Following Memet’s death, Riya is facing pressure to leave well alone.

Just a quick check-in, mid series, to confirm that Andrew Buchan’s horror-comedy thriller is ticking along nicely, still demonstrating deft story telling technique as it skips lightly from strand to intertwining strand in a masterclass of narrative plate spinning. Having said that, there is perhaps a little too much spinning and not enough forward motion, but the dialogue is consistently playful and sharp so it’s never a boring watch.

Wunmi Mosaku’s restless detective, Riya, is a rounded anchor for the show. We want her to succeed, but neither Buchan nor Mosaku are afraid of showing her many flaws, making her all the more relatable. The degree of light and shade across so many characters (there are over twenty that span the series as a whole) is impressive to see in a primetime terrestrial show in an age of ‘second-screen’ divided attentions.

We’re still no nearer to finding out whether the core of the mystery has any genuine paranormal content, although the genre teasing is turned up to eleven at times, so, while I’m looking forward to the closing acts of Passenger, the show will need to pay off that teasing properly in order not to disappoint. I have my primetime fingers crossed.

8/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com