2017 seems to be the year of the King; Stephen King to be precise. He has had massive success with his adaptions this year. So far we’ve seen The Mist, The Dark Tower, and of course IT and at the end of this month, we’ll see the intense thriller adaption of ‘Gerald’s Game’ come to Netflix. But last night, his new gritty crime series ‘Mr. Mercedes’ aired on RTE, based off of the first book in a trilogy of the same name.
What can we expect from Mr. Mercedes
Mr. Mercedes follows retired detective Bill Hodges, played by our very own Brendan Gleeson who is still haunted by the unsolved case of ‘Mr. Mercedes’. The series opens with a scene showing the murder of 16 people, including a young mother and her child, by a man driving in, you guessed, a Mercedes-Benz.
We fast forward two years to Bill Hodges trying to get on with retired life, but the lifestyle doesn’t suit him. Divorced and living alone, he only has his neighbour Ida and pet turtle to keep him company. He spend’s his days walking around empty beer cans and whiskey bottles in his home, neglecting his physical condition
One day, Bill receives an email with a video attached. The video contains footage of Mr. Mercedes taunting Bill. The voice over is reminiscent of Jigsaw in Saw back in the day with animations of the victims speaking over him. Once the video ends, it deletes itself from his laptop, leaving no trace or clues to investigate. When he approaches a former colleague about the status of the case, it seems it has run cold and he must take matters into his own hands to take the demented psychopath down.
What Did We Make of It?
Our first impressions of Mr. Mercedes are positive. It’s one of those shows you’ll look forward to every week. As someone who hasn’t read the book, I am very interested to see where it takes us. It isn’t like normal crime drama’s where we don’t find out who the killer is in the end. We are introduced to him immediately and follow him as he torments Hodges to the edge of sanity.
This new show grabs you with the opening scene and Brandon Gleeson’s performance holds you throughout, playing a character racked with guilt and a new obsession with catching his tormentor. It is very much a sick game of cat and mouse which isn’t for the faint of heart. We recommend this new dark gritty thriller and we look forward to being taken down the rabbit hole and finding out what else Mr. Mercedes has for Hodges.
When Is It On?
Mr. Mercedes is a ten-part series on RTÉ every Tuesday night at 10:15pm. In this day and age, we no longer look forward to our weekly series what with Netflix and online streaming these days. We now generally tend to binge watch series in a couple of days. Mr. Mercedes is well worth recording on series link and will give you something to look forward to every week. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a bit of Brendan Gleeson?
You can still watch the first episode on the RTE Player and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.
