Review: "Red Riding Trilogy"

I think we've all been spoiled a little, as far as television goes, by "The Wire."  It did far too many things well to list here (particularly since this is supposed to be a review for something else) but I think it's worth mentioning a couple, both of which have to do with realism.

The first was its lack of exposition.  I liked how in "The Wire" you're dropped right in the middle of the story and just observe, like a fly on the wall, how things work in gangs and in the police and in other locations without feeling like someone was explaining it to you.

The second was its plausibility.  Although, as a writer and a reader, I love complicated plots, philosophical dialogue, and depictions of ultimate evil, I am forced to admit that these things rarely occur in nature.  "The Wire", especially in its earlier seasons, avoided the temptation to follow traditional dramatic conventions.  The show, I think, started to get a little bit away from this in its later seasons (the plot to season five, for instance, was still plausible by the standards of "regular TV" but not very plausible at all by the standards of real life) but it remains one of the great strengths of the series as a whole.

Which brings us to the "Red Riding" trilogy, perhaps the British answer to "The Wire."  The trilogy is made up of three movie-length (90 minute) television episodes that were directed by three different (reasonably)well-known directors, filmed in three different film formats and broadcast in England on Channel 4 within two weeks of one another.


"Red Riding" tells a complicated story about police corruption and serial killers in the north of England in the late 70s and early 80s, around the time that York was terrorized by the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper") who murdered at least 13 women.  The Yorkshire police came under intense criticism for failing to apprehend the murderer.  When Sutcliffe was eventually caught, it was discovered that the police had interviewed him and released him numerous times, in part because they were using tapes taunting the police (which were eventually found to be fake) as a point of exclusion.

The first episode, "1974" revolves around a young reporter who is doggedly investigating a series of murders of young children.  His investigations are hampered by the local police, particularly when they eventually lead him to a powerful local figure.  The second episode, "1980", is the story of a police officer who briefly takes over the Ripper investigation, only to find his efforts hampered (once again) by the local constabulary.  The third episode, "1983", follows a number of characters, including a member of the Yorkshire police, and contains numerous flashbacks which explain the story.

One of the pleasures (and the challenges) of Red Riding is the lack of exposition.  The characters' accents are very thick and there is little explanation of what is going on.  This is slightly frustrating in the first two episodes, particularly since the continual hostility of the Yorkshire police borders on the irrational and it can be difficult to tell how the various stories interconnect.  The final episode, however, masterfully ties all of the disparate threads together and explains everything.

Which brings us to plausibility.  Although, as I've stated, I love big, complicated plots, I have to admit that they are often rather implausible.  "Red Riding" is no different.  Just as the conspiracy in season five of "The Wire" felt as if it is crossed a certain line, so does (in my opinion) the conspiracy at the heart of "Red Riding";  basically, it is just unbelievably horrible.

I still like "Red Riding", however, and I think that the answer as to why its break from reality is acceptable lies in its inherent artistic truth.

There is a critical scene late in "1974," when one character holds another out of the back of the van and gestures towards towards the endless dull countryside.  "You see this?"  he asks.  "This is the North, where we do what we want."

In "Red Riding", the north of England is depicted as a fiercely independent region, and this independence, born of isolation, backwardsness, and resentment towards slights real and imagined, provides an ideological basis for corruption.  Lack of respect for the central government leads naturally to lawlessness, if no other authority is set up to replace it.

It is not an accident that serial killers thrive in the North in "Red Riding", because corruption leads to some very strange bedfellows indeed. After all, if you aren't on the side of the angels, you're with the devils. Once they're on your team, they can be awfully reluctant to leave. They sit down in your chairs, put their feet up on your table, and drink all the beer in your fridge. The Yorkshire police have to put up with many such terrible houseguests because they can't expose them without exposing themselves. They only have themselves to blame.

The central message of "Red Riding" is one of the main messages of all film noir - that transgressions are always punished.  Once you succumb to temptation and do the "wrong thing", you have crossed a line and can never can cross back, because you have to hide the thing you did, not just for a while, but forever.  The secrecy necessitated by the first crime inevitably leads to another, and then another.

In light of this, the rather sensationalized evil in "Red Riding" becomes more interesting than it normally might, not for its literal verisimilitude but for what it represents: the terrible evil that can foster in a culture of corruption.  Corruption is now (as it always is) and enormous issue.  In places like India, China and Africa it can be the most serious brake on development, progress and democracy.

And so, although the plot of "Red Riding" (involving, as it does, links between police corruption and serial murderers) is not particularly realistic , the trilology vividly illustrates an important "artistic truth" by showing how unrelated corruption can provide a shield for unpseakable evil.  It is this brilliant and haunting insight that (I think) puts it in the same category as "The Wire."

Or almost.  As I said, we've been spoiled.