“The Accident”–Unexpected Trauma

The Accident , a four-part  British series, plunges into a  Welsh community’s fight for justice after an explosion on a construction site kills several local teenagers.

The town of Glyngolau, Wales is comparable to many Appalachian  coal mine and steel mill towns. Most have lost their main employers, leaving everyone in financial ruin. To the rescue is a large real estate developer, Kallbridge Developments.  It  swoops in,  promising a thousand local jobs, and the residents breath a sigh of relief.  Iwan Bevan, head of the town council, has worked hard to secure the project.

Fifteen-year-old daughter, Leona Bevan,  rebellious and bored, has experimented with drugs and is looking for a good time in a town with very little going on.   In the opening scene, Iwan’s wife, Polly (Sarah Lancashire of “HappyValley” and “Last Tango in Nova Scotia”), catches Leona in bed with a forty-year old man and warns her of the father’s reaction. Sullen, Leona takes eight of her teenaged friends to sneak into the Kallbridge building site, to vandalize the yet-unfinished interior,  and most of all, to annoy her dad. A tragic accident occurs and legal recourse follows.

Harriet Paulsen (Sidse Babett Knudsen of “Borgen”), the senior vice-president of Kallbridge, is responsible for the construction site and is implicated. Polly, who understands her husband’s tempestuous behavior all too well, suspects Iwan is culpable in the accident as well.  Harriet, romantically involved with a junior employee she supervises, soon reveals her moral compass in defending her position as do Polly, Iwan, Leona and individual residents.

As the town mourns the tragedy, attention towards the grieving parents shifts to who is to blame: A fellow townsman who managed the construction? Harriett Paulsen fronting the greed of the Kallbridge corporation? Or ,the councilman and some of his peers?  What price is worth pursuing justice?  Does the cost seem too high when the grieving parents put up their houses as collateral to cover the legal expenses?

The Accident is about who is to blame, the power of greed and relationships crumbling to save oneself.  The ending is somewhat weak, but the performances and the narrative, for the most part, support the drama and the suspense.

Availability:  Hulu streaming and Channel 4 (BBC).

Note: There are powerful, deeply disturbing, and– unfortunately,– convincing  scenes of domestic violence and the battered woman syndrome. Distressing to witness and  certainly harrowing.