Have you experienced deja vu? That feeling of having been in a place before or having had the same conversation before? The one Trinity told Neo was a “glitch in the matrix”, something caused by an alteration to the matrix? Take that idea and give it a psychological horror spin and you have got yourself the perfect weekend binge watch, complete with a creepy kid, unexplained incidents, child abductions, bizarre dreams (or are they?) and gruesome murders.
The Devil’s Hour on Amazon Prime Video has the added lure of one of the most menacing actors on television today — Peter Capaldi, whose back is enough to induce chills. Then there is Jessica Raine, who is absolutely brilliant as the woman at the centre of the storm, Lucy Chambers. The six hour-long episodes keep you engrossed with the twists and turns coming right till the very end. But it is this same thing that keeps The Devil’s Hour from achieving its full potential.
At the end of the first episode, which establishes our main characters (except Capaldi), one is left wondering whether to view it as a murder mystery, paranormal drama or psychological horror. Because here’s what we have — Lucy is a harried but dedicated social worker who is separated from her husband (but can’t seem to stop having sex with him) and mother to a boy who can only be defined as creepy. Lucy keeps waking up at 3.33am every night (known, we are informed, as ‘the devil’s hour’) from strange dreams, some repetitive, some new. She has a mother who has schizophrenia and keeps talking to invisible people and sees things that are not there. But that is the least of her problems because her boy, Isaac, shows no emotions, feels no pain, repeats things people tell him, does what others tell him without any questions, sees ghosts (maybe) and usually stares unblinkingly at the wall. But no psychiatrist has been able to ascertain what is wrong with him after ruling out autism or schizophrenia.
Some of Lucy’s dreams are not just dreams but a vision of what is going to happen
Jessica Raine as Lucy. IMDB
But then there is a murder, investigated by haemophobic DI Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel), a wunderkind, and his grizzly and gruff partner DS Nick Holness (Alex Ferns), who is more old-school. But both Patel and Ferns keep it fresh by staying away from the conflict and antagonism that is usual of the trope. Investigation into the possible suspect throws up the name of Lucy Chambers, yep the one and the same, and it turns out she has some sort of connection to the killer and the killings (another guy is stabbed to death). And both Lucy and the audience realise that maybe some of those dreams are not just dreams but a vision of what is going to happen.
All of this is intercut with scenes of a bruised Lucy in an interrogation room talking to a man (Capaldi) who asks her what is the worst thing she has experienced and seems to be talking about incidents that have brought them up to where they are. The non-linear nature of the narrative keeps the audience guessing and that sense of which way is up is compounded by the fact that the story travels different timelines. Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds which makes it catnip for someone who loves difficult murder mysteries.
It is difficult to say more about the show without spoiling some of it, including the name of Capaldi’s character. But what can be said is that it is binge-watching gold. Except, as often is the case with material that is complex (not every show can be Dark), The Devil’s Hour fails to nail the end. It doesn’t let you down, but the downside of keeping the audience guessing till the last episode is that it ends up stuffing all the explanations in the last episode and makes a lot of the plot incomprehensible. There are many loopholes that are annoying. But given the cliffhanger ending of the finale we can hope that there will be a second season that will follow up on the revelations and expositions of the last episode and elevate the show from binge-worthy to outstanding.
