Happy Valley: A Micro-Exorcism
Happy Valley, a three-season Acorn mini-series, is an unnerving police procedural based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The name “Happy Valley” is the local police’s pejorative term for the low-income Halifax neighborhood. It suffers from a high rate of drug addiction and crime. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire of “Last Tango in Halifax”), is a no-nonsense policewoman with a tragic family history. She is committed to an incorruptible enforcement of the law. Colleagues look the other way.
After the workday ends, Catherine is devoted to raising her young grandson, Ryan, born to her teenage daughter who died three months after Ryan’s birth. In addition to raising a young grandson while in her fifties, Catherine also supports her younger sister, Claire (Siobhan Finneran), a former alcoholic and drug addict.
Trying fiercely to stay in control of her life while everyone around her is unraveling, Catherine must deal with the traumas of the past while remaining very much in the present. She obsessively and courageously pursues a psychopathic rapist and murderer, Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton of “Grantchester”). At times Catherine’s fury is so self-lacerating, it is as if she is clawing at her own face. So extremely vulnerable, yet so extremely strong, Catherine is unbelievably brave and tough. Everyone is fighting their own personal demons. Who will rise from evil unscathed?
The architecture of Happy Valley is brilliantly written by Sally Wainwright, bookending each crime with clues interwoven with the succeeding crime. Tightly integrated, the characters’ personalities are squeezed and twisted with so many flaws it is sometimes difficult to watch such abject, realistic cruelty and almost superhuman forgiveness. Without exception every character is believable: sometimes stupid, sometimes vulnerable and clueless, occasionally unintentionally cruel. Even the vindictive, vile villain, Tommy Lee Royce, finally reveals a damaged, deeply ashamed mind still capable of feeling, which slightly softens the maniacal edge of his brutal psyche (season three).
Happy Valley could be a master class in acting. All the actors including the protagonist, her sister, her grandson and the psychopath. It is often the silences, those long lingering close-ups of each character’s face, that convey things unsaid. Sarah Lancashire is the toughest, astute female cop tracking each clue like a forensic psychologist since France McDormand in “Fargo”. James Norton is the most terrifying, monstrous psychopath since Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs. His self-rant, explaining himself to himself, believing he is a victim, makes him both more pathetic and more frightening.
Availability: Acorn
Note: For my September 2014 review of season one, see “Happy Valley: No One’s Idea of Happiness.”
Warning: Extreme violence against women with most scenes suggestive of the horror. However, not usually graphically presented –mostly suggestive of the violence.