All right, so here's what I can say about The Gloaming, which debuted Sunday evening on Starz:
It has a great name. The gloam is that time between sunset and darkness. It's a good word for writers and songwriters to know. It rhymes with home and foam. I may put in a new verse in my song Pictures on the Phone.
The story is pretty good, too. Or, at least, it's starting out that way. A teenage girl (Jenny) was murdered in Tasmania two decades ago. The guy (Alex) standing next to her was not, and he's now a cop on the mainland (Melbourne), sent to the island to help with a new murder. He had a relationship of some sort with the cop (Molly) in Tasmania who is already investigating the new murder, so much so that Alex named his cat after her. There's a school of some sort that involved in some likely nefarious way, and some kind of cult is on the island, that we've just seen a hint of, so far.
So, in addition to the intriguing title, that's a promising set-up. On the other hand, cults have been seen on the screen many times before, so The Gloaming will have pretty steep hill to climb if it seeks to be original. The key to its success will likely be the relationship between Alex and Molly. Why was he spared back in 1999? Did he know the killer, the man (presumably) who pointed the rifle at Jenny and pulled the trigger twice?
Stories with cults can tip into the supernatural. If The Gloaming does this, it will enter into a realm which goes far beyond the detective story, and requires a very different set of conventions. Based on the first episode, I'm thinking The Gloaming can do just well without this. I'm hoping it will stick, as far as possible, to the world as we know it.
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