Missing (2014 series)

The Missing is a 2014 British series that takes place in France.

2 out of 10 stars.  This should have been a two hour film, not an 8 hour series.  It’s so boring that watching paint dry would’ve been more entertaining.  The only thing I did like about it was how random the child’s death really was.  Just an example of how easily a person can die when someone drunk is behind the wheel.

A British family is driving through coastal France when their son disappears in a small town on the night of the big soccer playoff.  An exhaustive police search provides fruitless and days drag onto months as the couple try to find out what happened to their son.  Everyone assumes he was kidnapped by some pedophile.  He wasn’t.

SPOILER ALERT.

The night Oliver disappeared his father was watching the playoffs at a local bar and let go of Ollie’s hand.  Ollie saw a fox and followed it into the road.  He was hit by a drunk driver, Alain, the husband of the hotel owner where they were staying.  Alain thought Ollie was dead, called his brother the mayor to cover up the death, and his brother disposed of the body.  The problem was that Ollie was not dead.  And the eastern European criminal his brother hired to dispose of the body killed him.

There are several parts in the series in which the townspeople are angry and openly hostile toward the parents, especially the dad who keeps lurking around trying to find clues about his missing son even after 10 years have gone by.  But the townspeople were behind the boy’s death.  Several people in that town knew the truth and hid it from the parents.  The mayor sat next to his parents at a press conference less than an hour after he’d disposed of Ollie’s body.  Shame on them.

Now let’s talk about the acting.  It was really poorly cast.  Frances O’Connor and James Nesbitt had no appeal as the parents.  Nesbitt was especially irritating.  I couldn’t imagine him as a husband, parent, or anything.  He overreacted through everything.

The plot was too convoluted.  They brought in everything but the kitchen sink.  This was to extend the length to eight hours, but they really killed the story.  It would’ve been gripping had it been done in a two hour film.  But eight hours?  No.  I was bored to tears.

2 out of 10 stars.  Really boring and involves the murder of a child in episode 8.