Here We Are – As the opening episode of Curfew begins, a group of girls hang out and rink at night. The men of the community watch through their windows. The women begin flirting with the men. One man is flashed. The flasher, Suzie (Guste Ona Maria) walks alone and snaps a duck-face selfie on her way. The intense man (Harry Attwell) shows up in front of her. He thought she wanted him to come outside, but she claims it was just a joke. Mark Anderson asks about the brave girl who was teasing men before the police arrive and arrest him. Mark asks why a policeman is not under curfew like the rest of them. He’s thrown into the back of a van with other men. They’re warned that they cannot mess with curfew. Officer Eddie (Mitchell Robertson) seems upset with the encounter. The Women’s Safety Act is a law that requires men to stay home so women can feel safe.

The tag has to be worn at all times. It requires men to remain home from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.. After the intro, a woman is found deceased. DI Pamela Green (Sarah Parish) learns she’s been given a new partner. DCI Sue Ferguson (Lucy Benjamin) has asked for men to serve after dark. Eddie Wilson introduces himself to Pamela. They look at the victim’s body. Pamela says she’s been hit repeatedly with force. She also has defensive wounds all over her arms. Pamela suspects she died sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight. Eddie admits he’s never seen a body with this much damage before. Pamela has but it happened before curfew. She says only a man could be responsible for that level of rage. Eddie argues otherwise since the men have to obey the curfew. A news report says the woman’s body was found outside the Women’s Safety Centre. The victim has not been identified yet, but a female suspect has been identified.

Eddie talks to Pamela who remains adamant that a woman didn’t do this. Once they go inside, Sue Ferguson gives everyone an update and warns them the suspect is off-limits until she gets a solicitor. Sam is put on door-to-doors. Mara will be liaising with forensics. There is no CCTV because it was supposedly on the fritz. Pamela begins learning more about Sarah Jackson (Mandip Gill) who worked at the Women’s Safety Centre. She is divorced from Greg Jackson and has a child, Cass. Eddie and Pamela talk about the CCTV issue. Greg comes to the station. He served time in prison for curfew violation and Sarah divorced him when he was in prison. As for Ben Williams, he has been all over Sarah’s call list for the last couple of days. Greg (Tommy McDonnell) tells Pamela that he saw Ben. He thinks Ben has more money than sense. Ben (Adam Korson) asks if they can keep this short. Greg confirms he just got out of Woodcote Prison.

Greg claims things started going wrong for Sarah after an accident at work. They had an attack at the Centre a couple of weeks back. Greg refers to it as a case of excessive force. Ben says that was a tough day for her. He admits it might’ve been a catalyst. Greg says his daughter, Cass, told him all about it. Two weeks ago, it looks like Cass (Imogen Sandhu) received a letter from Greg. She speaks to Sarah about the night before and Sarah hanging out with Helen. Cass asks why she didn’t tell her that her dad is getting out. Sarah argues she won’t be able to see him either way. Cass gets upset and storms out. She makes a snide remark to Janet. Seconds later, Janet says it’s good that Sarah got full custody because he brought this on himself. Sarah speaks to Helen (Alexandra Burke) about it. Helen hopes Cass didn’t hear them last night. She finds anarchy-type sticks all over her vehicle.

Helen tells Sarah that she needs to get laid. Greg calls Sarah to complain about her serving him divorce papers while he’s in prison. During the interview, Greg says Sarah got the tagging job at the Women’s Safety Centre when he went to prison. He says he’s lucky that Cass has a mind of her own. Cass goes to class where Helen reminds her she’s been late again. Helen asks Billy (Selorm Adonu) for his opinions about the curfew measure. Billy says he likes knowing his mom is safe when she’s coming home from work. One student says men aren’t dangerous but their desires are. They continue arguing about it. Cass tells Helen to say so if she hates men so much. Helen orders her to go to the head office. The problem with Cass likely didn’t help Sarah’s mood that day. Cass tells Sarah she doesn’t want to go to her workplace because it’s the hand of fascism.

Outside the Women’s Safety Centre, a protestor throws something and hits Sarah. Cass is told to stay there and not to cause trouble. Pamela asks Greg if the protestors were part of Men’s Liberation Now which has been known to harass taggers. Greg insists they’re not terrorists. In private, Pamela and Eddie talk about the suspects. Pamela and Eddie speak to a woman keeping track of curfew violations. She says there were three last night. All were in custody well before the murder. She insists that whatever happened last night did not involve a man. Pamela returns to Greg to ask if Cass said who else was at the tagging center that day. Greg says he’s sitting in the next room. Pamela and Eddie return to Ben to ask him about that day. Ben remembers that day since it was the day they arrived. He should’ve realized that coming to this country would be a mistake.

