'Get Millie Black's Premiere Has a Compelling Crime with a Haunted Aura

Atmospheric and instantly engaging, HBO’s Get Millie Black is set in Kingston, Jamaica and follows detective Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance), who narrates the series. The series premiere, titled "Millie," introduces her as a child (Emeka Onuora), happily painting her brother Orville’s (Zolé Onuora) toenails. But when their Mama (Shanique Brown) finds out, she whips Orville brutally and calls him a fa**ot. Millie snaps and shoves her mother into a mirror. In retaliation, Mama sends Millie away to England.

Millie: “Nobody knew I was paying an unpayable debt to a ghost.” 

When Millie is a teenager (Ayesha Griffiths), Mama tells her Orville died in a riot in “the Gully” – storm drains, which are Kingston’s de facto “neighborhood” for the homeless LGBTQ+ population. Adding insult to injury, Mama implies Orville is now in Hell. Millie is devastated and angry but (rightfully) assigns the blame where it lies. Living with Mama was the real Hell.

Fast-forward to adult Millie, whose relentless work as a cop is driven by her loss; she talks a lot about ghosts and how both the country and its people are haunted. But when Mama drops dead... “Who should raise up like Lazarus?” Orville, it seems, was not dead after all, prompting Millie to leave England and return to Jamaica.

In another time jump, Millie has been in Jamaica for a year, fixing up her mother’s place to live in permanently and trying to convince her now-sister Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen), a transwoman in a country that’s extremely hostile to her, to move in together. Homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica, yet Millie’s now on the Kingston police force, and her partner Curtis (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) lives with his boyfriend, Daniel (Jomo Tafari Dixon). The degree to which their relationship is publicly known is unclear. Millie is aware and supportive, teasing Curtis that he’s admitting to a crime when he talks about Daniel.

The series really kicks off when Millie and Curtis are assigned a new case: Teenager Janet Fenton (Shernet Swearine) has been missing for two weeks. Her teacher Sister Agatha (Dorothy Cunningham) reports Janet is a model student, but she’s recently been seen with a boy with an expensive car. The detectives question Janet’s mother, Ruth (Sherando Ferril). She tells the cops her daughter comes and goes as she pleases, even suggesting Janet may be a prostitute. In Janet’s room, Millie finds a card for a club called Hot Pinky.

Before she and Curtis can investigate further, Millie gets a text that her sibling is in jail again, so they head over, where the cops insist on deadnaming Hibiscus and have put her in lockup with other men. Millie pays off the guard to release her, and as they leave, asks if the bruises are from the police or a client; Hibiscus won’t answer.

Back on the case, at the Hot Pinky strip club, Millie asks the proprietor, Hit Girl (Dorothy “Patra” Smith), about Janet. Hit Girl denies knowing anything, but another dancer happily talks after she’s been slipped some cash: Janet is sleeping with the owner of the club, Freddie Somerville (Peter John Thwaites). Curtis is well aware of Freddie, a “rich boy who likes ghetto girls,” especially underage. The Somervilles are rich whites with houses all over town; Janet could be anywhere. The two decide to interview his parents, taking a “downtown problem uptown.” 

After they leave, a rough-looking guy, Corsica (Nestor Absera), recently out of UK prison, arrives hunting for Freddie and Janet. Hit Girl remains tight-lipped but keeps Corsica placated with booze and women and assigns one of her men to trail him; trouble for the landlord could be an opportunity for them. Meanwhile, Millie and Curtis arrive amidst a birthday party for the family patriarch. Mr. Somerville (Paul Issa) tries to shoo them off when they ask his wife (Laura Henzell) where Freddie is, but Curtis notes a missing girl connected to their son. Mr. Somerville laughs at them; Freddie is probably “slumming with ghetto trash.” 

Millie takes offense; Somerville merely asks if her superiors know she’d harassing “good people.” Millie is unafraid to challenge him and slips into the house to ask about Janet. The cook, Marva (Crystal Fletcher), says she saw the girl with baby boutique bags; the staff assumes she is pregnant. As she leaves, a phone ping, it's Millie’s boss scolding her for questioning the Somervilles. Rolling her eyes, she heads to the pub. Hibiscus is there, and Millie tries again to convince her to move in to be safe. Hibiscus refuses, reminding Millie she was fine for years without her. Frustrated, Millie accidentally dead-names her sister; Hibiscus, hurt, walks out. The bartender brings Millie a drink without being asked, so she takes him home instead.

The next day, Millie and Curtis learn Janet didn’t buy baby clothes; she bought things for a young boy. Security footage shows Freddie waiting outside. Then the detectives hear there’s police activity at Freddie’s house – supposedly, he’s dead. When they arrive, the commanding officer calls them Heckel and Jeckel and says he doesn’t want them “bitching up” his crime scene. They come in anyway. In the room with the dead body, the lead officer is talking about the wounds the victim sustained. The face is a pulp, nearly unrecognizable. The body has defensive wounds, and there’s a clear sign of forced entry. Millie finds a positive pregnancy test in a trash can, which she takes as evidence of Janet.

Millie isn’t convinced the victim is Freddie. She’s about to say more when an authoritative white man is ushered in: Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie), an officer from Scotland Yard. Millie asks if he’s come to colonize their case. He questions why she thinks the victim isn’t Freddie. Millie notes that in pictures, Freddie wears an earring; the victim has no piercings. She posits that Freddie killed a would-be assailant, panicked, and fled.  

Freddie is a witness in a significant case in the UK, and Holborn needs him alive. Millie gets a dressing down from her boss, Barracat (Belinda Reid); this isn’t their crime scene. Millie insists Janet’s case led her here. She thinks Freddie’s a witness, not a suspect, and that there’s a hit out on the son of one of the wealthiest families in Kingston. Millie is astonished that she’s supposed to fall in line with a “white boy’s investigation” and disgusted Holborn couldn’t care less about Janet. Curtis notes they’re racing against a hit squad and Scotland Yard to find her. Hit Girl tips Millie off that Freddie and Janet are hiding in his house in the hills. Millie and Curtis locate the address, request backup, and head there.

In a harrowing scene, Hibiscus and three of her trans friends are walking home when suddenly they are surrounded by men who come out of the dark, brandishing cricket bats and crowbars. Hibiscus tells her friends to run. The men land a few blows, but Hibiscus and Deltreece (Shaunak Antonia Wilson) outrun them, finding hiding places in a nearby alley. But not for long. Deltreece is discovered and beaten savagely. Hibiscus remains hidden, hearing her friend get battered. She emerges when the noise stops and discovers Deltreece is not moving.

Millie doesn’t wait for backup. She and Curtis sweep through Freddie’s property when suddenly Janet appears from a hidden spot and tries to run; Millie catches her. Janet says she’s waiting for her boyfriend to return; Freddie told her they were going on a quick trip to England.

Suddenly, the windows explode from gunshots. Millie and Janet dive behind a couch. Curtis gets shot and hides behind a pillar. Corsica enters and is about to shoot Curtis when Millie shoots him. Millie shoots again until Corsica falls; his crew runs away.

Get Millie Black continues with weekly episodes on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streaming on Max.