‘McDonald & Dodds’: The Wilderness of Mirrors

There was certainly a mixed reaction online to the first episode of McDonald & Dodds and, after a brief glimpse this morning, that seems to have continued onto episode two, ‘The Wilderness of Mirrors’. It’s certainly a step up from last week and our lead duo are still eminently watchable, but another uncertain conclusion may hamper your viewing experience. All the pieces are there, and they’re all good, but they just don’t quite fit together as they should.

The detective team are called to the Mara Retreat, a private rehabilitation clinic, after a wealthy patient has been found, hanged to death. Initially assumed to be a tragic suicide, Dodds soon uncovers evidence that suggests she was in fact murdered, and that the killer must be one of the people within the retreat. The patients soon come to the same conclusion and begin accusing each other, which highly frustrates McDonald, assuming she is being played. Meanwhile, Dodds sets out to uncover the mystery of the so-called ‘13^th step’, a message left by the victim before she died – what is it, and how does it tie in to her murder?

‘The Wilderness of Mirrors’ again boasts a strong guest cast

Now that the groundwork has been laid, this instalment of McDonald & Dodds was free to immediately crack on with the case. Jason Watkins is still the best thing about the show by a country mile, but I also found Tala Gouveia far more interesting this week. Last episode, she was highly abrasive with everyone and it just didn’t make for a pleasant watch – in ‘The Wilderness of Mirrors’, she’s developed a new respect for Dodds’ ability and isn’t solely career-focused. There were a lot of naysayers after last week, and those doubts should be mostly allayed. In other regular cast news, James Murray still plays Houseman as particularly officious, and Pearl Chanda actually gets something to do as DC Simpson.

‘The Wilderness of Mirrors’ again boasts a strong guest cast along with our regulars, and Joanna Scanlon is the standout here, bringing a bizarre charm to a monstrously manipulative woman who will make your flesh crawl. She shares some scenes with Watkins that will make you shout at the screen, a testament to the quality of the acting. The only other real major player is DS Irene Ross (Charlotte Ritchie), a liaison officer who may be a bit more involved with the goings-on at the Mara Retreat that our detectives first suspect (this isn’t a spoiler, I promise). The cast is rounded out by a bunch of familiar faces – Hugh Dennis, Freddie Fox, Michele Dotrice and Caroline Catz among them, all of whom are good but don’t really get that much to do.

There are pieces here for a solid detective show

I felt that the plot last week was a bit of a let-down because, in revealing the identity of the bad guy almost immediately, it diffused a lot of the tension. ‘The Wilderness of Mirrors’ pulls a similar trick, although to a much smaller extent, and the whole plot was much stronger as a result – it was an actual whodunit, rather than a puzzle that never quite figured out if it wanted to be Midsomer Murders or Columbo. For the record, I would push for the latter show, and that’s clearly the vibe that Watkins is going for, as he again exhibits some fantastic deductions. The major issue here is that I really didn’t understand the process behind some of the mental leaps that we made – I’ve no idea how we reached the identity of the killer, for example.

There are pieces here for a solid detective show, from a beautiful location to a pair of leads that are nicely finding their rapport, and I’d be surprised if ITV didn’t pick it up for a full run after the reaction to these two episodes. There is still room for McDonald & Dodds to figure out exactly what kind of drama it wants to be – once it has that identity fixed, it could become an essential crime show. I certainly hope we have the opportunity to revisit Bath again fairly soon, and that the show delivers the sort of mysteries that would suit its compelling lead.