Limetown

Limetown succeeds in nailing down its tone, creating a solid cast of characters, and staying close enough to the source material that it’s fulfilling for fans of the podcast while making sure there is no detail lost in the proverbial sauce for newcomers. The slow burn of dread as details about what was going on in Limetown and the fate of its residents makes it well worth your time.

Though it’s a more straightforward adaptation of its podcast source material than, say, Amazon’s “Homecoming,” it always feels slightly off-kilter in a way that suits its thriller roots. Its characters waver on a thin edge, like a record needle straying off the track. By the time a mysterious new witness (Kelly Jenrette) shifts the show into a higher gear by making her presence known, “Limetown” is so taut with tension that I both craved and dreaded its inevitable snap.

Biel is clearly capable of handling the challenge, as she embraces another curious character at the heart of a broad mystery, earning favorable comparisons to her Emmy-nominated performance in “The Sinner.” What more “Limetown” could become is up to its makers, but Facebook Watch should have a hit on its hands — for newcomers and podcast listeners alike.

Limetown is an easy binge in terms of its cliffhangers and ability to create a weird enough mystery to want to know the truth behind it. But it’s also a slow, dark crime story that focuses only on the crime itself, to the detriment of getting to know its characters better, or any possible hint of lightness that would make us want to stay in Limetown long enough to get answers.

What this is all lacking is context and breathing room. Maybe that'll come as the first season progresses and the opportunity to leave the podcast behind presents itself. So far, Limetown is a mood, sustained by its vague whiff of oddity and Biel's ability to be consistently watchable.

Limetown is tosh of the highest quality. It has touches of Wayward Pines, second-tier X-Files episodes and that thing I can’t remember the name of but they all woke up in a hotel with no idea how they got there and unable to leave.

To the extent that Limetown has a point (other than whatever corporate perfidy ultimately turns out to be responsible for what happened), it seems to be that the 24-hour news cycle has so scrambled Americans' brains and scarred their souls that even the most profound tragedies have been forgotten by the weekend.