Okay, the big question must be, why of all things am I reviewing GET MILLIE BLACK? Well, someone else is already reviewing the big, epic series and I’m not always a big fan of the latest big hyped show like most of you all. I leave those in capable hands. Two, I often gravitate to international fare; I’ve watched more than I’ve reviewed actually. So, this quick little series is right up my alley. Besides, no one else will cover it.
I also appreciate another culture’s style of storytelling with actors you never heard of and going to locations I may never see myself. GET MILLIE BLACK fits the bill. It is a UK Channel 4/HBO production filmed in Jamaica. Not the beach resort side of town either, but in the heart of the capital city of Kingston. It is the real Jamaica. Plus, as a bonus, we get that all-so-cool unique island accent, mon.
The five-episode series, which will air every Monday night on HBO beginning at 9:00 pm ET/PT, hails from Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James who wrote the series. Jamaican-born detective Millie-Jean Black is forced out of Scotland Yard, and she returns home to join the Jamaican Police Force. She and her partner, Curtis, investigate missing person cases, and their lives are up-ended when one of their investigations crosses paths with another that brings Scotland Yard detective Luke Holborn to Kingston.
Episode 01 – Millie
It turns out that the storytelling method that plays out is Millie-Jean Black herself narrating us through her story. We first learn of her youth in Kingston, Jamaica alongside her brother Orville. Her younger brother is constantly beaten by their mother as he is a “faggot”, which is something the mother finds quite shameful. We witness one instance where Orville is beaten with a strap or belt and Millie defends him by shoving their mother hard against a wall. As Millie tells us, that put in motion that Millie would be banished to England to live with an aunt. She leaves her country without looking back as Orville chases the taxi as she leaves him behind. Millie describes the heartbreaking ordeal with a richness that comes from creator Marlon James’ pen. One more scene makes it impactful as we see young Millie receiving a phone call from her mother to inform her that Orville is dead.
Meet Hibiscus
Next, we witness an adult Millie (Tamara Lawrance) coming back to her island home and with it another strong narrative spiel about what it means to return not only home, but to Jamaica and the hauntling past. It turns out that her brother, who now identifies as a “she”, is alive and goes by the name of Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen). Orville is indeed dead, as her new identity finds her hustling and surviving in The Gully, a region of the city equivalent to the L.A. River in the States; it is a dried-up aqueduct or a storm drainage system.
Curtis and Millie on the case.
Millie is now a police officer for the local PD, after training/working for Scotland Yard back in the U.K. She has a partner to assist her in her caseload looking for missing persons. He is Curtis (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr). They are quickly put on the case of locating Janet Fenton (Shernet Swearine). Millie uses some slightly unorthodox methods of intimidation in her own way, without much care of who she is tangling with. It seems that the 16-year-old Fenton is messed up with the son of a local white aristocrat. I don’t know, think Joe Biden and his son Hunter. She is shacked up with Freddie Somerville (Peter John Thwaites).
Our man Holborn
The one catch in all this is that many are out to get Hunter…uh…Freddie Somerville. Local gangs have him on their hit list and it seems Scotland Yard does as well. Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie) from the Yard is arriving on the island, requiring local cooperation in grabbing Summerville. In an introduction with Millie, we sense that she was let go from Scotland Yard due to her unorthodox methods, though we are still vague on that. We are also a bit vague on what happens to Hibiscus. In occasional run-ins with her sister, we see that she is not too keen on Millie coming back to run her life; though it is a dangerous lifestyle she owns it. Since their mother is now deceased Millie offers Hibiscus the family house. Now, that Hibiscus is nearly killed in The Gully, she just might take up her sister’s offer.
Millie is almost killed herself. Determined to find Fenton in her own way, she ignores Holborn and she and Curtis race to a known Somerville safehouse for leads. They find the pregnant Fenton there and at the receiving end of a hail of bullets. The thugs also found the house and we leave the episode with Curtis wounded as the firefight pins them down.
On the search for Janet Fenton
It is going to be tough for all involved. You just know that this is all going to escalate very quickly. But in the thick of this crime story, we get a search for wholeness for both Millie and Hibiscus and we get to the core of Jamacia far removed from the resorts. By the time we are done, we will “get” or understand Millie Black as others are out to get Millie Black.
We’ll discover more in the second episode of GET MILLIE BLACK, debuting MONDAY, DECEMBER 02 on HBO.
