As the first episode of Compulsion begins, Jenny Challoner (Leanne Best) waits at the train station with a final demand for payment letter. As the train gets closer, it looks like Jenny is going to step out in front of it. After the intro, Jenny sits on the train and panics. It worsens until Sasha (Anna Chancellor) comes over to help her calm down. Once she relaxes, Sasha jokes that everyone thinks she has a bomb in her bag. The guy in charge comes back to check on Jenny. Sasha tells him they’re okay before Jenny notices it is her stop. Jenny believes Sasha must think she is mad, but Sasha promises she doesn’t. Jenny leaves the train and joins Chris (Danny Ashok) in the car. She begins freaking out because she can’t find her phone, but Chris can’t help since he didn’t bring his.

Once they get home, Ali (Krissi Bohn) is busy getting their daughter to brush her teeth. Jenny gets a call from Sasha who tells her she picked up the phone on the train. She tells Chris that she is going to pick it up from her tomorrow. Jenny has a flashback to what looks like some type of accident before Chris checks on her. Ali interrupts to tell Jenny that Rosie (Amaya Faizy) wants to run through her lines with her. Jenny jokes she is going to have a word with her headmaster because he is working her a little too hard. Rosie says her headmaster is her father. Rosie doesn’t want to sleep with her doll because she isn’t a baby anymore. It is only twelve more sleeps before her birthday. As Jenny returns downstairs, she overhears Ali and Chris talking about a letter she has been waiting for. Chris says she is stressed enough already.

When she enters the room, Chris gives her the letter that he thinks is from the solicitors. She opens the letter and learns there will be more delay before she can receive compensation. Jenny says it has been six months so she has already put it behind her. She insists they don’t have to be worried since she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. They think she might’ve gone back to work too soon. Jenny finds it odd that they used the word “we”. She reminds them that it happened to her and not them so she’d appreciate it if they stopped treating her like glass. Jenny asks them to stop ganging up on her if they want her to return to normal. After she complains about Ali being in the house more than she is, Ali decides to excuse herself. Later, Jenny tells Chris she wishes he’d sort out the cupboard since VHS isn’t making a comeback.

She compliments him by calling him kind and sweet. Jenny doesn’t know how he puts up with her. As she grabs the laptop and sits down, Chris asks her to find them a villa with a big pool and bar within staggering distance. Instead, she sneaks around and begins playing online poker. In the morning, Chris reminds her that she never came to bed before asking where she is taking them. She couldn’t decide since the world is a very big place. When she sees the mailman outside, she tells her daughter that she is doing to be late for school. On the way out, Chris asks Jenny to make up with Ali. She promises to text her as soon as she gets her phone back. After she gets them into the car, she grabs the mail and finds a letter with a final demand. At work, Jenny has to help her partner with a woman who fell on the train tracks.

She loses herself until Raj yells her name a few times. Jenny believes the patient is going to be a runner so she wants the boys ready. Raj (Ben Tavassoli) follows her into the female locker room at work and asks the others to leave. On their way out, they tell Jenny that Lesley was asking for her. Once they’re alone, Raj says she froze this morning and he isn’t covering for her anymore. Jenny believes he just doesn’t like being her junior again. Raj suggests she came back too early. She visits Lesley (Trudie Goodwin) who says she didn’t want to believe it, but she knows Raj isn’t a liar. She did her own inquiries and found out that it is true. Jenny believes they’re talking about her freezing, but Lesley says Jeff is emigrating.

Lesley explains that it is hard to get advanced paramedics so she’d like Jenny to finally step up. Jenny doesn’t think it is too much so soon. Lesley is glad since it’ll stop Raj from stalking her with promotion requests every five seconds. He’ll likely go up to senior since he can throw in another few months of night school. Jen believes he is up to it since she trained him. When she leaves, we see a newspaper article about the Kingsgate train disaster that Sasha is looking at before Jenny joins her. They share a drink as Jenny’s phone begins ringing. Sasha admits it has not stopped ringing and it has always been the same number. Once Jenny puts the phone in her bag, she has another panic attack leaving Sasha forced to calm her. After she calms down, Sasha jokes she could be the common denominator with her panic attacks.

