Cómo meterse en un jardín

I often find British crime dramas to either be so desaturatedly bleak that they're a slog to watch, or too cartoonish to take seriously - Landscapers is neither and instead takes its filmic cue from the murderous couple's adoration for old romance and westerns. As such the four episode miniseries is alive with action scenes, arch fourth wall deconstructions, monochrome melodrama, soft focus romanticism and everything in between. Its layered restlessness accompanied by some charged performances and a deep empathy for the characters (and people) gave it a strange charm and I found myself completely won over by it. Definitely worth a gander.

This is a rather frustrating movie. The story it tells is interesting. The performances are terrific, especially Olivia Coleman who is brilliant. But the whole movie is done with all these strange film references that I don't think make any sense.

I suppose it's some message about their fantasy Life or how they tell stories and how the police tell stories or something but it doesn't really work and it doesn't really make the story better. It's just this weird distracting thing. Every once in awhile it works when it doesn't go too far. But things like the big Western sequences that fill up one episode seems more like a way to get a TV movie length show up to four episodes.

Still, it's worth watching just to see Coleman as the genial and slightly off housewife.

This show held me until episode 4, when it all but descended into farce and got too clever for its own good.

It could easily have been told in 3 taut episodes. For me the breaking of the 4th wall in ep4 (which began in ep3) didn't belong, and was an unnecessary distraction.

"Landscapers" four episode HBO miniseries tells the desperate, surreal, and very human love story surrounding a grisly double murder found fifteen years late. While based on a true story, and ultimately containing chilling elements, "Landscapers" remains a complex and touching dramatization however it might lean into the overly ideal. But it's an artful idealism which also reflects the character of the perpetrators and which may factor into the nature of the crime just as much as "mercenary" motives might.

Whatever was the truth behind the crimes of Susan and Chris Edwards (they maintain their innocence until this day), the version this TV drama does tell a meaningful and multifaceted story that sheds light on compulsions, brokenness, and unconscious choices which may lead people to choose prison over the struggles of their lives, even while not necessarily meaning to either.

Whether or not the portrayal of this true crime is accurate doesn't undermine that this is a very earnest attempt to find some decency in what is two people linked by sadness, care and a terrible secret, all while being too hapless to manage their affairs or their own trial. The question might always be would the crime of the Edwards remain undetected after elapsing fifteen years if not for the betrayal of a troubled conscious, or the lack of wherewithal to make ends meet?

To say that this is a quirky version of a true crime event is putting it mildly. Comparing it to Fargo is a fair assessment, but not entirely. The dark humor of Fargo is very American in flavor, while that same humor is very British in this series. There are distinct differences. Olivia and David, portraying married couple, the Edwards, carry this series firmly and fascinatedly on their shoulders. Their ability to portray a couple who are both appealing and creepy is the mark of great acting. In the end, you are left wondering if the real Mr. And Mrs. Edwards are guilty, not guilty, or only partially guilty or innocent of the crime that they are accused of.