It’s 1972, the Vietnam War is nearing an end, and Mac (Logan Marshall-Green) and his best friend Arthur (Jamie Hector) are returning home from Memphis after two tours of duty, yet they hardly receive a warm welcome. It’s not just that American opinion has shifted considerably about the war —the pair have been implicated and cleared of wrongdoing in a My Lai massacre-esque incident. But whatever happened halfway around the world hasn’t changed the love their wives Joni (Jodi Balfour) and Ruth (Nikki Amuka-Bird) feel for them. They are glad to have their husbands home and eager to return to the lives they had before the war. But being in Memphis, which is enduring an economic decline and widespread racial tension —this is the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and in which schools are still segregated at the time— doesn’t make the prospects for finding work, much less easing back into the comforts of American life these soldiers were supposedly fighting for, any easier. This historical backdrop and socioeconomic texture would be more than enough to sustain “Quarry” as a compelling drama, but the new Cinemax series has one more card to play, and it’s the engine that drives the show: Mac, who becomes known by the titular nickname a few episodes into the season, is sought out by a mysterious fixer to join his crew of contract killers.
READ MORE: The 30 Most Anticipated Fall TV Shows
If the mixture of a dime store novel premise (the show is based on the crime books by Max Allan Collins) and well-researched, detailed realism seems like a clash, that’s because it is. The longer “Quarry” unfolds across the seven episodes of the eight episode season sent to press, the less interesting the lead character and his dilemmas become.
While the passion between them remains, resentment lines the marriage of Mac/Quarry and Joni. He begrudges her journalism career for offering a window into a life of abundant culture and intellect than he can likely provide, while she is still hurt by the residual pain of his voluntary enlistment for a second tour in Vietnam, a decision Joni still can’t understand even as Quarry returns home. His second absence has seen Joni become a different woman than the one Quarry left behind, while he grapples with the sometimes violent symptoms of PTSD. Again, this is all fascinating material on its own, but it hangs around the main narrative thrust that drives “Quarry.”
Unfortunately, Quarry’s initial refusal to work for the man known only as The Broker (played by a terrifically enigmatic Peter Mullan) quickly leads to the viewer to not being particularly invested in his journey. Even as Quarry is eventually coerced —for reasons revealed in the pilot episode, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”— into taking out hits on behalf of The Broker’s clients, his half-hearted participation is simply fueled by his desire to pay off a debt that he now owes his exacting employer. However, Quarry’s reluctance doesn’t do the slow-burning nature of the show many favors, particularly as the agency of the lead character is mostly determined from outside forces. Basically, it’s not particularly engaging to watch the protagonist of a series who is mostly reactive rather than proactive, especially when Quarry, played with determination by Marshall-Green, doesn’t seem to have much of an arc. Quarry has a lot going on personally and emotionally, but these qualities eventually cohere into a singularly stoic, somewhat desperate man given to an occasional outburst.
Keeping “Quarry” watchable is the impressive array of supporting talent. Damon Herriman arguably steals the show as Buddy, The Broker’s middle man for obtaining weapons who is quickly getting tired of the life and is angling for a change in his role in the organization. More or less openly gay as well, the character has a lovely complexity that goes far beyond sexual orientation and is brought to eccentrically endearing life by Herriman, particularly in the scenes with Buddy’s supportive mother Naomi (Ann Dowd), who knows everything about her son and doesn’t judge him for a moment. Mustafa Shakir’s turn as session musician/contract killer Moses is also a highlight, particularly in his growing relationship with Ruth and his increasing anger at the racial turmoil he sees around him. Meanwhile, Amuka-Bird gives Ruth an admirable resiliency in the face of tragedy. And overall, the world that The Broker operates in, with a string of criminal colleagues keeping each part of his murder-for-hire business moving, is engrossing and more absorbing than Quarry himself.
Emmy-winning TV veteran Greg Yaitanes (“House,” “Banshee”) directs the entire run of the first season of “Quarry,” doing solid if not particularly memorable work. But the show is hampered by two very distinct production trademarks of Cinemax’s parent company HBO. While the idea of soaking “Quarry” in soul and rhythm and blues music (via a strong handful of live performances) makes sense for a show set in Memphis, strangely enough, none of it feels particularly organic across the series and often seems designed to sell an inevitable soundtrack. And then there’s the constant criticism of needless female nudity on HBO/Cinemax, a charge that won’t end with “Quarry,” which finds no shortage of moments for Balfour to be topless, but few of them actually necessary.
The patience with which “Quarry” unfolds and the depths it goes in creating an exhaustively historically accurate environment are both its blessing and curse. You want to spend more time soaking up the steamy, complicated and lively Memphis milieu, and less time hanging around with Quarry and his one-note concerns. The elements of the show that “Quarry” doesn’t set out to highlight proves its most captivating, while the show that it does want to be simply never gains much momentum. [C]
“Quarry” premieres on Friday, September 9th at 10 PM.