Aidan Turner Is Accused of Being a Predator in the Trailer for 'Fifteen-Love'

When TV drama series focus on hot-button issues, there is a tendency to distill things into a simple formula. One side is Good, the other Bad; we are supposed to root for the former. Even amid prestige TV's height, with anti-heroes all the rage, someone is unmasked as truly terrible in order for everyone to root for the chosen lead. It's why so many series that attempt to parse complex issues like consent and sexual assault usually end up feeling a little too after-school special. However, Fifteen-Love, which streamed on Amazon Prime UK in 2023 and will now debut on AMC+ and Sundance Now, is the rare show that insists on showing just how complex these stories are.

On the surface, Fifteen-Love looks like the simple tale of a teenage prodigy struck down by a career-ending injury, who in her mid-20s comes forward and accuses her former coach of statutory rape when she was underage. She says she wants to keep him from doing it to anyone else; he says she resents that he still has a career when hers went up in flames. In his corner are her old friends who claim she crushed on him and it was never returned, and adults who wonder why she never said anything before then. On her side are the social mores that demand we believe women and that all of his excuses sound like the classic predator archetype.

However, the six-part series never lets viewers pick a side and stick to it. Instead, it considers the parts we don't discuss, like the forced early maturity of teenage sports prodigies and the arrested development so many suffer when that career ends. It looks at the emotional, financial, and day-to-day practical considerations that make people disregard what they do and don't want to see. Sadly, most Americans will never see it because no one watches Sundance Now or AMC+.