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Big Sky

Big Sky s3

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay
Emily Tsiao

TV Series Review

Montana’s a pretty place to visit, but it’s also a good place to get lost.

The rural part of the state, what with its barely used roads, spotty cell service and wide-open spaces for miles around, makes for a picture-perfect playground for the likes of drug dealers, kidnappers, human traffickers, murderers and the like.

That’s a Big Ten-Felony, Buddy

Jenny Hoyt, an ex-cop turned private investigator turned Sheriff’s Deputy, started looking into the state’s mysteries after her son’s girlfriend, Danielle, disappeared a few years back.

She teamed up with Cassie Dewell (her ex-and-now-late husband’s business partner, whom he was also dating), another private investigator, to track down the perps who kidnapped Danielle and her little sister.

What they found was so much bigger: a drug cartel, a human trafficking ring and multiple murders.

Oh, and corruption inside the police force.

What else could throw a wrench in bringing these perps to justice? In this version of Montana, the sky’s the limit.

Road to Nowhere

Big Sky, the latest creation from TV impresario David E. Kelley, feels as if it’s trying, and mostly failing, to be a less unhinged version of David Lynch’s 1990 obsession, Twin Peaks. This show features Gothic characters from a low-grade-fever dream: Tie-wearing, truck-driving kidnappers; deeply disturbing State Patrol officers; busybody secretaries; primly evil mothers who hide their children’s wrongdoings. Sometimes, you’re not quite sure whether the show is asking you to laugh at these players or scream at them. There’s even a mysterious cult in the mix.

But the whole sordid affair just feels like it’s trying too hard. And so it tries to make up the difference with a bunch of unwanted, unneeded content.

We don’t see a lot of sex, this being a network television show. But people do hop in bed together, and plenty of ribald asides can be heard. (And LGBT characters make a prominent appearance as well.) Violence? You bet. There’s violence, and blood, too. For a show that’s working so hard to be unpredictable, we’re sure exposed to plenty of very predictable issues. 

Big Sky wants to play with the big boys—the prestige television shows on the streaming networks and cable. But the only thing truly big about this show is its problems.

Episode Reviews

Sept. 21, 2022 – S3, Ep1: “Do You Love an Apple”

A hiker falls off a cliff to his presumed death. (It’s unclear if he fell or was pushed.) Another man is pushed off the balcony of a building, right onto a sheriff’s truck. He survives and is rushed to a hospital. We hear about several deaths—a bear mauling, a drug overdose and some murders. We see the corpses of several animals that were killed by a mysterious man in the woods. He claims at least one of the deaths was to put the animal out of its misery after it was severely injured in a fall, but it seems he uses the carcasses to scare hikers (blood drips down onto a girl’s face).

People threaten each other with guns. We hear a man was punched in the throat. A girl hugs another woman to prevent police from shooting the woman. People talk about punching those who have wronged them. We hear a woman went to prison for armed robbery.

A prison guard is found in nothing but his underwear and socks. (He pulls his badge out of his underwear.) He admits the prisoner he was escorting escaped because she “seduced” him, and he allowed things to get sexual. An unmarried couple talks about having sex (and the woman admits she checked another guy out). We hear a man is dating a trans person. A man pats his wife on the rear. Several women objectify a man. We see some cleavage and belly-baring tops.

We hear about several crimes. A woman breaks out of prison to see her stepdaughter one last time. (The girl’s father is also in prison and her biological mother died previously.) A woman says she owns a legitimate business, but it’s revealed she got the money  to open the business by working for a drug cartel. Cassie blackmails someone into selling her a ranch at a steep discount  (since it used to house a drug lab and several murders took place there).

People drink alcohol. A man expresses jealousy toward his daughter’s new stepdad. We hear a few uses each of “a–,” “d–n” and “h—.” God’s and Christ’s names are also abused a couple of times.

Nov. 17, 2020 – S1, Ep1: “Pilot”

Sisters Danielle and Grace Sullivan are waylaid by truck driver Roland Pergman after a road-rage altercation. Their disappearance triggers an informal search by Cody Hoyt (a private investigator), Cassie Dewell (Cody’s business partner and lover), Jenny Hoyt (an ex-cop and Cody’s separated wife) and Rick Legarski (a member of Montana’s Highway Patrol).

Roland’s only intended victim is a prostitute named Jerrie, who climbs into Roland’s truck cab and sits on his lap. “I don’t bite—unless you’re looking for that,” she tells Roland, then apparently comments on his out-of-view erection. The two kiss before Roland zaps Jerrie in the neck with a stun gun. Later, we see her wrapped in plastic from head-to-toe. He uses the same stun gun on the sisters after breaking out their car windows.

A married man and woman have sex. (We see glimpses of their bare backs during lovemaking.) A wife complains to her husband that he never touches her any more. Danielle and Grace talk about why their mother let them go on a road trip to see Danielle’s boyfriend: “I got the good judgment,” Grace says, “and you got the boobs.” Danielle, talking on the phone with her boyfriend, what he’d like to do first when he lands on “planet Danielle.” Rick Legarski tells a motorist how to get his Tesla unstuck from the mud—telling him that he should take it slow, like when he was having sex with his wife.

A man gets shot in the face, spraying the window—and the shooter—with blood. Someone is stabbed in the neck with a plastic comb, which sticks out grotesquely. A trucker nearly runs a pair of motorists off the road. We later learn that 12 women—most or all of them prostitutes—have gone missing after working Montana truck stops.

Two women get into a fight in a bar. We see the tussle, and we later watch as one of the women receives stitches on her lower lip. (The other woman has a black eye.) A couple of people drink beer. Characters say “a–,” “d–n” and “d–k,” and they misuse God’s name about three or four times.

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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