Born to Kill is a killer combination of terrific acting and suspense: Episode two review
Not many drama series succeed in building as credibly warped a psychological world as Born to Kill (Channel 4) did in last week’s opening episode. Displaying a rare talent for terror, young actor Jack Rowan was almost unwatchably disturbing as 16-year-old embryonic psychopath Sam, whose toothsome superficial charm masked a brimming desire to kill.
The question was: would writers Tracey Malone and Kate Ashfield, and director Bruce Goodison, manage to sustain and develop this goosebump-level of creepiness over the course of three more episodes? Happily last night’s second helping suggested they would for the most part, and not always by the most obvious route.
Having got a taste for death by despatching an elderly patient of his geriatric-nurse mother Jenny (Romola Garai), Sam simply got on with life –watchful but unafraid when an investigation was launched into the man’s sudden demise. Instead his focus returned to new girl in school Chrissy (Lara Peake), whose father Bill (Daniel Mays) was showing a parallel romantic interest in Sam’s mother. But when the police investigation threatened to come too close, and his mother’s colleague Cathy (Sharon Small) became a threat, Sam’s response was as remorseless as it was deadly.
Not all of this was entirely convincing. Romola Garai is a supremely sympathetic, worn-down-by-life presence as Sam’s mother, gripped by a sickening fear over the imminent release from prison of his violent father, and unable to prevent it. But with such harsh experience behind her, would she really be so casually accepting of her son’s transparent lies when she discovered the dead man’s watch under his bed?
As for how Sam acquired the paralysis-inducing pills he used to dispatch Cathy, that was a major hole in the story. Even if such a drug exists, it’s hardly likely to be left lying around for pilfering by teenagers. But that’s the knife-edge this drama balances on. However dubious in clinical terms the suggestion that psychopathy can be passed down through generations, the fact is it’s a fascinating premise for a spine-tingling drama series. And like many of the best horror stories, we’re willing to suspend our disbelief that little bit further simply to see where the story goes.
For now at any rate, Born to Kill’s killer combination of terrific acting and cleverly doled-out dollops of suspense keeps us not only watching but wanting more.
