I’m no stranger to crime dramas. I’ve been watching procedurals for many years now. It started back when I was a kid with Hill Street Blues, continued on with NYPD Blue, and later with CSI: Miami and other series of the same ilk. I love a good murder mystery as well. The latest to mix police drama and a murder mystery is based on the book by Liz Moore, and called the same thing is Long Bright River. It’s a very good crime drama now streaming on Peacock.

Mickey Fitzpattick (Amanda Seyfried) is a relatively young police officer on the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She has a son named Thomas (Callum Vinson), a sister, Kacey (Ashliegh Cummings), and a grandfather she calls Gee Pops (John Donan). Between her family and her job, she keeps pretty busy. It doesn’t help that she and her partner Eddie Lafferty (Dash Mihok) end up getting involved in a series of murders of some drug addicts and women of the street.  

This show has multiple overlying stories, though. One involving a past relationship of the main character between her and another police officer Simon Cleare (Matthew Drl Negro)., dealt with primarily in flashbacks. A second story arc deals with her ex-partner Truman (Nicholas Pinnock), who has become a close friend and confidant to her during the primary murder investigation. This is a very dense, layered, and nuanced crime series. This story has so many moving parts that it’s hard to focus on all the characters and subplots. I enjoyed all of it, though.

Amanda Seyfried is an actress I’ve come to really respect and enjoy in recent years. She used to be cast in lighthearted teen comedies or musicals, but now lately she’s been doing strong dramatic work. Her performance in The Dropout showed me she wasn’t messing around. She brought a different level of acting to  the role of Elizabeth Holmes, a crooked CEO of a failed pharmaceutical company. She has followed that up with another fantastic performance in this show. She has really come onto her own as an actress lately. This is a solid role for her doing something that she hasn’t done before, though. 

Nikki Toscano, the showrunner and writer of the series, infused it with some amazing elements that kept me interested throughout. The flashback sequences with graphics of the various years helped fill in the blanks quite nicely. The back and forth of the story was like a pendulum. You didn’t know when an episode would cut back to a flashback scene. Every time, it was impactful and informative. I was completely invested in this story from the present time and during the flashbacks. This series worked on all the levels it needed, too.

One of my favorite things about a show that takes place in a specific location is that location can be like a character in the show or film. Philadelphia feels that way to me from the cold, gritty, and dirty look of the series. The apartment/tenement homes are classic Philly. The showrunner, producers, and writers got the feel of this story perfectly correct from the point of view of an outsider who’s never been to Philadelphia  before. I like this sort of thing when it comes to my television shows and films.

Long Bright River is another solid crime drama based on a book with a murder mystery at its core. The layered storytelling based on Liz Moore’s book is well done by Nikki Toscano.  She knew the blend of mystery and character development she was looking for. These are the kinds of projects I want to see made into series more often. There are so many books out there waiting to be made into films and television shows. Amanda Seyfried once again gives a terrific performance as this police officer is trying to unravel this deeply layered murder mystery. The very big cast are all fantastic no matter the size of their roles. It’s that good of a cast. I love a show like this one with a lot of twists and turns in it. This is going to be another streaming hit from my humble perspective. 

All  8 episodes are now streaming on Peacock

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen