After a lumpy opening episode, ‘Withdrawal’ embodies everything that isn’t working about the show and the things that, often despite itself, are.

What isn’t working right now is the disparate nature of the show. Combined with the unusually muddy, seemingly CGI mist and the annoyinlg coy way the show is dealing with it, the different groups in different places element just isn’t working. It renders each plot into a standalone and in the case of the police and church groups this episode, that is not good news. The police station plot in particular does almost nothing this episode other than move those characters from one place to another. The only hint of something more is the vision Mia has in the mist but even that exists in isolation. That’s understandable in a way, given the serialized nature of the show but it’s still annoyingly slow-paced and ties the show to a concertina push me/pull you pacing model that does it, and the viewers, no favours.

Thankfully, the Mall plot is actually really interesting this week. The logistics of trying to get to the working radio are really nicely handled and the tensions and different groups at the Mall are the most interesting part of the show.

And then there’s Arrowhead, and Shadow 41 and the show making an almost impossibly huge gamble in just the second episode. Alex is part of the group selected to go and get the radio, alongside a man called Clint. They make it, and Clint begins calling anyone he can find on the radio.

And then he calls ‘Arrowhead’ identifying himself as ‘Shadow 41’.

As anyone who’s read the original novella knows, Arrowhead is the call sign for the Military project that, it’s implied, has caused the Mist. Having that be extant in the mythos of the show, and the implication that Arrowhead has seeded officers throughout the region as lookouts for this sort of thing is a brilliant piece of adaptation and of world-building.

Alex shooting him? Not so much.

It’s understandable in that she feels threatened, is actually attacked by him and assumes he’s at fault. But it’s also difficult not to roll your eyes as the show walks right up to something this major and then swerves at the last second.

But it is at least on the table and that bodes well.

Verdict: If the show can keep, and accelerate, the feed of information then it’s going to find its feet. If not, then like too much of this episode, it’ll be lost in the mist with no direction to go. 6/10

Alasdair Stuart