Rectify

Rectify, an original series from the Sundance Channel, is challenging TV. A first series of six episodes aired in 2013, which I just finished watching.

The show deals with the release of a man (Aden Young) who has spent nearly twenty years on death row for the murder of a teenage girl. He is sprung on what some call a technicality--DNA found on the victim did not match Young's. But the prosecutor who tried the case, now a state senator, is hell-bent on getting him retried. Meanwhile his family is happy to have him home.

The show revolves the strange performance of Young. What is it like to spent twenty years in a box, and then get released into the wide world? I'm not sure, but Young plays it as if he had just emerged from a coma, and perhaps that's not far off. He walks around like a zombie, is amazed by new things like video games, and enjoys recreating childhood memories like riding a bike.

His family is a bit fractured. His mother (J. Smith Cameron) has remarried to the man who now owns the family business, a tire store. His only other full relation is his sister (Abigail Spencer), who fiercely fights for his innocence. He has one younger half-brother and step-brother (Clayne Crawford), who is the show's asshole. He is married to a devout woman (Adelaide Clemens) who wants Daniel to embrace the Lord.

The show is very slow paced, and is challenging because it does not conform to the standard beats of most dramas. One could say that not much happens, and we simply watch like scientists observing an interesting species. The dynamics between the family and the town--most of whom believe Young is guilty--are tense, but until the last episode, not violent. This kind of minimalism makes even the quietest event seem louder.

I can't say I would recommend this show to many. It plays out like a very literary novel. There are no revelations, and many unanswered questions. Two other men were with Young when the girl was killed. One of them kills himself, and the other one finds his body and lets it float down a river. We don't know if Young is guilty or not--he doesn't even seem to know it (he confessed, but his team are convinced it was coerced). In short, this is what they might call "thinking man's TV," but when I see something like this I'm reminded why unthinking man's TV is sometimes more satisfying.

I can't be sure I'll ever return to see the other seasons of this series. I just wasn't hooked by it, despite it's many good qualities.