'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
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Ion's new show Durham County was ... uncomfortable to watch
by Jason Hughes, posted Sep 8th 2009 9:03AM
Durham County is being touted as the Ion (formerly PAX) network's first foray into original scripted programming in years. And that's kind of true. Except that Durham County first premiered more than two years ago in Canada. There, it's had two six-episode seasons. But while there was a long two-year gap between those seasons up north, Ion will be airing both as a twelve-episode first season stateside.Based on just that first episode, Durham County is one hell of a ride. I don't think I've felt that much discomfort about what I was watching on a television show in a long, long time. It wasn't so much the gratuitous violence, and it was certainly there, but it was in the characterizations. There were parts of that premiere that were equal parts riveting and just so disturbing you didn't even want to be in the same room with it.
A lot of that probably has to do with where you are in life. I'm a parent and a husband, so I was especially discomfited by Justin Louis' turn as Ray Prager. My wife seems convinced that Ray killed the two girls in the woods; that he was suffering some delusion of himself watching from afar as part of his fantasy. She may be right, she's a lot more intuitive than I am.
What messed me up was when he went back and started dancing with one of them later. Even worse was that she was still alive. As the episode ended, we still don't know the status of them. I assume the redhead was dead, but did the blonde finally die?
Then you have Ray the father. His son wants to be a writer, and apparently he's pretty damned good at it. His father wants him to play hockey, to relive his old man's glory. I started seeing Ray as the homicidal Al Bundy, trapped forever in the glory days of his youth.
But it was his conversation in the park, in broad daylight, that really pushed me over the edge. Here's a woman who supports Ray, Jr. and his writing. She believes he has a real gift. Ray, Sr. only wanted to talk about his own hockey career. By this point we, the audience, had already seen his dance with the near-dead so I knew she needed to be careful.
But to smack her down and drag her off right in the middle of the park when we've seen people jogging and biking by only moments before-- That takes balls the size of Canada right there. Or so many screws loose your head is in danger of falling off. I think Ray has a bit of both.
I know Mike Sweeney and his family are the main characters of the show, but for now, it's Ray that's making it must-see for me. I don't want to know what he's going to do next, but I'm dying to find out. I'm scared to death for his family, for the Sweeney's daughter, and for pretty much everyone he's going to come across, but damn if he's not a good character.
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