“If you had a place like this, wouldn’t you wanna protect it?”

When financially troubled Garden Centre owner Sam (Jude Law) encounters a young woman in shocking circumstances, he takes her home to the Essex island community of Osea. There he finds a warm welcome but the odd behaviour of the locals and the strange, almost pagan, vibe of the village lead him towards what may well turn out to be horrifying secrets.

That’s about all the plot I’m comfortable giving away here. Right from the off we’re introduced to puzzles and questions which remain unanswered by the episode’s end. Much of this feels like one of those “point and click” horror/mystery computer games, with its array of peculiar characters, strange, oddly placed items, and confined but eminently explorable setting.

It’s no spoiler to say that the events of this episode cover one day, the Friday of the title, and the seven part series as a whole will seemingly follow this structure. Unusually the fourth episode is to be a live performance from London; very little has been revealed about this, and I can’t even guess how it will tie in with the rest of the series (nor how they’ll get around the obvious virus-related issues). The nature of the final trio of episodes is no secret, but I won’t discuss that here for those who would rather be surprised (absolutely do not look this up on IMDB or Wikipedia etc, not even for an instant, if you don’t want to know).

The cast here includes quite a few heavyweights of stage and screen. Jude Law is impressive as a man with a clearly troubled past and a questionable future. I’m not too familiar with Law, other than in a couple of his early “pretty boy” roles, but I was struck by his thoughtful and complex performance here. He’s just about old enough now to be able to play “ordinary”, although I imagine his Garden Centre is unusually popular for obvious reasons. Emily Watson (Chernobyl) and Paddy Considine (The Suspicions of Mr Wicher) are suitably odd as the pub owners who welcome Sam, and Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant) is the intriguing American returnee visitor. It’s a cast that says “take this seriously”, and with Brad Pitt among the executive producers seems to have been designed very much to be a major international TV event (originally planned for May/June but pushed back due to Covid interrupting post-production).

Another major star of the series is Osea itself. I expect many viewers, especially those outside the U.K (or those within who, like me, don’t know much about geography), will assume this is an entirely fictional village. In fact it’s a real place, connected to the mainland by a Roman causeway but cut off for much of the day due to the tide, and the brief history lesson we hear from the pub owner is largely true. Set up as a “dry” village in Victorian times, it was later the site of a major drink and drug rehab hospital (the late Amy Winehouse being one of its famous visitors). The facility was shut down ten years ago after scandals regarding conditions and finance, and the island is now privately owned by a record producer, available to rent for recording purposes. It looks beautiful and I’m sure the real-life residents are lovely people, but here the island and its inhabitants smack so much of the 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man that if I were Sam I’d be swimming to safety by lunchtime, tide or no tide.

It’s far too early to really give a verdict. It’s certainly very well made in every regard but, apart from a few details about what Sam’s been up to, we get no real answers and I’m as baffled as I’m sure was intended. To return to the computer game analogy, we’re still at the point where you randomly try to use every item in your inventory with every piece of the scenery, hoping for a clue to be revealed. If you think you can avoid spoilers it might be a good idea to wait until the first three have aired, as it may be more satisfying to see this in larger chunks.

Verdict:  A suitably disconcerting pagan horror with a major star in the lead, this is certainly worth a look as it could turn out to be TV that gets talked about for some time to come. 8/10

Andy Smith