by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
If you remember Patrick McGoohan’s 60s classic, The Prisoner, then you will draw a parallel to this paranoid drama on Showtime. Like “Hotel California” people are trapped in this suburban enclave, held incommunicado in the British version of the Witness Protection Program. All the people are being monitored by control agents and a sadistic ex-detective. Every nook and cranny is seen by a controller monitoring numerous video cameras. All their needs are met inside the compound and presumably they are financially supported by the government. It’s in the residents’ keepers best interest to keep them happy and pacified.
As the series evolves, viewers learn that there are other mysterious agendas being played out in this closed community, besides protecting government witnesses. Strange and creepy things happen in Meadowlands that make it a scary place, especially at night. The series focuses on a couple, Danny and Evelyn Brogan (David Morrissey and Lucy Cohu), who have two teenagers, Zoe and Mark (Felicity Jones and Harry Treadaway). Zoe is a tease and flirts with the dangerous handyman, Jack Donnelly (Tom Hardy). Mark has a number of disabilities. He’s autistic and, in the first episode, mute. He enjoys cross-dressing, and while adorned in drag, he is accosted by Jack Donnelly, a homicidal rapist.
In the pilot episode, it wasn’t clear exactly what Danny did to be secreted away in Meadowlands, but he’s having problems adjusting to its limitations. Zoe is determined to be the community slut, and has been egging-on Jack Donnelly to ravage her. When Evelyn gets stir crazy and wants to go outside the borders of Meadowlands, Danny tells her “Out there, nothing good happens.” So she is forbidden from leaving the enclave. They all are suburban prisoners. One can smell the irony in the air.
The Brogan’s next door neighbor (Melanie Hill) sees Mark Brogan staring at her. So she starts stripping and gets off on his voyeurism. Mark always wears woman’s gloves, and is very creepy. Evelyn, who is thinking about having another baby, sees the compound’s resident weirdo gynecologist (Tristan Gemmill) who confesses his love for her. She is taken aback but secretly intrigued. She could see herself having an affair with the doctor. Yes, despite being dysfunctional, the Brogans are the most normal people in Meadowlands.
The characters in this series are developed gradually, as we find out their quirks and homicidal tendencies. The men play midnight soccer, which is designed to let them workout their frustrations on the soccer pitch, rather than engage in violence within the community. Viewers wonder what the bigger purpose of this quasi-prison is? Could it be a sociological experiment or a way of studying odd personalities? The uncertainty adds suspense and mystery to the goings-on inside the ticky-tacky jungle.
When Danny finds Jack Donnelly sexually attacking Mark, he kills him. Then he makes Mark, now completely freaked out, help him bury the body in the yard. Now, the family has blood on their hands, which is bound to come out. The resident detective is suspicious that Danny has done something to Jack. Thus begins a subplot to the story arc, as things go from bad to homicide in Meadowlands.
Filmed in Maidstone, England by Ecosse Films, directed by Duane Clark, and written by Robert Murphy, This series is dark and foreboding. The Meadowland residents seem more like the Sopranos than protected witnesses. As one learns about the Brogans’ dysfunctions and the other characters odd behavior, one can not predict where this series is going, which makes it well worth viewing. Meadowlands plays on Sunday nights at 10 pm on Showtime.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