Jenny confesses it is the train incident and she was on the train at the time. She feels like she should be able to deal with it as a paramedic. They’re trained to deal with extreme situations, but she isn’t coping very well. Sasha suggests it could be guilt. She is trained to soothe pain and save lives but couldn’t do that when she was in the incident. Although Jenny wasn’t hurt and is still here, 18 other people aren’t. Jenny nearly drinks from the other cup only to find out it is for Sasha’s sister. She tries to leave so she doesn’t have to introduce her to her sister. Sasha pulls out an urn that contains her sister’s ashes. It would’ve been Tara’s 44th birthday. It was always like her to be the center of attention. Sasha decides to have a toast for her sister. After more drinks, Jenny asks what happened to her sister, but quickly admits it isn’t any of her business.

Officially, her sister died of multiple organ failure. Unofficially, Tara was a drug addict so you can take your pick. Sasha argues they should cheer up before knocking the wine all over Jenny’s bag. Sasha takes her home and takes the blame for Jenny being drunk. She gives Chris the bag and takes the blame for that as well before hugging Jenny. Once they go inside, Chris gets Jenny a drink and suggests Sasha is a drunk. He apologizes once he learns that her sister just died. He reminds her that it was the worst night of their lives when he couldn’t get ahold of her. Jenny admits she didn’t think so she apologizes for not calling. Chris gives her something to drink before going to bed. Jenny gets a message. When she checks her phone, she has seven new messages. The call is from Blue Regency Debt Solutions reminding her that the amount outstanding on her loan needs to be repaid.

The next day at work, Raj drives while Jenny plays casino games on her phone. They pick up a woman, Maisie, who got hurt while gardening. Jenny tells her that they’ll have to keep an eye on her ribs. When Maisie touches her arm, Jenny has a flashback and begins zoning out once again. She comes back and deals with the patient. Next, she talks to Dr. Medlock (Isobel Middleton) about the experience. The doctor suggests it could be repressed memories, but it feels like fragments to Jenny. She asks if she thinks she’ll be able to sign her off soon. Medlock asks how the confrontation technique is going. Jenny says it is going although her husband thinks she is mad to go anywhere near a train again. When she jokes about riding on the train, the doctor tells her humor is a common deflector for PTSD.

Jenny questions if being in counseling will be a problem for getting the advanced paramedic job. Nothing she says will leave the room, but they will know she has been here. Once Jenny gets home, she complains about Rosie using her laptop since it is off bounds. However, Rosie says her dad opened it and not her. She asks Chris and learns that he was looking for one of his lesson plans. The password didn’t work. He tells her Ali is still moping around school and don’t want that at Rosie’s party so Jenny promises to sort it out. Sasha arrives with a gift that turns out to be an expensive bag.

Sasha tells her not to worry about it since she didn’t pay for her. Instead, she runs a bag business. Sasha invites them over to her place tomorrow. Chris isn’t interested, but Jenny quickly accepts the offer anyway. Later, Chris complains that Jenny talked to Sasha about the crash even though she hasn’t talked to him about it. Jenny argues it isn’t a big deal although it is sometimes easier to talk to a stranger. Jenny gets another message from the debt company. When Jenny checks her bank account that night, she finds a bunch of payments to the Diamond Glitz Online Casino. The following day at work, Jenny plays on her phone again. Raj checks on her before she says she is okay. Jenny meets with Ali to apologize and give her gifts. Ali complains that she is going out with a stranger when she has been inviting her out for six months. Jenny admits she felt like she couldn’t refuse in that situation.

