Critic Reviews

Sober, painstaking drama.

A drama which is not without fault, but which impressively never loses sight of the emotional core of its storytelling.

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 has plenty to teach us — about grief, the roles individuals can play at historic moments — besides its rote facts. It is sometimes wooden, but never insubstantial.

The Bombing Of Pan Am 103 isn’t out to assess blame around why the investigation took so long or why it took even longer to bring anyone to justice over the largest terrorist attack on Scottish soil. But it’s not boring, either, which is a credit to the cast and to Lee’s insistence of giving the investigators lives outside of their jobs.

The story is told and the facts are nailed down. But the reality of this monstrous crime is that “gotcha” moments didn’t figure in the police work, big busts were off the table and a lot of dramatic potential is lost by “sticking to the facts.” And that’s before the convoluted finale that can’t help but feel anticlimactic.

This show ­– a co-production between the BBC and Netflix – tries to find a new angle, grappling with the challenges of international cooperation, but, for all its elegance and sensitivity, ends up feeling like an unnecessary addition.

You can see that this is a sober and respectful telling of an extremely complex atrocity and the magnificent response of the local community. It is a story that should be heard. But if you felt it’s too much to immerse yourself in this excruciating pain, that would be understandable.

If The Bombing of Pan Am 103 struggles to find the specific humanity of its generic characters, the impulse behind creating them in the first place — to commemorate those departed, and those who cared about them — cannot help but feel touchingly humane.

The show’s viewpoint should sharpen in the remaining episodes, which build up a picture of new relationships formed and further inspiring kindnesses exchanged. For now, though, this is a drama that knows its subject matter is important, but isn’t sure why.