- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 25, 2024
Critic Reviews
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Doing everything right. .... The characters are vivid, unpredictable in a human way and perfectly played. The five-part series feels original, not quite like anything we’ve seen before. Created by the Booker Prize-winning Jamaican novelist Marlon James, it registers as authentic to its place and people, while being true to the noir tradition — tropical Raymond Chandler.
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So much of Get Millie Black is familiar, but what makes the series fresh is the conviction it brings to the genre’s pro forma tropes. .... Get Millie Black—with its indelible characters and vivid performances—actually makes you feel how much Millie stands to lose.
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Terrific. .... “Get Millie Black” devotes time to all of its characters’ stories, which heightens its portrayal of why Black is so determined to bring bad people to justice at all costs.
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This is a drama rich in complexities. In a virtuoso performance, Lawrance holds the centre as the bold, uncompromising Millie Black.
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Each episode is narrated by a different character, rather like a novel, which adds to this series’ feeling of freshness and originality.
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James’ writing is overwhelmingly smart and surprising. Coupled with stellar performances, especially from Lawrance and McQueen, Get Millie Black is as far from the bog-standard police procedural as Jamaica’s Kingston is from London.
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Even as the central mystery approaches some sort of resolution, the writing and performances, the perspectives and subjective points of view are compelling enough to leave these stories hanging alluringly. Get Millie Black lives and breathes. This might be a crime thriller, but it isn’t just a crime thriller.
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Get Millie Black is fascinating not only because of its Jamaican setting but Lawrance’s performance as someone trying to figure out her place as much as she’s trying to figure out the case at hand.
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Each episode has a different anchor character providing the perspective and narration, and each character, including the one-offs, has a clear voice. Millie is our star, but she is part of a bright constellation.
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James, who based Millie on his mother, Detective Inspector Shirley Dillon-James, presents a deeply engaging world of characters driven by their unbridled impulses and haunted by ghosts they can’t exorcise.
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If the twists are too easily visible and the revelations a hair too formulaic, however, James still treats the genre and its conventions with respect. The dialogue has an effective crackle, blending theatrical repartee and low-key Jamaican patois with the writer’s poetic impulses in a way that makes every character seem distinctive, even if they only get a few lines.
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"Get Millie Black," inspired by a short story by Marlon James, must rely on its ensemble to save the day from fairly rote filmmaking. Fortunately, this is a mostly successful gambit.
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Lawrance's fierceness and dedication transpire in her portrayal of the protagonist, and her scenes with McQueen are the show's highlight. Yet, the series does miss a beat when it comes to the true crime formula.
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Judging on the first four episodes provided for review, what Millie—like Mare and the others before it—might lack in surprising criminal revelations it more than makes up for in compelling characters, dialogue, and environments.
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Though a fairly conventional cop show, the Kingston setting is a refreshing change visually and culturally.
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