There will be inevitable comparisons to 'The Missing'. Will keep this comparison brief, as anything should stand on its own two feet without constant comparison, 'One of Us' is not as good. That said, while flawed it is well made and gripping in its own right.
'One of Us' cannot be faulted visually or in the production values. The Scottish scenery is like a character of its own, so beautiful yet so atmospherically remote, and one is indeed reminded of Scandinavian crime dramas such as 'Wallander' or to a lesser extent 'The Killing'. Photography is pretty exquisite too, capturing the scenery wonderfully. A broodingly moody music score always helps, and the one in 'One of Us' works well, almost cinematic-sounding but not intrusive.
Writing here has much to say about adult and sensitive topics such as euthanasia, murder, drug dealing, grief, misconduct, adultery, Parkinson's and incest and deals with it all in an incredibly intelligent, clever and non-biased way. While the storytelling is not completely flawless, for me it does have to be commended for trying to be different from other mystery dramas, focusing enough on the mystery but focusing also on the aftermath and repercussions for the families and also presenting a moral edge. There is a huge amount of atmosphere too, the production values help as well as the skillful direction, but it is high in tension and conflict with plenty of twists and turns that all feel relevant and stop the storytelling from dragging.
The denouement is intense and very affecting, though admittedly while the motive was a shock and didn't see it coming for a second the murderer's identity, after such a great job by the writers diverting suspicion onto one character to another, wasn't so much, very much strongly suspected them at the end of the penultimate episode.
As said, it is not perfect. There are parts of the drama, especially in the first episode, where there are so many revelations and so much being told that there is a danger of missing something and it occasionally feels confused. The resolution of the female police officer's story was rather illogical, in real life she would have not got away with what she did regardless of her personal situation. That's personal opinion of course. Also loved what was done with the characters, so vividly drawn and presented as characters that are both vulnerable and deeply flawed, one gets to know them so well and really care about their main situation and also other subplots that while one cares about how the drama ends one doesn't really want any of them to be the murderer.
Reception to the acting has garnered mixed opinions, being positively received by most critics but panned here. From personal opinion it was very good, and while the overwrought opinion is understandable the frenetic emoting and looking downtrodden/miserable fitted the tone of the storytelling and the nature of the situations/topics covered very well. Admittedly though, the frenetic emoting is overdone somewhat by Joanna Vanderham who occasionally comes over as robotic in the first two episodes before registering stronger when her material gets meatier. A couple of actors, such as Steve Evets, do speak low and quite quickly and when the Scottish accents are as thick as they are it is not always easy to understand. Juliet Stevenson and John Lynch however in particular give very nuanced and moving performances, Stevenson brings out her character's vulnerabilities heart-wrenchingly in the second episode and Lynch is often incredibly powerful in the last.
In conclusion, has a few problems, particularly the odd story lapse and a couple of performances that could have been better, but mostly very successful and gripping. 7/10 Bethany Cox
