As the first episode of Granite Harbour begins, DC Davis Lindo (Romario Simpson) is awoken after falling asleep on the bus. Once he reaches the police station, he tells the receptionist, Belinda Everett (Sophia McLean), that he is with the DUO Commonality Scheme which trains Commonwealth soldiers in the UK emergency services. DCI Cora MacMillan (Dawn Steele) tells Davis that the training program starts Monday and it is only Friday. DC Lindo explains that he wanted to introduce himself before Cora learns he had ten years with the Royal Military Police. He has experience in serious crimes investigation, evidence collation, witness interrogation, and detainee handling. Davis says this is a great opportunity and he is a proud Commonwealth citizen. Cora realizes he wants to be a detective just not in Jamaica. Davis argues that Jamaica is not the place for him.
Cora informs him that it’ll take more than a uniform change to convert him into one of her officers. Detective Sergeant Lara Bartlett (Hannah Donaldson) comes in to find out more about Davis. Later, Davis gets settled in his room and texts his dad letting him know he has arrived. After getting something to eat, Davis walks outside and sees a big protest against an oil company. Shay Coburn (Gary Lewis) watches them argue from a distance. The speaker, Clellan, tells everyone that moving to renewables is best for the business and vital because oil is running out. Rory Dashford (Andrew Still) angrily shouts for their jobs to be saved. He is told that the training they’re offering will help displaced workers secure posts in the new company. Then, the president of Zephel Renewables, Karolina Andersson (Katia Winter), is introduced.
Karolina talks about the two companies becoming one while Stavanger and Aberdeen will also join. She explains how this is the birth of Coburn Renewables. Rory accuses them of killing them. He throws his bottle at Clellan Coburn and threatens to kill him first. After the speech, Davis watches a brief argument between Shay and Clellan. On Monday, Davis goes to the police station to get an ID card and a tour from Lara. Then, he is introduced to DI Jaiyush Mallick (Bhav Joshi) who is in the DUO handbook. Davis says the book has case studies and diversity success stories, but DI Mallick insists he didn’t get what he has because of some diversity scheme. Davis says he meant no offense even though Mallick took offense with his statement. Cora interrupts to say Jaiyush is needed at Standard Park for a possible homicide. Monty (Michelle Jeram) will meet him there and he should take Lara and Davis with him.
Once they check the body, Davis tells them that he knows the victim. Bart reveals it is Clellan Coburn and he employed half the city. Mallick questions why they’d dump him in the open before learning that his phone hasn’t been found yet. They find a key that looks new. Davis is introduced to Monty who is described as the resident analyst. She tells them that the joggers found the body at 8 AM and ran the same route around 10 last night but saw nothing. Mallick puts Bart in charge of telling the next of kin. As Bart drives, he tells Davis about Clellan and how he is a man of the people if they believe the PR team. She explains that Clellan should’ve been signing the paperwork to merge with the Norwegian green energy company right now and eliminate the rigs that Shay was eager to keep open.
Once they arrive, Bart tells Davis that he should be an observer and nothing else. Davis quickly knows that the guard, Ewan MacClure (Ross Anderson), is a former military man based on the way he walks. When they approach Shay, he admits he thought they’d send a more senior officer. He learns that the case has become Cora’s top priority. Shay asks Ewan to stay. Shay is asked when he last saw his brother. He says Saturday at the company open day. He was spoiling for a fight so that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He thinks Clellan was here yesterday, but security should be able to confirm that. As Shay begins getting emotional, he asks them if they have to do this now. Bart agrees to do it another time. She reminds Shay that the body will have to be formally identified before the postmortem can begin.
Ewan offers to do it since Shay isn’t sure he can face that, but Bart says one has to be a family member. Before they leave, Davis tells Shay they have a witness who saw him arguing with Clellan at the open day. Bart tries to get him out of there promptly before he can do any damage. At the office, Davis tells her that he is the witness and what he saw was more than sibling rivalry. He suggests one of them was going to lose big today. Now, the merge dies and the rigs keep drilling. Bart asks if it is going to be too difficult for him to follow basic orders. Davis says they won’t have a problem, but he still finds it odd that Shay didn’t ask a single question about Clellan’s death. Jaiyush thinks that is the shock and suspects he’ll be extra quizzical once he has done the ID. Davis receives his tablet that contains all case files and such. Monty tells them that she couldn’t find a phone registered to Clellan because he was old school.
Lindo tells them how Shay was arguing with Clellan on Saturday and argues that they should be questioning him. They believe Clellan died sometime early this morning while Shay was at a fundraiser till at least 3 AM. Cora was there too. Davis theorizes that Clellan hired someone such as Ewan since he is ex-military. They don’t know where Clellan went after 8 PM. DCI MacMillan wants to interview the angry man from the speech even though they don’t have his name yet. Once they arrive at the next destination, Bart reminds Lindo to remain quiet this time. He apologizes because that isn’t going to happen. They hear a man arguing so Lindo rushes into the room to subdue the man. Annie Farquhar promises it is okay and the man can be freed. She tells them that the man was one of their satellite investors named Mr. Pruitt.
