Behind the Reviews – Edition #13 (Hyde & Seek)
Hyde & Seek premiered on 3 October 2016 on the Nine Network. A drama thriller series, Hyde & Seek’s premise was described as follows:
“When his best mate is killed in a seemingly random attack, Detective Gary Hyde (Matt Nable) vows to bring the killers to justice. Together with his new partner Claire McKenzie (Emma Hamilton), Gary uncovers a criminal underbelly of murder, identity fraud, chaos and intrigue where no one is safe and no one can be trusted. In a world where crime has no borders and everyone has something to hide, Gary and Claire risk it all to catch the criminals but will they lose their loved ones in the process?”
I wrote in my review of the pilot that I didn’t know what to expect from the show as my impression from the trailer was that Hyde was corrupt, however the trailer is meant to mislead and they did with his character. However the trailer didn’t mislead on how much of a thriller the show would be, each episode was filled with plenty of action scenes, while also providing us with the mystery of who Nick’s killer/s was and who was the mastermind of a terrorism scheme that had multiple police and security agencies investigating.
There were many things I enjoyed about Hyde & Seek. I appreciated the writers choice and ability to go back-and-forth between captivating action scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat and calmer scenes where the murder and terrorism mystery was slowly being solved, essentially having some episodes be more brains than brawn, and vice versa. I also appreciated that Hyde & Claire’s relationship with the AFP improved over time, that not everything was as it seemed especially with Claire.
I also appreciated that the writers ended up splitting the seasons in two halves, writing-wise, with the first half ending after Hyde kills Malik, who was portrayed as a big threat and perpetrator only for it to be quickly revealed that the terrorism threat was much bigger than him, which subsequently leads to Hyde feeling guilt over killing him when Malik was revealed to be a family man and trying to make a better life for them. The episode that reveals this also has Hyde and Claire discover that there is corruption coming from the inside of the police and government agencies. The mystery was written so well that the reveal of the real perpetrator, Andrew, an ASIO Intelligence Officer, was plausible and satisfying, although at the time I felt it was a little anti-climactic as I felt he was behind it all along.
My only consistent criticism of the series was the writers implying that Claire was a love interest for the happily married Hyde, as I felt that it was not only cliché and unnecessary but undermining the thriller/crime genre of the show.
I wrote in my review of the finale that it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be but everything was wrapped up nicely although a little rushed. I also wrote in my review of the finale that I hoped it would be renewed for a second season but based on the writing of it, I didn’t think it would be and I was right, it wasn’t renewed. In all honesty there was really nowhere else the show could go from there.
Behind the Reviews – Edition #14 will be released next week and will focus on Love Child.
Loveday Writing 