Rosario Dawson stars as Allegra Dill, a glamorous authorities fixer within the Olivia Pope mould who comes again to her hometown — yep, that’d be Saint Shame — to unravel her sister Felicity’s current homicide. (An area cop with a shiny future, Felicity was killed in a surprising automotive bombing.) Allegra begins to tug at unfastened threads and finally ends up trapped in a dense internet of lies, cash and colourful weirdos. Who would wish to kill Felicity? And why did she take out such an enormous life insurance coverage coverage on herself?
The result’s slightly bit Fargo, slightly bit Breaking Unhealthy and really Tarantino-esque, full of darkish humor, goofy character names and informal violence. (“It seems somebody simply blew up the landlady,” a resident at Felicity’s condo constructing deadpans.) Saint Shame is residence to a very motley crew of townsfolk, and is named an “established hive of felony what-the-f—kery,” based on Kim Dickens’ folksy police chief. A current zoo escape provides a contact of the surreal to the proceedings, with giraffes and zebras roaming round city like stray canines.
Dawson has a couple of fleeting moments the place she lets us glimpse the simmering feelings beneath Allegra’s powerful exterior, however Allegra is generally impenetrable as a lead character. (She’s one other cynical, hard-drinking, sexually adventurous feminine detective within the vein of Stumptown‘s Dex Parios.) Mad Males alum Jay R. Ferguson has a whole lot of enjoyable as filthy wealthy gun runner Jake Spivey; a scene of him snorting coke and strutting round to the Items’ synth-rock thumper “Excessive Strain Days” hints on the sort of impressed lunacy that Briarpatch may be able to.
The entire thing has first rate power, and boasts sufficient attention-grabbing visible prospers that it’s tempting to let it slide by purely on type factors. (It’s actually extra interesting than one more assembly-line procedural or medical drama.) However it’s laborious to find the humanity buried beneath all this type. Like fellow oddballs Claws and On Turning into a God in Central Florida, Briarpatch tries to get by solely on quirk at instances — however, sadly, man can’t reside on quirk alone.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: USA’s Briarpatch is a enjoyable and quirky murder-mystery, however its abundance of fashion finally ends up outweighing its substance.