The Kettering Incident (2016) Review
The Kettering Incident (2016) Review
The Kettering Incident, created by Victoria Madden and Vincent Sheehan, is an Australian TV series set in Tasmanian. This first season, running just eight episodes, was originally transmitted from 4 July to 15 August 2016. Filmed in and around the town of Kettering and Bruny Island in Tasmania, the series was budgeted at fifteen million dollars and marketing as being the first adult drama to be filmed in Tasmania. The choice of location is no accident. Kettering was apparently the site of an infamous UFO sighting back in February 1976 which gives you an idea of where this show might be going, or maybe not, we’ll have to wait and see.
The Night Manager’s Elizabeth Debicki stars as Anna Macy, a doctor working at a hospital in London. She has a habit of missing work, having nosebleeds, blacking out and waking up in unexpected places but still manages to be highly-respected in her field. She thinks nothing of skipping her no doubt heavy workload and buggering off back to her home town of Kettering in Tasmania where unresolved issues await her. Anna had left Kettering fifteen years prior following the disappearance of her best friend Gillian Baxter, when she just fourteen. What actually happened is shrouded in mystery however we do see the younger Anna beg her friend Gillian not to go into the forbidden woods in the pre-credits opener, but that’s as much as we are going to get for now.
Once in Kettering Anna’s arrival is met with mixed reactions. She receives a number of blunt enquiries along the lines of ‘what are you doing here?’ and, aside from soulless sexy time with gruff stud cop Brian Dutch (Matthew Le Nevez), Anna spends an awful lot of time turning up where she’s not wanted and getting blamed for everything kicking off again. But what exactly IS kicking off again? It’s too soon to tell and we’re not going to properly know for awhile. This is franchise TV, it’s going to roll out clues, answer some, drop red herrings and keep you guessing until the producers decide the concept has it’s run its course.
There’s torches flashing in the trees, moss growing inside and outside the town resident’s buildings, as well as on people’s bodies. There’s an owl that pops up from time to time too – and this will be significant to the plot as the owl also appears in the opening title credits sequence – a girl is murdered, there’s strange markings on people’s bodies, blood types changing (see, there’s a reason our lead is a doctor, she needs to unravel all these body-based anomilies) and much much more is going on besides too.
It’s got more than enough to keep you hooked and that’s exactly what it does. It’s not perfect, it’s hardly memorable in the way The X Files was at its peak, or even Twin Peaks (two series this bares resemblance to) but it is efficient and well acted, and more importantly it makes for gripping entertainment. An ensemble of characters are introduced in a relaxed fashion and allowed to breathe, as we learn more about them through each successive episode, rather than through an exposition heavy dialogue as our American counterparts are prone to doing. The Kettering Incident kept me watching and, given the speed with which I had to turn this review around, it was an absolute pleasure to do so. It won’t win points for originality, but it’s a fresh take on old ideas that still deserves your attention. Roll on Season Two.
