This is a series I've been pushing aside every time Netflix decided it's time to bring it to the front. The reason I've been pushing it aside has been one of the lead actors, Monica Raymund, who I happen to know from Chicago Fire. Most likely getting this role has been the reason she was written out of Chicago Fire, which I didn't regret honestly. Anyway, last week I finally decided to give it a chance, to see what this series brings to the table.
"Hightown" is set on iconic Cape Cod, and it follows one woman's journey to sobriety, intertwined with an unfolding murder investigation. Jackie Quiñones, a hard-partying National Marine Fisheries Service agent, has her free-wheeling life thrown into disarray when she discovers a body on the beach - another casualty of Cape Cod's opioid epidemic. As a result of this trauma, Jackie takes the first steps toward becoming sober - until she becomes convinced that it's up to her to solve the murder. Now at odds with Sergeant Ray Abruzzo, an abrasive but effective member of the Cape Cod Interagency Narcotics Unit, Jackie starts to spiral. And she's not alone. Ray, too, spins out of control; losing himself in the investigation. The lives of everyone connected to this murder crash and converge, reminding us just how complicated - and deadly - our addictions can be.
The story itself is not new, we've seen it countless times. A young woman gets murdered while her friend sees the whole thing from the nearby bushes, hidden while peeing. Then we meet Jackie Quiñones (Monica Raymund), a National Marine Fisheries Service agent who goes to work to recover from the previous day's partying and goes straight to another party after work, to pick up where she left off the night before, drinking, doing drugs and hooking up with total strangers, women, as the script writers made sure to press the lesbian theme as hard as possible.
Waking up after another rough night, Jackie leaves the house of the stranger she picked up the night before, takes a walk on the beach and discovers a woman's body while peeing. At this point it seemed like the script writers had a thing for peeing, but let's move on.
These 15 minutes were enough, to make my stomach turn and I should have moved on, but gave it a second chance and continued watching.
At first it looked like a party gone wrong, as it happens so often, but pretty soon we find out it was much more than that and the story goes deeper into the nightlife and brings different gangs into the picture.
The series is made of 25 episodes, structured into 3 seasons, which to me it seemed a bit too long with some unnecessary scenes.
If the main goal of the writers was to mock the police force, I can honestly say, they succeeded. During the three seasons, we get to see police officers hungry for power and success, that would do anything to achieve it, no matter who they have to stab in the back or how many rules they have to break, throwing each other under the bus and so on. This on its own wouldn't be a problem, as unfortunately this is what happens in real live, so you can say it was authentic, but what they did with Jackie's character is pure mocking. Repeated drinking, drug use, disobedience, acting without approval, missing from work also repeatedly, and still being kept in position only happens in the movies.
Her character and acting put my patience to the test, but kept telling myself it gets better as time passes, but what happened was exactly the opposite, till it got literally unbearable.
The other lead character was Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale), who is the type of person you should run away from, whoever you are. He's an obsessive, rule breaker cop who believes the end goal justifies the means and acts like it. I was fluctuating between kind of liking him and not, but taking a step back and looking at the whole picture, he's not likable after all.
Over the three seasons we see a lot of plot twists, not necessarily in the desired direction and the end is really not what one would want. The balance between the characters sexuality and the story itself is off. The language ... well, I don't even want to mention it. I understand it's the underworld and they did not learn English from Shakespeare, but maybe there was no need to push it this far. My manners don't allow me to elaborate on this.
If you're into substance abuse, sex, alcohol, bad acting, unnecessarily and useless side stories, this series is for you. Otherwise I advise you to spend your time doing something else. I for one, had enough of Monica Raymund's bad acting, for life. Self awarding is never a good thing, but I believe I deserve a medal for resisting till the end. Now I should watch something with substance, that not only makes me feel good and causing me lose brain cells, but remains in my memory for a good reason.
Rating: 40/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
