Over the past week, I have found myself cringing at a series of tabloid articles describing Get Millie Black as a rival to the BBC’s Death in Paradise. Sure, both shows are set on Caribbean islands and feature black British police officers who used to work for the Metropolitan force. But that is truly where the similarities end. The comparisons have reminded me of the old advertising maxim about King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne: they are both British men born in 1948 who have been married twice and have pots of money. But, well, they don’t exactly have a ton in common, do they?
And so to Get Millie Black, which isn’t a soapy murder mystery with a surfeit of former EastEnders stars, but rather an ambitious five-part drama based on a short story by Booker prize winner Marlon James, and adapted by the man himself. Touching on discrimination against LGBTQ+ Jamaicans, police corruption, people-smuggling and the echoes of colonialism that continue to ring out, it doesn’t exactly take a chipper “case of the week” approach. Where it does slip into well-worn procedural territory, the excellent performances and general sense of unease seeping out of almost every scene keep it on track, in the same vein as True Detective and Mare of Easttown before it.
