No, I am not referring to the televised US Presidential Debate. I did not watch as I already have more than enough information to make an informed vote. Sadly, I am talking about a Scottish murder mystery limited series Deadwater Fell.

Currently available on the steaming service Acorn but also available as a single stand-alone purchase for the limited series Deadwater Fell is the story of a tragic fire that kills the wife and children of the village local doctor, Tom (David Tennant) and how the fallout from the events splinters the town and relationships.

My problem with the series is I truly disliked spending time with these characters. There is scarcely one that is pleasant, and most are actively abusive and manipulative. While all the characters have big dramatic issue, events, and troubles, the very nature of the characters make me immune to care.

The actors perform their tasks admirably, making these repulsive characters real and I do not hold them accountable for the writing. Though as I said to my sweetie-wife while we were watching the final episode, ‘If I want to watch Tennant being manipulative and evil, I’ll just watch Season One of Jessica Jones.’

In addition to the character abrasive natures the writing also seems to suffer from the author pushing the characters into scene for the audiences benefits rather than from a natural outgrowth of character motivation. For example, Tom, the Doctor, goes to Jess and tells her a sad story of his abuse as a child, as story Jess later learns is a lie. It reveals a bit of Tom’s character and his manipulative nature but Tom going to jess served no purpose for Tom. He wasn’t gaining anything. No cooperation, no item he needed, there was literally from Tom’s perspective, no purpose to do that. It advanced plot and revealed character but only by being out of character.

With less than ten minutes left to the final episode we abandoned the series and played Dominion.

I cannot recommend this series to anyone.