If the small-town happenings of “Twin Peaks” aren’t enough to fit the bill, then perhaps “Tin Star” will be a series you’ll want to track down. While likely not as straight up freaky as David Lynch‘s offering, it does share a parallel with its remote locations and seamy happenings occurring underneath an otherwise normal facade.
Starring Christina Hendricks and Tim Roth, the show follows a former UK cop who relocates with his family to the Canadian Rockies to become the local law enforcement, only to find himself up against some formidable, criminal opposition. Here’s the official synopsis:
Tin Star tells the story of Jim Worth, an ex-Metropolitan police detective who has moved with his family to the Rocky Mountains to start a new life as a local police chief in an idyllic rural community. When his small town is overrun by migrant workers from a massive new oil refinery – the wave of drugs, prostitution and organised crime that follows them threatens to sweep away everything in its wake.
When Jim makes a stand, his act appears to prompt mysterious assassins to unleash sudden and violent retribution on Jim and his family; the resulting tragedy irrevocably shattering the peace they had found in this once perfect mountain idyll and transforming their remote sanctuary into a hellish and inescapable prison.
Who was behind the attack? Did the oil company- fronted by urbane corporate liaison, Mrs Bradshaw (Christina Hendricks) – hire the assassins to thwart Jim’s discovery of a shocking cover-up? Or is the police chief’s violent, alcoholic past as an undercover cop finally catching up with him?
Devastated by the harrowing acts of brutality enacted on his family, a voice from Jim’s past returns – his long-suppressed, booze and drug addicted alter-ego Jack Devlin. Taunting the police chief’s every waking moment, Devlin, the poisonous voice in Jim’s head, speaks only of violent and bloody revenge.
Fuelled by guilt, fear and shame, Jim’s resolve to keep the darkest part of himself hidden from the world weakens; finally succumbing, Worth releases Devlin, an internal rage made manifest. And in so doing, the devil inside goes on to consume Jim almost completely, becoming an even greater threat to the family and the town, than the assassins themselves.
Penned by Rowan Joffe (“28 Weeks Later,” “The American“) the ten-episode “Tin Star” will debut soon in the U.K. on Sky Atlantic. No word yet on if a U.S. network has picked it up.
