Collision

Collision is a satisfying emotional journey through the twists, turns, and overpasses of a dozen or so lives.

Collision is a terrific example of an unconventional and original story, weaving suspense, irony, mystery and emotional turmoil in the aftermath of a deadly multicar freeway pileup.

Evans does a fine job of keeping all these metaphysical plates spinning on their sticks, eliciting superb performances from the entire cast.

It’s no “State of Play,” or even “Five Days,” the 2007 BBC-HBO abduction drama that it resembles in structure and pace. But it’s still sufficiently intelligent and textured that it makes the sparse American competition in the closed-end crime drama category--the “Jesse Stone” movies, “Harper’s Island”--look silly by comparison.

Though each character in Collision is in some way connected by the crash itself, it feels at times more like an old-fashioned collection of short stories, the kind that often end, O. Henry-like, with an ironic twist.

Collision wins points for ambition, perhaps, but as the quaint little stopovers on PBS' highway of British drama go, it's one of those rare rest stops that's just as easily skipped.