Mr Mercedes is based on the Stephen King book of the same name, the first in his hard-boiled crime thriller trilogy starring the recurring character of retired detective Bill Hodges. 

Like most King stories, it has a humdinger of an opening act. It’s 3am and freezing cold as hundreds of optimistic unemployed people queue for a job’s fair to open. We get to know some of them across the first five minutes, as they exchange playful banter and help each other keep the cold out. Out of nowhere, a large Mercedes coupe draws up and parks at the rear of the queue, engine idling and lights full-beam on the crowd. Eventually, after what seems like an age, the driver puts on a clown mask and lurches the car forward, ploughing full-speed into the milieu – killing sixteen people outright and injuring scores more. It’s a well directed and shocking scene, eerily reminiscent of recent real-life terror attacks (which won’t be the last time in the series). Detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) attends the scene and ascertains the situation wasn’t an accident – it was murder.

We then see the dreaded “Two Years Later” sign and Hodges is now retired, haunted by his failure to close the case. He’s drinking himself slowly to death locked away in his own home, unable to pull himself out of his torpor despite the best efforts of his spiky neighbour Ida Silver (Holland Taylor) and his old partner Peter Dixon (Scott Lawrence). That is until he receives an email from the ‘Mercedes Killer’ with a video taunting him for his lethargy. Spooked out by the contents, he becomes increasingly beholden to panic attacks and anxiety about the case. When the killer continues to harrass Hodges with further videos, he sets out to catch the murderer once and for all.

Here’s a trailer to give you a feel for the show:

 

The show essentially becomes a two-handed cat and mouse thriller very early on, where we get to know the ‘Mercedes Killer’ from episode one to be Brady Hartsfield (played by Penny Dreadful’s Harry Treadaway). What follows then is really a deep character piece, as Hodges tries to make sense of the case before him whilst being stalked by Brady, who is plotting further atrocities (that again bear a strong resemblance to some recent real-life cases). The real powerhouse performance here comes from Gleeson, who was born to play the role – hard-drinking, dour and a mess of a man both physically and mentally. His journey to redemption through bringing the killer to justice is as well played as I’ve seen in any crime show, and he brings a certain degree of gravitas to proceedings that sells over some of the more grasping elements of the storyline.

The supporting cast is equally strong – Holland Taylor is an absolute blast as Hodges’s pragmatically horny neighbour Ida, whilst Kelly Lynch delivers a truly creepy performance as Brady’s mother. It’s a much-needed requirement to ensure there’s enough dramatic resource at hand to cover the 10 episode running time – especially when the interplay between the two main protagonists starts to sag.