Who owns a story? Can there ever be a single truth about anything? Or even one we can all agree to privilege above the others? These are resonant questions in a time of ever-shifting social, political and cultural certainties, of alternative realities being proffered by social media influencers, activists and random individuals keen to assert their hot take – however well/badly informed it is. We are living in a time of benign and malicious falsehoods whizzing round the earth a hundred times before basic facts have even begun searching for their boots, and with AI poised to vacuum up the last shreds of human integrity.
One Night, a six-part Australian mystery drama created and written by Emily Ballou (The Slap) and directed by Catherine Millar (The Secrets She Keeps) and Lisa Matthews, has them at its heart. Simone (Nicole da Silva) has written a book, but has concealed from everyone except her agent (always tell your agent everything) how much of it is based on traumatic events in her teenage years. When the book comes out – published anonymously, which only helps drive sales – all hell slowly but surely breaks loose.
Featured in the book are her two best friends from that time. There is Hat (Yael Stone), now a lawyer, married and still living in their home town, to which Simone has recently returned to look after her father as his dementia advances. And there is Tess (Jodie Whittaker, recently seen in Time and getting another chance to stretch her wings instead of merely flapping enjoyably around in Doctor Who), who returns with her wife Vicki (Kat Stewart) after nearly two decades building a life in England. She is just in time to find that the bestseller’s story bears an uncanny resemblance to her own. And one she went to England to forget.
The nature of Tess’s teenage trauma is fairly clearly indicated via flashbacks and dreams experienced by both her and Simone, and not unexpected to anyone who has watched any television drama in recent years (or indeed spoken to a woman in the flesh at any point in a lifetime) but it is the gentle, unrushed delineation of its effects on the friends since then that holds the attention, especially in the opening episodes, with Whittaker and Da Silva doing impeccable work in evoking both the hardness and vulnerabilities that develop in the wake of awful events. Guilt, fear, anger, resentment and grief have eaten away at them in different proportions and in different ways, complicated by the fact that what happened may also have thwarted a budding romance between them. Simone is a drinker, and reacts with volcanic fury when she – as she must in the small coastal town in which they all live – crosses paths with the people to blame for the night 17 years ago that derailed so many lives. Tess has focused on the kind of personal and professional success that advertises to all that this is someone firmly in control of every aspect of herself and her life forever more. Like most emotional armour, however, it cannot withstand contact with home.
After the first few episodes, the feel of One Night becomes slightly less personal and more generic as familiar tropes are added. The man we are given to understand is the perpetrator is released early from prison. He is the scion of the local crime family and returns unfazed and viciously unrepentant to its welcoming bosom. Vicki and Tess’s wayward teenage daughter becomes – to their futile rage and horror – involved with his nephew and the spectre of history repeating itself rises. Meanwhile, a person or persons unknown is trying to scare Simone and her father out at their remote property – vandalising their car and setting the dogs barking. Tess’s actions also grow more perplexing and another thread of mystery weaves its way through the main narrative.
The overall effect is very much of an Australian Big Little Lies – a female-centred story played out mostly amongst affluent people in shiny clothes and shinier houses. Every emotional scene is set against a gorgeous landscape view and ugly collective and individual secrets bubbling just below the beautiful surface. But like Big Little Lies, it stays true to its characters and its story, managing to deliver something with a reasonable degree of heft as well as style, asking important questions along the way – even if it never drills too deeply for the answers.
• One Night is on Paramount+.
