A supernatural thriller TV series that has nothing to do with the Devil
One of the latest TV series I watched is “The Devil’s Hour”. It is an Amazon Original production, so it is exclusive to Prime Video. So far, two seasons are available, for a total of 11 episodes, but a third is already in production.
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This is a series that spans thriller, drama, and supernatural, but not in the way the title would suggest!
I was
attracted to it because of the cast (Peter Capaldi and Jessica Raine) and the
fact that it is a British production,
but I didn’t start watching it right away because the presence of the word
“devil” in the title made me think of some kind of mystical/demonic fantasy.
Instead, it has nothing to do with it!
Before
going any further, I warn you that, although I won’t tell you anything about
the story itself, in the next few lines, I will reveal
some details on the
underlying theme.
If you
prefer to find out while watching (like I did), stop here and start watching
the series right away. I’ll tell you that this theme is typically
found in science fiction stories, although this one is not (but it’s still
speculation fiction).
If you are curious, go ahead. In any case,
I won’t give you details on how this theme fits into the story. Don’t worry.
The title
comes from 3:33, also called the Devil’s hour, in which the protagonist, Lucy Chambers, wakes up
every night, usually interrupting a nightmare.
The speculation fiction element, however, is of a completely different nature: time loops.
As I was
saying, this type of element is usually typical of science fiction stories that
deal with time manipulation or time travel. In fact, I recently came across it
in the series “Project Lazarus”, where these loops had a pseudoscientific
explanation.
In “The Devil’s Hour”, however, every attempt at explanation, although
falling within the realm of speculation fiction, concerns more than anything
its fantasy and supernatural component.
It doesn’t matter because the kind of story that comes out of it, where some characters already know what’s going to happen and can change the course of events and/or where we are shown different timelines with the same characters somehow influencing each other, gives rise to a complex plot structure that challenges the viewer’s ability to concentrate and attention to detail.
All of this is set in the context of a crime thriller with a possible serial killer, but where the villain is not necessarily who you think.
In short, “The Devil’s Hour” has all the elements needed to create an intriguing
story that keeps you
glued to the screen.
And it
succeeds!
One of the strengths of this series is precisely the fact that it transcends the clichés and tropes of genres and mixes them up, continually leading the viewer to doubt their own conclusions and towards new developments, which then, in the end, coincide perfectly.
Perhaps it could
discourage the viewer who expected something simpler, but I recommend going ahead without fear, since,
even if something may escape at the beginning, everything is
explained between the last episode of the first season and the first of the
second. From here, the
story moves in another direction, highlighting the real villain.
But, to know if our protagonists will be able
to identify and stop them, we will have to wait at least for the third season, in which, given the premises of the last episode
of the second, the structure of the story could undergo a further expansion,
which however I am sure we are ready to face.
I can’t really go into too much detail because a lot of the fun is exploring that narrative structure. It must be said, however, that the first season, released in 2022, was immediately a great success, so much so that two more were ordered. This also means that they were conceived and written as a single entity and not a simple extension of each other, which certainly benefits the narration and maintenance of narrative consistency.
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