Ben says they thought about it as an adventure. He had no problem with his wife supporting the family. After all, it’s important for their boys to see their mother in charge. Cass talks to Ben and Max about the tags. They find out that Max and Cass are both going to Cavisham College. Ben met Sarah at that point. He insists he tried not to get involved with her. He claims Sarah came after him and didn’t care that his family was there. She puts on Ben’s tag. Sarah uses a coder to lock it permanently. Ben makes a joke about getting one. Sarah warns him that illegal possession of a coder comes with a hefty fine and a custodial sentence. Pamela learns that the victim was likely killed elsewhere and moved. She was dragged about 40 feet. Pamela keeps saying that this had to be a man. Sue reminds her that the system hasn’t failed once. Pamela messages the pathologist Pru (Emily Ross) to ask for some help. Eddie has to tell Pamela that his name is actually Eddie. She doesn’t care.

Pru arrives and tells Pamela that she went skinny dipping with Sandy. Eddie takes a call on Pamela’s phone. He notices a picture of a young girl. He learns it’s Jane who is Pamela’s daughter. She was killed three years ago while walking home through the park just 48 hours before the curfew was introduced. It was the last recorded stranger femicide. In the past, Sian (Amy Louise Pemberton) learns that Noah is going to be tagged too. Helen joins Cass. A man complains that his tag is on too tightly. Sarah hears the man screaming while dealing with Max’s tag. She walks out. Sian decides to go and see what’s going on too. Paul (Neil Ashton) blames Sarah when he sees her. She ends up using a Taser on him when he tries to give her his phone so she can check his app. Ben tells Pamela that it wasn’t that bad. Sarah yells for someone to call 999 because the man’s heartbeat is irregular. He’s also urinated on him. Greg thinks Sarah had been waiting to Taser someone.

The man is taken away in an ambulance. Sarah lies and says the man went for her Taser. Helen backs up her claim, but Sian interrupts to say Paul was only reaching for his phone. Sarah says they still need to tag Noah. She wants to call the police to report noncompliance. Cass sneaks inside and steals a coder. She warns her mom that she’s going to pay for nearly killing a man. Paul’s husband arrives outside and learns what has happened. Sian tells him that Paul wasn’t a threat. She offers to give him legal advice since she’s a lawyer. Ben says Sian started a crusade and he even started feeling sorry for Sarah. An old man warns Max not to step outside. He has an anarchy-type sticker on his wheelchair. Ben says he started feeling abandoned. Pamela asks Craig when he was last at the Women’s Safety Centre. He wonders if he needs a lawyer. A colleague barges in and tells Craig that he’s free to go now. Sue tells Pamela that the suspect has just confessed.

Pamela refuses to believe it. Sue says they’re one week away from a vote that dictates women’s safety in the country for generations to come. She doesn’t want Pamela’s theories to leave this station. Once Pamela goes outside, she is grabbed from behind by Steve (Mark Killeen). They begin making out. They have sex in the car. Pamela remembers something bad from her past. Steve suspects the discovery of the body must bring up a lot of stuff for her. Pamela doesn’t want to talk about it. Steve tells her to trust her gut. Next, Pamela speaks to Steph and convinces her to give her the keys. Pamela goes into the cell to speak to the suspect. In the past, Sarah tries to get in touch with Cass believing she’s done something bad. Cass meets Craig outside the prison and she still has the coder. In the present, Craig takes the tag off.

Pamela knows that the suspect didn’t kill the woman. She will do everything in her power to find out who did it. She will find out why Sarah is covering for them.

 

Curfew Review

The opening episode of Curfew had moments of intense mystery where it showed some potential. However, there is still a lot to dislike about this series. However, the whole idea is tarnished by the fact that men are allowed to be on the police force and therefore out at night. That doesn’t make sense considering a male policeman could also be a risk to women and that would tarnish the whole purpose of the curfew.

Not to mention, there is no exploration of the world outside the shallow world. The bigger problem here is the fact that no one is easy to care about. The annoying characters extend to the women at the beginning to Pamela, Sarah, Cass, and others. In particular, Pamela is already very easy to like. She’s stereotypical for modern dramas with a weak partner she can constantly walk all over.

The core idea is interesting regardless and it’s easy to want to find out who killed Sarah. However, there are going to be many cringey moments and eye-rolling moments before we get to that point. I would also expect a pretty lackluster finish that doesn’t justify six hours of the viewer’s time.

The opening episode was just okay although it’s definitely not being subtle about all the messages it wants to implant in the viewer’s mind. It scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Curfew can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.