Mysteries stir the small town in the series Passenger

Passenger. MTV Katsomo+. Britbox.

★★★

Chadder Valen strange things happen in a small town. Something much scarier than bread is traveling in the bakery’s truck, a crushed moose is mysteriously found on a forest road, and a young woman disappears for a day and does not tell where she was when she returns.

Passengerseries (2024), it all creates a headache for detective Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku), who is seen as a new guy in the community, even though he moved there from London five years ago.

Eddie Wells returns to the village for more trouble (Barry Sloane), who has been released from prison after serving half of his ten-year sentence. The whole village fears and hates Eddie, but no one tells what terrible things he has done.

Passenger on Andrew Buchanin creation. He is especially known as an actor Broadchurchfrom the crime series (2013–2017). This is where he has jumped into scriptwriting for the first time.

As a description of the village community Passenger works nicely. Cadder Vale seems plausible, but it’s a fabrication. The series was filmed in the small village of Cornholme in West Yorkshire.

So it’s a bit like a neighbor Sally Wainwrightin Happy Valley series (2014–2023), in which a female detective also solved crimes in West Yorkshire.

From the big city Ajunwalle, who ended up in the remote village of Chadder Vale, is a traditional police character, but Buchan has built a nuanced character for him. It’s refreshing not to make a number out of her skin color.

The central elements of the community are the Wells family. Its daughter Katie (Rowan Robinson) is working in the Jumbo bakery, whose employees are struggling with their morko. Eddie’s father, while mother Joanne (Natalie Gavin) has kept things together by doing many jobs.

Another central group is the police department, led by a grumpy Linda Markel (Jo Hartley). Along with Ajunwalle, a couple of nice people work there.

Persons buzzes a lot more. Buchan manages to build their network of relationships surprisingly quickly and quite clearly. There wouldn’t be much room for priming in six episodes.

A lot of other things will be a bit more relaxed. Passengeria marketed as a horror comedy. I remember a bit Secret folders and Twin Peaksbut in the end there is little horror and even less comedy.

In contrast to a gallery of characters, the plot’s various elements move forward rigidly, and their puzzle doesn’t manage to settle into place for long periods of time. When the story doesn’t really progress, it threatens to drag on.

There is no way to find a clear, let alone a deep, theme for the series, unless it crystallizes unexpectedly in the last episode, which was not shown in advance.

To remote villages and rural police series, both with and without comedy, have been made in Britain so much that they are already their own subgenre. In Passenger Buchan tries to bring something new to it with horror, but has left it unfinished.

In Passenger So Buchan has prepared a good game board and checkers. Maybe next time he will figure out what kind of game he wants to play with them – and build the rules and dramaturgy that work for the game.