Mr. Mercedes (Season 1) Audience, AT&T,
Produced by: David E. Kelley Productions, Nomadicfilm, Temple Hill Productions, Sonar Entertainment
Starring:
Brendan Gleeson as Detective Bill Hodges
Harry Treadaway as Brady Hartsfield
Kelly Lynch as Deborah Hartsfield
Jharrel Jerome as Jerome Robinson
Scott Lawrence as Detective Peter Dixon
Robert Stanton as Anthony “Robi” Frobisher
Breeda Wool as Lou Linklatter
Justine Lupe as Holly Gibney
Ann Cusack as Olivia Trelawney
Mary-Louise Parker as Janey Patterson
Holland Taylor as Ida Silver
Makayla Lysiak as Barbara Robinson
I did a review of the Stephen King book Mr. Mercedes for Electric Review and gave it a good review.
Based on that, I elected to watch the serialization of the book despite the fact it was made under the aegis, of all entities, AT&T. AT&T seems less likely to be a sponsor of a King work and more likely to be the subject.
Then there was the producer: David E. Kelley. Kelley does great work (Picket Fences, Boston Legal, etc.), but it tends to be quirky, clever, and fairly light. Paul McCartney is a fine musician, but I can’t quite see him doing der Götterdämmerung. For similar reasons, Kelley and King seemed a similar mismatch.
Then there was the hard-boiled retired police detective, Bill Hodges, who begins the series as a candidate to eat his gun. He’s played by Brenden Gleeson, an Irish actor with a thick brogue, best known to American audiences as Mad-Eye Mooney from the Harry Potter movies. Again, it seemed a mismatch.
Harry Treadaway was the psychopath, Brady, and again, it was a mismatch. I knew the Devon-born English actor from Cockneys vs. Zombies. It was indisputably hilarious, but the accents were so thick that even this Londoner needed subtitles. He didn’t seem the emotionally crippled computer nerd type.
And there was also Mary-Louise Parker, the MILF from Weeds. She appears as out of place in a King series as Molly Ringwald, who was very out of place in The Stand.
My expectations were tempered. King’s work usually doesn’t translate well to the small screen, and quite a few have been utter disasters. If it was “just OK” I would consider that an accomplishment.
Of course, it turned out to be the best small-screen adaptation of King I’ve seen. Gleeson and Treadaway, aided by strong supporting characters, turn in one of the finest cat-and-mouse games, Treadaway’s infinitely creepy otherworldliness playing off perfectly against Gleeson’s profound humanity and his character’s desire to rise above himself and win one last battle with a bad guy.
It’s riveting, pure King at his best, and I found myself utterly enthralled by the events as they unwound. Even knowing how it ends, I couldn’t not watch. Kelley did an amazing job coaxing top-flight out-of-type performances from his ensemble, and the results are a delight.
As I write this, a second ten-episode season is ongoing, and you can bet I’m watching. So far, it’s every bit as good.
Now on Audience.