Once they reach Sasha’s house, they agree that she is likely selling a lot of bags. Sasha tells them how many start-up businesses fail before revealing she got a divorce settlement. Jenny calls the house minimalist so Sasha believes she is saying cold and impersonal. She explains she didn’t want to have many reminders of him. When she notices Chris looking at the urn nearby, she quickly tells him it is her sister. Chris thinks it is an unusual place to keep it, but Sasha says it is better than putting it in a cupboard or under the bed. Her sister was claustrophobic so she wouldn’t like that. Jenny asks what she is going to do with her eventually. Chris thinks it is an inappropriate question, but Sasha admits they walked all over each other’s eggshells the other night. Chris begins talking about being the head at work and suggests it might be time to head off to a new house and school.

Jenny admits it would make sense when she gets her money if she didn’t love the house they’re already in. Chris goes to the bathroom. Jenny receives another message from the debt collector so Sasha asks how much she owes. She already knows because she answered her phone after all. Sasha speculates she has been gambling. She explains she had never talked to anyone about Tara before. When she talked to Jenny about it, the conversation really helped her. After Sasha pleads with her to talk, Jenny confesses she doesn’t know where to start or how any of this happened. She eventually says she owes the man 10,000 pounds. Later, Chris reminds Jenny that their daughter needs a coat. He also offers to look for a villa with her later and they can choose together. As Jenny walks down the street, she notices she is being followed by a vehicle. She begins running until she finds out that Sasha is in the vehicle.

Once she gets in, Sasha admits she has been thinking about last night. Everything she has is in the business meaning she has no liquid assets, but she thinks Jenny does. She takes Jenny to the spot where Tara died and says she was in so much pain at the end. While the nurses did what they could legally, one nurse named Flo was willing to go a step further. Plenty of them was happy to let her. There was nothing they wouldn’t have done to stop their pain even for a short while, but Flo’s supply never kept up with demand. She asks Jenny if that is something she might be able to help with. Sasha goes on to say Jenny has all kinds of things in that ambulance and families are willing to pay for those things. She calls it borrowing since she can replace what she took once she gets the compensation money.

Jenny doesn’t think she could make ten thousand pounds that quickly even if she could do it. She calls Sasha insane before leaving. At home, Chris learns about their debts. He complains that the electricity hasn’t been paid for months, but Jenny blames a problem at the company. When he tries to call, Jenny reminds him that the bills are her department so she’ll call them in the morning. Rosie interrupts to ask why they’re fighting. Jenny says they’re not. Later that night, Jenny plays the casino game and gets another message from Blue Regency. She wins 3,500 pounds before winning more.

Rosie enters and distracts her. As a result, Jenny selects the double or nothing option and loses everything. She deposits 500 more pounds. Jenny continues playing until she hears Chris screaming from downstairs. Once she runs down there, she finds Rosie knocked out in a pool of blood. She tries to help Rosie but continues thinking about the train incident. Chris calls for assistance. After it gets there, Chris goes looking for his keys while Jenny tries to put the brace on her daughter. Chris comes back with the computer and shows her that she lost more than 11,000 pounds. She grabs the laptop while telling him not to look at that.

 

Compulsion Review

The first episode of Compulsion was a bit slow until the very end when the story finally started coming together. There isn’t much new here since these topics have been explored so many times already and some recently. The story may still be interesting enough to hold the viewer’s attention through four episodes, but it’ll depend on the path it takes. The cast is good thanks to the likes of Leanne Best and Anna Chancellor.

The cinematography, camera work, and lighting as pretty good. Compulsion doesn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary so it will rely on a strong story and good performances to succeed. Truthfully, this feels like an episode needed to set up the characters and establish the foundation of the story. In that sense, it did well.

The last couple of moments were good enough to get me interested in the next episodes. It may be difficult to connect with some of the characters since some of the attitudes could’ve been better. I worry the show might be trying to tackle too many topics at once, including gambling, loss, PTSD, and so on. Then again, it is believable that many of these issues would be experienced simultaneously.

We’ll see. The first episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Compulsion can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work by following this link.