[Please note: Happy Valley comes with huge trigger warnings for male-on-female violence, rape, suicide, and stalking. This review discusses these issues. There are no major spoilers.]
In the middle of all the Celebrating New Who fun, I did have a chance to finish Series 1 of the British crime show Happy Valley. It absolutely blew me away, and I highly recommend it.
Catherine Cawood is a successful Detective Sergeant in a small West Yorkshire town riddled with crime and drug abuse. Catherine has a grandson and a sister, a recovering addict herself, and their grim but stable lives are disrupted when Tommy Lee Royce, the man who raped Catherine's now-deceased daughter, is released from prison, returning to town and ready to offend again.
What makes Happy Valley remarkable - and why I found it so riveting - is how it blurs the lines between law enforcer and victim. Catherine is both. Her life is so unbelievably harrowing that it's hard to comprehend how she avoids total breakdown, and actor Sarah Lancashire conveys the crushing weight of Catherine's life with clarity and dignity. Regularly assaulted in the line of duty, Catherine also battles with debilitating PTSD from her daughter's suicide, and struggles to raise a grandson with a learning disability. Despite the presence of a supportive sister and ex-husband, we see how utterly alone she is. Most importantly, though, Catherine is a woman, and we see how being female places her at a disadvantage at many points, from casual workplace sexism to stalking and physical violence. The story makes terrifyingly clear how very close all the female characters live to violence, and that being part of law enforcement really doesn't offer Catherine that much protection when it really matters.
Happy Valley is a difficult (though unfailingly gripping) watch, filled as it is with male-on-female physical, sexual, and mental violence. Some have asked if the series is too violent, which is actually quite laughable when you look at what else is out there. The difference with Happy Valley is that it squarely confronts the viewer with the brutal truth about how violence impacts people. If it's too violent, it's because the reality of real-life male-on-female violence and harassment is equally horrifying. TV needs more series like this, so we get used to being shown the real, devastating mark that violence makes on people, especially women.
It's a fascinating watch because Happy Valley shows us the point of view of the male offender as well. In fact, not simply giving Tommy a passing chance to exonerate himself to the viewer, it practically rubs our face in it. And what we see is terrifying. Tommy Lee Royce is remarkable not for his active malignancy, but for the fact that nothing really matters to him. He only kidnapped and raped a woman because it was mildly convenient. He has no strong feelings about anyone or anything other than his own self-interest, and yet he truly believes that he's basically decent and altruistic, that none of it was really his fault. It's frightening to see inside the mind of everyday evil, and Happy Valley doesn't let us off the hook by leaving the bad guy a mystery. It shows us exactly why he did it, and that's more horrifying than anything.
There's enough black comedy shot through each episode to lift the gloom slightly, and the crime plot never overshadows the development of the main characters, all of whom are utterly believable. Sarah Lancashire (Catherine) delivers an outstanding performance, and the rest of the cast are all top-notch, particularly James Norton (Tommy Lee Royce) and Siobhan Finneran (Catherine's sister Clare). Sally Wainwright's script is bold, gritty, and rarely falters, and if a few plot turns are a bit convenient, they are more than outweighed by the collection of layered, complex characters she creates.
Filming for Season 2 is due to begin this year, and in a similar vein to another high-quality crime drama, Broadchurch, there's a bit of chatter around whether a series that was originally planned as a stand-alone drama should be renewed, and whether subsequent seasons can possibly match up to the near-perfection of the first. I don't know, but if Happy Valley can follow Broadchurch's lead and pull off more seasons, I'll be happy. Either way, this first season is so amazing that I recommend you see it immediately. Five stars.
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