Loveday Writing

Due to the episode’s title, the pilot kicks off with the jury finishing their deliberations and going into the courtroom to deliver their verdict on whether Heidi is guilty of the murder of her boss, Belinda Brooks.

The jury forewoman, Clara, is the only juror who has doubts about Heidi’s innocence, and it’s revealed that Belinda’s husband, Paul, testified that he made coffee for Belinda and that she had made the decision to sack Heidi. According to Paul, Heidi arrived at his and Belinda’s apartment with a smoothie and Belinda’s dry cleaning, he went out for a run for 30 minutes, he came back as Heidi was leaving, and she told him that Belinda went up to the roof to smoke a cigarette. When he went up to the roof, he couldn’t find her but looked over the edge and found her dead body on the ground. He also revealed that Belinda had a miscarriage at 23 weeks and was diagnosed with depression.

Despite Clara’s doubts, she and the jury deliver a not guilty verdict. After the trial concludes, the jurors say goodbye to each other outside of court, however when Clara suggests everyone stay in touch and meet up for a reunion, only one other juror, Margie, is interested. Meanwhile, Ollie, a juror who didn’t take the trial seriously, leaves to hit on the junior solicitor who worked for the prosecution. Clara and Heidi see each other from a distance, and Heidi smiles at Clara.

The pilot goes on to give an insight into the four jurors that the series focuses on. Clara is revealed to be divorced with two young children and her husband owns a furniture store that she helped him build, only for him to leave her for one of his employees. Margie is revealed to be a butcher and is engaged to Trish, a nurse. Daniel is revealed to be a high school teacher who was on bereavement leave when he was called for jury duty and his colleagues are worried about how he is handling his grief. Ollie is revealed to be a high-end real estate agent who is viewed as an arsehole by his colleagues.

Later in the pilot, the four jurors meet up for a reunion dinner at an Italian restaurant when Heidi comes in to grab her to-go order. When Clara starts a conversation with her, the four of them go back to Heidi’s nearby apartment where a drunken Clara asks Heidi if she killed Belinda, and then tells her about her situation with her ex-husband and wanting his furniture store to burn to the ground. Later in the pilot, the furniture store is burnt to the ground. At the end of the episode, Heidi comes to see Clara as she picks her kids up from school and asks her if she’s okay as she heard about the furniture store being burnt to the ground. It’s implied that Heidi is behind it and therefore not as innocent as she claims.

The six-part season goes on to reveal the arsonist responsible for the furniture store fire is career criminal, Dean Walsh, only for him to be murdered shortly after this is revealed, Daniel appears to be stalking Heidi and Clara only to be revealed to be looking out for Clara and that he took a bribe from Walsh. Paul is later arrested for Belinda’s murder after crashing the launch party for Heidi’s new company, and Daniel and Clara develop feelings for each other. Margie and Trish briefly separate due to the affects investigating Heidi is having on Margie.

Throughout the season, it’s strongly implied Heidi is guilty not only for Belinda’s murder but Belinda’s father’s death and that she stabbed her own brother in her youth. Her guilt is finally confirmed in the penultimate episode of the season, after we meet her family, who clearly don’t want anything to do with her, and cut her off when she reappears. At the end of the episode, Heidi has set up a crime scene to frame Daniel for attempting to kill her.

In the finale, Heidi becomes more unhinged by claiming Daniel tried to kill her, on the news, after she is “rescued”. The police later have Clara wear a wire to get a confession out of Heidi, which goes awry when Clara accidentally lets it slip to Heidi that she’s wearing one. Heidi tries to kill her, but she’s stopped when Daniel senses something is wrong and he, and everyone else, run in after him and catch Heidi in the act.

The finale and season ends with the reveal that Heidi is being retried for Belinda’s, Belinda’s father’s, and Walsh’s murder, and that Daniel and Clara are a couple. The group then talk about a recent murder trial in the news where the verdict didn’t seem right and joke that they should investigate it.

While I enjoyed watching and reviewing this show, it was another one operating on what I call, a limited premise. The premise revolved around the fact that the four protagonists had doubts over whether a verdict they handed down was the right one. Whilst the writers tried to plant the seeds for a second season with the group talking about another trial and joking about investigating it, I don’t see how a second season with this could work when they’re not on the jury themselves. However, I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Overall, I felt that the premise, even though it was limited, was well-executed, and I appreciated that the ambiguity of Heidi’s guilt was played out until the fifth episode, which provided the perfect springboard to the finale.

Behind the Reviews – Edition #38 will be released next week and will focus on Minx.