'Roadkill': Episode 1 Recap
The new Masterpiece political thriller Roadkill is certainly entertaining viewing, but it often feels as though it arrived on our screens from a parallel dimension, one in which any fallout from Brexit didn’t really happen and where a pandemic isn’t dominating every conversation in the halls of government and on the news.
Occasionally, shows are simply victims of accidents of timing. Sometimes that can work in their favor, but more often than not, it doesn’t, and a new, highly-touted series arrives at the worst popular moment to get any sort of traction. November 2020, just days from a highly divisive U.S. presidential election and with cases of coronavirus spiking in multiple places around the globe, feels like the worst possible moment for a show like this to premiere.
Because no matter what your personal politics might happen to be, it’s difficult to believe that anyone out there was hoping for a show like this at this precise moment in time. Maybe there’s a world where watching Hugh Laurie play a scumbag government minister who gleefully profits off his time in government, sues those who try to hold him accountable, and has an endless list of personal and moral failings, is fun to watch.
