Durham County is one of the best dramas I've watched on TV in quite awhile. If you trust my judgement at all, stop reading now and set your DVR/VCR to record the first episode. It's replaying tonight (Friday) on ION at 11:00/10:00 Central. Go ahead... I'll wait.
Homicide Detective Mike Sweeney has moved his family from the dangerous big city life of Toronto to the suburban county where he grew up. He and his wife are trying to escape their recent past, and have dragged their two daughters along for a fresh start. Mike's partner was recently gunned down in a drive-by and his wife Audrey is recovering from a bout with breast cancer that took multiple surgeries to survive. Across the street lives Ray Prager, one of Det. Sweeney's best childhood friends. A former NHL draft pick, his pro hockey career ended before it even started due to a car accident. Don't feel too bad for him though, he and his wife Tracy have managed to make a good living running a plumbing company.
There's just one problem: Ray is a bit of a psychopath. He witnesses a gruesome double rape/murder, and rather than report it to the authorities he uses it as the inspiration for his own grisly way of dealing with life's stresses. The game of cat and mouse that proceeds between Mike and his old friend Ray makes for compelling drama. In my previous post, I compared it thematically to Twin Peaks. After watching the six episodes which comprise the first mini-season, I think the comparison still stands up. They're both a dark exploration of the evils that man can do to one another. Interestingly, in this case you know who the bad guy is from the start. There's no question of "Who killed Laura Palmer?" here. It's essentially a murder mystery without the mystery, but it's so well-written that you still want to watch it play out.
The acting is top-notch throughout, particularly from Justin Louis who plays Ray. He switches from charming to monstrous at the flip of a switch, and his criminal acts only serve to make his charm more disturbing. The other actors are good as well, but the real star here is the story. In a world of disposable entertainment, it's refreshing to watch something where no line is thrown away. As Hugh Dillon (Det. Sweeney) put it in an interview I saw, it's "drama without pretension".
You may be wondering how it is that I've seen the first six episodes already. This is actually a Canadian import that originally aired on The Movie Network (think Canada's version of HBO) back in 2007. As such, it's chock full of cursing, violence, nudity, and 5-6 minutes of content that had to be cut out as it transitioned to American network TV. I'm happy to report that despite the editing, the show remains watchable. If you have the means to seek out the full-length version then do so. Otherwise, this can serve as a suitable alternative.
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