Colin Morgan embraces his darker side again in so-so legal-ish thriller The Killing Kind
“A trial can change someone’s life entirely”
Based on Jane Casey’s novel of the same name, The Killing Kind was produced by Paramount+ and aired last year, though has just popped up on ITVX. Having just watched Dead and Buried, I was tickled by the prospect of another show with erstwhile Merlin Colin Morgan playing another villain and again, he’s really rather watchable in a middling show that wastes its potential over six increasingly laborious episodes.
Adapted by Jonathan H. A. Stewart and Zara Hayes, the show centres on Emma Appleton’s Ingrid Lewis, an up-and-coming defence lawyer whose world is rocked by a shock death. It looks like a hit-and-run but Ingrid is highly suspicious as she’s recently heard from John Webster – Colin Morgan being suitably intense – a former client slash secret lover slash stalker who has ominous warnings about her safety.
The history of John’s case is vital here and so much is revealed in flashback – his predatory nature, her ability to psychologically dismantle the women who accused him. As his harassment changes direction towards Ingrid, it all feels a bit Fatal Attraction and there is something interesting in here about the inadequate nature of the justice system and those who practice it when it comes to sexual harassment cases.
But with additional mysteries at play, constantly twisting and turning, there’s a massive flaw in just how randomly and idiotically Ingrid acts from start to finish, given that she’s a barrister. It robs The Killing Kind of any sense of convincing core character or genuine suspense as you end up pretty much reckoning that she’s bringing a whole lot of this nonsense on herself. One to avoid I think.
