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Australia’s brand of small-town mystery is different than we see from most other countries, mainly because the small towns are tiny and insular, and the people who live there wear their biases on their sleeves (they’re also full of crocs, but that’s another matter). It definitely helps inform Acorn TV‘s prequel series Mystery Road: Origin.
MYSTERY ROAD: ORIGIN SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a marshy area, a child runs away from someone; he’s holding a baseball cap. He’s then approached by a man, and disappears.
The Gist: “THIRTY YEARS LATER. EASTER 2000.” Detective Jay Swan (Mark Coles Smith) is driving towards the town of Loch Iris, when he almost gets sideswiped by a pickup truck driving erratically through a gate. He catches up with the truck, which crashed into a tree, only to find that the person driving it is a kid he later finds out is named Swayze (Aswan Reid).
This is his first day in Loch Iris, as he’s been transferred to that district by the territorial police. His wife Mary (Tuuli Narkle), who is pregnant with their first child, and 7-year-old niece Anya (Eloise Hart) have already moved there ahead of his arrival, and they’re living in a caravan park.
On the way to bringing Swayze to get checked out in the hospital, Swan stops at the local police station, to find out that the local police chief, Simmo (Robyn Malcolm) is at the pub. When he finds her, she says that she’s well aware of his new assignment, but warns him that he was sent to the “ass end of nowhere.”
After bringing Swayze to the hospital, he finally arrives at the RV where Mary and Anya are living. Anya is playing with her friend Scarlett (Scarlett Yarran), who’s under the care of a foster parent. He helps watch them while Mary goes to work at the hospital, where she’s a nurse.
Loch Iris is Mary’s hometown, and her mother grew up at the “home” that used to be associated with the local mission. A nun that works at the hospital, Sister Carrie (Helen Morse), used to work at the mission is surprised to learn that Mary is of Aboriginal descent, but is shocked when Mary mentions her mother’s name.
The next day, Swan finds the hospital’s social worker questioning Scarlett’s foster mother after she reports Scarlett missing. He immediately suspects Joey (Luke Carroll), a local handyman who the kids at the caravan park seem to trust, though Simmo vouches for him. Phillip Lloyd (Geoff Morrell), a chemo patient at the hospital, offers the Swans a house to stay in, rent free, which makes Jay suspicious. At the hospital, Swayze has a violent reaction when Sister Carrie comes in with prayer cards and some comfort. The posters for a child who went missing in 1970 still dot the town.
Photo: David Dare Parker/Acorn TVWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Mystery Road: Origin is a prequel to the 2018-20 series Mystery Road. Aaron Pederson played Swan in the original series and the 2013 film the series is based on.
Our Take: At this point, it seems that creepiness and violence follows Jay Swan around, and we see that in the second season of Mystery Road: Origins. But any mystery that he has to solve also involves overcoming people’s biases about Aboriginals. It’s something that both Jay and Mary, who are both of Aboriginal descent, have had to deal with in their careers and in their lives, and it’s a significant factor in the mysteries they try to solve.
One of the things we appreciate about this prequel, though, is that Jay isn’t a lone wolf. Although he may seem like a young guy who’s rocketed up the police ladder by playing by the book and being good at his job, Mary isn’t just there as a supportive wife. In this case, being in her hometown, as well as her mother’s history with the “home” that was likely a place where Aboriginal kids were mistreated, will very much factor into the various mysteries that Jay is going to look into.
The other part of the story is Jay continually having to prove himself due to his race. He’s already got an uphill battle with the police chief, Simmo, who calls him “that Black fella cop who had the speedy rise up the ranks” when they first meet. She knows he got his last boss thrown in prison, so her immediate mistrust of him already runs deep. That will always be a part of the narrative in Mystery Road: Origin, and it adds a dimension to the cases Jay works, because he has to be wary and suspicious at all times due to the biases of most of the people he deals with.
Photo: David Dare Parker/Acorn TVPerformance Worth Watching: While Smith is appropriately stoic as Jay, we keep wanting to see more of Tuuli Narkle as Mary, given that she is more forgiving and less suspicious than Jay, but just as sharp.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Jay goes into Sister Carrie’s house when he sees something suspicious as he passes it in his truck. He finds the body of the nun in an overflowing bathtub.
Sleeper Star: Robyn Malcolm is appropriately a-holish as the proprietary police chief Simmo.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find. Mystery Road: Origin doesn’t tend to be a show that’s overly weighed down by exposition or reptition.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Mystery Road: Origin continues to give viewers compelling mysteries combined with Jay Swan’s determination to make his work speak for itself despite the racism that he faces on a daily basis.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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