came across an older series from 2007-2010 airing on Amazon Prime entitled "Durham County," a police procedural that was filmed in Canada and ran for three seasons.  Prime is airing the first two six-episode seasons free to subscribers, and will no doubt offer the third season for sale at some future point.  (Bezos, you're a sniveling greed head!)

The introductory blurb on the show's Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) site reads:

"An extraordinary series with an electric, oppressive atmosphere.  A spiral of violence, unhealthy manipulations and tortured characters, Durham County excels in the detective series genre."

The writing on this show is exceptional and creepy. so creepy in fact that I would hesitate before moving into the same neighborhood as any of the writers.  The primary writers of the show were Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, one of the show's creators who wrote seventeen of the episodes, and Bruce M. Smith who penned one episode.  

The cast includes only one actor of whom I was previously aware:  Helene Joy, a former regular on the Canadian television series, Murdoch Mysteries.   She plays the cancer-plagued wife of the lead homicide detective.   Joy's character is also a doctor and mother of two who becomes emotionally involved with their neighbor who is a serial killer.  Other stellar performers in the series include Hugh Dillon as the homicide detective, Laurence Leboeuf, the daughter of the detective and the doctor who also aspires to be a homicide detective, Greyston Holt, the son of the serial killer neighbor who would. like  to be a writer, and Louis Ferreira as the psychopathic neighbor.  The cast is superlative!

I finished the first season, which revolved around two independent serial killers who were focusing on several of the same young women, and I am now two episodes into season two which looks at serious, and even fatal, child abuse.  Obviously there are characters in both storylines who are  psychopaths, individuals who are devoid of standard human emotions, particularly empathy, and operate strictly on meeting their own twisted needs without regard to others, but what is surprising about this show is the number of psychopaths populating the stories.  Those deep in the weeds of psychopathy include not only the two serial killers, but at least two cops, a psychiatrist, and a couple of children who seem to be in the process of becoming untethered from family and reality.

The program is dark and menacing, and the actions of the characters are relentlessly insidious.  It is a struggle for me, an old hand at this type of show, to sit through a complete episode without becoming emotionally charged, angry, and sometimes even nauseous.  

For those who relish the thought of having nightmares about a television show that you have just watched, "Durham County" might be right for you, but for those who prefer a more peaceful sleep experience, this show would be a good one to avoid.  At this point I honestly don't know if I have the stamina to sit through the final four episodes or not.    "Durham County" has more whack jobs than a Trump senior staff meeting, and keeping up with them is emotionally daunting.

Where have all the psychos gone?  Gone to Durham County, everyone. When will they ever learn?  When will they ever learn?