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The Suspect is a strange series for 2022… it’s a 5-part series that you’d normally expect to be spread over five consecutive nights, but instead, ITV are putting it out weekly, AND only each part will be available AFTER it has been broadcast.
At the start, Joe O’Loughlin (Aidan Turner – Poldark) is a psychologist who’s asked – or rather told – to talk someone down from a ledge, while actually standing out there… Damn, there’s NO way you could get me to do that!
Still, he’s informed the potential jumper is suffering from terminal cancer; and as for Joe, he ALSO has medical issues, and it’s not just vertigo that could affect him while he’s out there. This leads to quite a nail-biting opening scene… although I hate it when people bite their nails (it’s gross. STOP IT!)
Meanwhile, the body of a young woman – who died from 21 stab wounds to her chest – has been found in a cemetery. Okay, so normally, you’d expect to find the deceased in such an environment, although in this case, she hasn’t been buried properly, and is still partially stuck out of the ground.
Along the way, Joe has a psychiatric patient with a numbers fetish, plus, the police want him to get involved in psychological profiling. Plus, for the cops, we get the lovely Anjli Mohindra (The Lazarus Project) as Devi, but Joe also has to suffer the extremely grumpy DI Vince Ruis (Shaun Parkes – The Accident).
As for who ‘the suspect’ is, that did tend to stretch credibility. Probably as much as the question of why – in his job – is he seeing patients so late at night? Does he have a 24/7 service in his office?!
Overall so far, this is an interesting opener, setting things up for future episodes, but for the episodes to be weekly? In 2022? Come on, now. That’s crazy talk!
UPDATE Episode 2:
The Suspect continues next Monday on ITV at 9pm. It’s available to pre-order on DVD. At the time of posting this, Amazon seems to think the release date is today! That’s clearly wrong. I’d expect it in at least five weeks.
After each episode is broadcast, they will be on the ITV Player.
Series Directors: James Strong, Camilla Strøm Henriksen
Producer: Natasha Romaniuk
Writer: Peter Berry
Music: Glenn Gregory, Berenice Scott
Cast:
Joe O’Loughlin: Aidan Turner
Devi: Anjli Mohindra
DI Vince Ruis: Shaun Parkes
Julianne: Camilla Beeput
Jack Owens: Adam James
Bobby Moran: Bobby Schofield
Fenwick: Sian Clifford
Margaret: Tor Clark
Fisher: Michelle Asante
Malcolm: Gabin Kongolo
Charlie O’Loughlin: Uma Warner
Catherine McCain: Tara Lee
Meena: Carys Bowkett
DC Wallis: Imogen Daines
Cara: Bronagh Waugh
Mortuary Attendant: Beth Hinton-Lever
Carl Ashley: Richie Bratby
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.