Landscapers On HBO, Where Olivia Colman And David Thewlis Play Unlikely Murders

In 2014, Susan and Christopher Edwards were found guilty of shooting Susan’s parents to death and burying them in their parents’ backyard. They maintain their chastity, but the very quirky and polite couple also spend a lot of time in France, avoiding the authorities. A new miniseries, Landscapers, gives a fictitious account of the case.

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Opening scene: A rainy night in London, first rendered in old fashioned black and white, then a more modern black and white view, then color. One image mentions that in 2014, Susan and Christopher Edwards were found guilty of murder and were each sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Gist: An attorney named Douglas Hotten (Dipo Ola) runs across the yard in the rain, calls Susan Edwards (Olivia Colman), saying he will represent her. She begins to explain everything, and he tells her that he will soon be at her place. After over-explaining, Susan hung up and we found that she was in jail.

In Paris, Susan was walking around an antique store, and when the owner showed her the poster of the Gary Cooper movie she coveted, she paid without having to take it. Her husband, Christopher (David Thewlis), returns to their dreary apartment after another horrible job interview (he doesn’t speak enough French to apply for a job anywhere) and she lies to him. on the level of the poster. Otherwise, she was a doting, encouraging wife to Christopher; she is sure that things will turn around for them, especially after they receive 100 euros in the mail from none other than Gerard Depardieu.

Susan is a movie buff, and is especially enamored with Cooper. She envisions Christopher as a Cooper-like hero in one of the Western stars, and she often envisions their lives in grainy black and white, with dramatic soundtracks and slow motion.

They were broken but they knew a return to England was inevitable, given their circumstances and the fact that Susan was “fragile”, in Christopher’s words. He takes a risk and asks his wealthy stepmother for some money, telling her why they are in France. She immediately called the police; Christopher tells her that they buried Susan’s parents in the backyard of their Nottingham home,

In Mansfield, Nottingham, two local policemen (Kate O’Flynn, Samuel Anderson) talk to the couple’s former neighbours, who say they disappeared without a trace 15 years ago. Their tough boss, DCI Tony Collier (Daniel Rigby), writes Christopher a polite e-mail asking him for information or coming in for a personal interview. Christopher politely resends the e-mail that they couldn’t come back for various reasons and that it was just an accident.

When two bodies were found in the backyard of the couple’s former home, with two shell casings nearby, the case caused a stir. Christopher, with no other way of turning back, wrote a new e-mail by politely telling the DCI Collier that the two of them planned to catch the Chunnel train back and would surrender at a specific time. He politely asked Collier to pay for the ticket.

What shows will it remind you of? We feel that Landscapers presents an interesting enough case that if Ryan Murphy presented American Crime Story treatment (with a new name of course), it should work.

Our Take: We think it’s interesting that, in the first scene of Landscapers, the image “This is a true story” changes to “This is a story”, with the word “true” disappearing. Indeed, the story of the fugitives Susan and Christopher Edwards is unlikely to be a true story, but the way the Edwards conduct their lives is like floating between the real world and a cinematic reality. The miniseries’ writer, Ed Sinclair, and director, Will Sharpe, convey this reality quite well. But what they also do is effectively balance the darkness and the absurdity involved, creating a show that can be gripping one second and hilarious the next.

At the end of the first episode, after the most polite fugitive arrest ever, we’re still uncertain about what happened 15 years ago in Nottingham. Why did Christopher and/or Susan kill Susan’s parents and bury them in the backyard? Why doesn’t anyone seem to notice that the couple is gone? And how long have they been trying to hide in France? The fact that we have all of those questions and are interested in finding the answers is a great sign that Sinclair and Sharpe were attracted to us.

We’re assuming the next three episodes will include Nottingham police gathering evidence and the trial of Edwardses. What we hope to see more of is Collier and his subordinates, who all seem to have their problems.

But, as we see from Colman and Thewlis’ performance, the Edwardses are as romantic and in love as we’ve seen on TV for quite some time. Colman plays Susan who is incredibly polite but shows off moments where she’s actually pretty fragile, like when she lets the Gary Cooper movie she’s watching wash away on her. For his part, Christopher’ Thewlis is a study in despair, made possible by his devotion to his wife and his desire to never let her see any harm.

So we have a weird romance, the weirdest runaway accused murderers we’ve seen in years, the police can be just as messed up as the people they’re after. and a trial that promises to be as odd as the surrenderer is. There’s a lot to like in all of those elements, and they seem to come together very well in the first episode.

Gender and Skin: Not available. Old Gary Cooper movies will also be devoid of sex and skin.

Farewell shot: At the station of St. Pancras in London, the Edwardses were eventually confronted by a huge group of policemen, gun drawn. “Good evening,” Christopher greeted them politely but cautiously. In the closing credits is actual news footage from the actual case.

Sleeper Star: Rigby is particularly humorous as the over-stressed Collier, who is angry that his coffee is too hot and calls Edwardses “Mrs. Croque and her tangled husband”, which baffles us. every time I hear it.

Most Pilot-y routes: Nothing we could find.

Our call: INSTRUCTIONS IT. Landscapers Not only does it benefit from great performances by Colman and Thewlis, but it’s also a dark comedy that’s really funny in the dark. That balance is difficult to achieve.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he’s not kidding: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and others. I

Current Landscapers On HBO Max