Down Cemetery Road

TV Series Review

People disappear all the time. As many as 180,000 are reported missing each and every year in Great Britain. And while most are quickly found, not all are. And in a handful of cases, they’re never seen again.

But Dinah? That’s something different. Indeed, the government insists that she’s not missing at all. But two women don’t believe that—not for a moment. And they’re determined to track this mystery to the halls of Parliament, if necessary.

Gone Girl?

Appropriately enough, this explosive case started with a boom. A building in Oxford blew up—and right during Mark and Sarah Tucker’s dinner party just a few houses down. Sarah and her guests scrambled out of the flat to do a bit of rubbernecking, and she saw a small little body, wrapped in a red blanket, carried carefully to a waiting ambulance. She soon found out the girl’s name was Dinah, and Dinah was whisked away to a nearby hospital.

But when Sarah showed up to give the girl a homemade card made by one of Dinah’s school chums, hospital officials refused to even say if Dinah was there. And when Sarah tried to press the issue, they escorted her out.

Red tape? Privacy concerns? Maybe. But then there’s this: Looking at the press photos online a day or two later, and the little girl in the red blanket is absent. Completely scrubbed clean.

And then, when Sarah contacts a private investigator to track down this missing girl, the guy turns up dead.

Everyone says it was suicide, and it does indeed look that way. But Sarah doesn’t believe it, and neither does the dead man’s wife, Zoë —who happens to be a private investigator, too.

“Joe couldn’t slice cake, let alone his own wrists,” she quips.

Meanwhile, all that snooping is making certain folks in Westminster very nervous. Very nervous indeed.

The Wrong Road

Down Cemetery Road stars Ruth Wilson and Emma Thompson, two A-listers who help turn this crisply written Apple TV+ comic thriller into catnip for television critics.

But not this critic.

Certainly, the British show has its charms. Thompson employs her character’s caustic wit like a contraband weapon but pairs it with moments of warmth and vulnerability. Two government employees—the wonkish Hamza and the ever-so-British “C”—may be guilty of very bad things, but they can be rather funny.

But Down Cemetery Road wallows in problematic content, and all the show’s wit and sheen can’t wash that content away.

In true prestige TV form, language is the show’s biggest issue—and an entirely unnecessary issue at that. The f-word is tossed about with eye-watering regularity, and it’s joined by a horde of other profanities, as well. Infidelity and casual nudity are both part of the show as well. Sexual quips form a frequent element of every episode, it would seem. The show’s plot is propelled by themes involving murder, suicide and violence. And it’s not shy about showing blood on screen.

Down Cemetery Road is predicated on finding a child gone missing. If only the show’s problematic content would’ve gone missing instead.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)