26 July,2025 06:12 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
The Suspect series
This series based on the bestselling 2004 novel by Michael Robotham, is a psychological thriller whodunit. Doctor Joseph O'Loughlin (Aidan Quinn) a reputed psychologist and successful therapist who gets called in by cops to talk down the suicidal from jumping off tall buildings suddenly finds himself facing the music. His perfect life and career begins unraveling when the law points fingers at him for being the chief suspect in the murder of his ex-patient.
The series begins with a quote credited to Eckhardt Tolle, "All problems are illusions of the mind" and soon after you hear a voice over, "Trauma is no illusion. What men do to other men and to women leaves a scar and all you can do is to live with your scars and one day you may heal." It's quite a way to build up anticipation regarding a whodunit? What ensues thereafter may not live up entirely to that promise but it's engrossing and suspenseful and holds you in thrall for much of its runtime.
The five part series is a gripping crime thriller, less a police procedural and more about the primary suspect going out of the way to solve the case in order to keep his savaged reputation, stunted career and strained marriage from going off the rails.
The opening gambit is quite alluring. In a nail-biting, tense sequence, Dr Joseph who is grappling with a recent diagnosis of an early onset of Parkinson's, is with his client when he gets called in to resolve an emergency situation. A young black man, a terminal cancer patient, is on the ledge on one of the top floors of a high rise, threatening to jump off. Dr Joseph manages to calm him down and make an accidental rescue. The papers though see him as a savior. But it's not long before his reputation gets shorn to shreds. Initially called in to help profile a dead body with 21 stab wounds and numerous self-harm signs, who the police discover was his ex-patient Catherine McCain(Tara Lee), he suddenly becomes the accused.
The anonymous dead woman was discovered in a shallow grave in a cemetery and Dr Joseph's suspicious behavior in the morgue, lies of omission, a series of coincidences and mounting circumstantial evidence begin to point the needle of suspicion at him. Thereafter it's about how he goes about proving himself innocent, if at all. The cops, a DS, Riya Devi (Anjli Mohindra) and DI Vince Ruis (Shaun Parkes) are working their way to solving the crime, entirely on the assumption that the good doctor is the sole suspect. Of course, there's more to it than meets the eye. Thrown in for greater complexity are Dr Jack Owens (Adam James), Dr Joseph's long term buddy who is obsessed with Joe's wife Julianne (Camylla Beeput), another patient Bobby Moran (Bobby Schofield) and a plumber. There's also a sinister back story that dates back to the murderer's childhood.
The series relies far too heavily on coincidences, contrivances and conveniences to arrive at the final resolution. So it's not all hunky dory. But director Camilla Strom Henriksen manages to keep all those negatives under wraps before they all come spilling out towards the end. By the time you reach the fifth episode you are already hooked. The last episode though feels like a let down even though the series ends on a blast. Glen Gregory and Bernice Scott's background compositions do the heavy lifting of keeping you engaged, the sharp editing by Steven Worsley and hauntingly dark cinematography by Matt Grey lends suspense, tension and pace to this drama. The performances by Aidan Quinn and supporting characters are top-notch.
The storyline may be too far-fetched but production values are enriching. However it's the badly written roles of the two cops that really makes the series lose its shine. But for that, and of course the numerous coincidences, this would have been a thoroughly compelling whodunit?
