Interrogation

This is not your ordinary binge-watch. The deeper you dig, Interrogation also becomes an unusually compelling tragedy. [17 Feb - 1 Mar 2020, p.9]

The show can be a little overheated, especially toward the top, but at most moments, something interesting is going on on-screen, and there are some fine, subtle performances among a smattering of less subtle ones.

It’s frustrating because all of the elements are there but Interrogation unknowingly sacrifices its own quality by allowing us to choose where to go.

“Interrogation” is just good enough to be frustrating for the ways in which it isn’t yet better, and most of them stem back to the original sin of the show’s format.

A frustratingly messy season of television, one that seems to be working against its gimmick, too often amplifying its weaknesses, and only rarely striking points of intrigue.

Genre switcheroos supply the bulk of the surprises in Interrogation, which is otherwise chock-full of stock characters, pedestrian atmospherics and uninspired performances, even from generally reliable actors like Gallner and Strathairn. And because the deceased Mary is presented as a one-dimensional monster, there's little urgency in the quest to bring her killer to justice.

There's a competent-to-solid-to-good show in Interrogation if watched in an optimized fashion — most likely as close to the events' chronological order as possible — one that better captures Eric's struggle to clear to his name in a system that is predisposed against him from the start. As an experiment in a streaming platform's potential to tell stories in different ways, Interrogation will likely be sentenced to being a footnote.