Claustrophobia, a suspicious death, intense PTSD flashbacks and Suranne Jones in a role which fits her like a glove…Vigil is set to be the crime drama of the autumn. Time to batten down the hatches, get cosy on the couch and prepare for a wild ride – we predict troubled seas ahead.
Writer Tom Edge transports us to the stormy Scottish seas, where tension is brewing above and below the water’s surface, but don’t worry – Edge covers all bases with a series chock-a-block with enough sub plots and twists to give you hours of lunch break small talk material – at some point, we must collectively accept that it’s time to stop talking about Line of Duty.
In Vigil, we follow protagonist Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) as she boards submarine, HMS Vigil, a location which Ben Dowell in The Times describes as “a decidedly unmatey ship”, full of “sunlight and oxygen-deprived crew”. The setting is what really propels Vigil ahead of your average drama, “wholly unfamiliar, hugely claustrophobic” and “utterly thrilling”, in the words of The Telegraph’s Gerard O’Donovan, who goes on to describe the show as “a new take on that old crime-drama chestnut, the locked-room murder mystery.”
+ If you can’t get enough of whodunnit murder mysteries, see our review of The White Lotus.
Starring an array of actors who know a thing or two about screen presence, with what The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan describes as “a thickening plot” which takes us on a “deeply satisfying journey”, there’s very little to stop you from delving into the deep waters of Vigil – although, take heed of Mangan’s warning; “claustrophobics beware – the submarine scenes are very, very submarine-y”.
Here at Must, we can’t wait to see how the series develops, and from the look of the first episode, we predict that Vigil is going to be far from smooth sailing.
First shown August 2021.