Since the investors would’ve been left high and dry, Clellan offered them a chance to invest in Coburn Renewables. They want their money back now that it isn’t happening, but it is in escrow so it isn’t possible. They can get the postmortem done faster if Annie is willing to help with the formal identification. She seems hesitant to do it because Shay will be there. Annie uses the phone to ask Jenny to bring in the box. At the station, Bart reads the will and tells everyone that Clellan wanted his entire estate to go to Karolina Andersson. It is dated a month ago and Annie witnessed it. No one knew and no one knows what is on the flash drive. They find that it is password protected. Davis explains that Clellan added it last week. If he died before the merger, the drive would come to them. Clellan knew he was in danger or someone was after the drive.
Cora wants Mallick to speak to Andersson. Davis notices a logo on the man’s shirt that could lead them to him. Since it says TBS, Bart thinks it could stand for The Bodach Stone. Mallick forces them to go check it out. As they ride there, Bart tells Davis that her relationship with Mallick is just a healthy rivalry. She asks if he had similar relationships like him and his father since it would be RMP versus JCP. Davis isn’t eager to talk about his father. They talk to a worker at the pub who says the manager Isla isn’t there. When she is shown a picture of the man in question, she says he doesn’t work there. Davis tries to sweet-talk Hannah Coutts to get answers from her, but it doesn’t work. Hannah reminds them that protesting isn’t illegal. When they mention murder, Hannah asks if they think Rory Dashford could’ve killed Clellan.
She can’t say whether Rory was in there last night since she didn’t work then. He always comes in after work and that is why they gave him a shirt. He works at CGO or the refinery. Before they leave, Hannah takes a picture of them so she can add it to the hall of fame. Karolina tells Mallick and Monty that today doesn’t feel real. She informs them that the hotel can confirm she hasn’t left the building since her lunchtime walk yesterday. They try to get her to theorize about who might be responsible but she refuses. She thinks Clellan seemed a little strange though. She argues that he should be here right now celebrating a great success. Karolina explains that they’re facing his greatest fear now which is his brother. Clellan feared for the business because his brother is just a poker player gambling with his brother’s money.
As for Clellan, he was a bit of a pushover. Karolina is convinced that CGO will disappear long before oil ever does with Shay in charge. Mallick reminds her that she is in charge and not Shay. Once Davis and Bart find Rory, he begins running from them but they quickly catch him. Bart arrests him for murder. Karolina is surprised to learn that Clellan decided to leave everything to her and insists she didn’t make him do it. Mallick straight up asks if she was having a sexual relationship with Clellan Coburn, but she quickly says no. Monty mentions the flash drive. They suggest that Karolina got rid of Clellan to eliminate his baggage and get control of the business, but she shows them proof that Shay wasn’t supposed to be part of Coburn Renewables. It was Clellan’s idea. At the station, Davis asks Bart if she had to arrest Rory. Shay enters nearby.
Cora shows Davis and Lara the social media posts about Rory being the Coburn killer. She says Shay’s name was at the bottom of their call list again and she got on his case for not doing the ID. Cora reminds them that they only have Dashford for 24 hours. That night, Davis goes over the evidence and tries to do his homework for the upcoming interview with Rory. He wakes up late and has to run to the station. He thinks they should bring in Shay since he was about to be dropped. Mallick tells him to sit down, have a nap, and be a good rookie. As Mallick and Brat go in to interview Rory, Davis explains why he likely wasn’t responsible. Rory insists he can’t answer any questions because the whole night is a blank. He explains he ran after they called him a killer on the Internet. Davis again tells Monty that Rory isn’t the killer.
He tells Bart that Rory is only in there because he ran and he ran because of something he did. He goes on to say there are two actual suspects and they’re going nowhere near them because they’re important, influential, and powerful. Cora suggests otherwise since Rory’s DNA was found on the key along with another unidentified strand. She warns Davis that this is his second strike. Later, he apologizes to Bart who admits it took her two months to open her mouth when she was a rookie. She asks him to stop treating everyone like they’re stupid before they leave. They reach the bar where Mallick begins making fun of them so Davis wants to go home, but Bart won’t let him. He tells Bart how they’d celebrate someone when they died in what they’d call nine-night. Bart asks who died when he was growing up. Davis tells her it was his mother when he was 14.
Mallick comes over and causes problems before telling Davis to just run away since he is good at that. Bart walks outside to ask him what that meant. Davis suggests he meant running away was leaving the army and coming there. He goes on to say he is following a hunch and they need to speak to Isla Breck who tells them that Rory was here all night and slept on her couch. Rory has demons so he is going to drink no matter what. Isla knows he is safe when he does it there. She shows them CCTV footage to prove what she is saying, but Bart won’t say whether Rory will get released now. Outside, they discuss the key and Bart tells Lindo to go home and get some rest. When they tell Mallick in the morning, he refuses to believe them or accept the evidence. Cora mentions that Shay hasn’t identified his brother after two days.
Cora suggests getting Isla’s DNA to test it to see if it matches the DNA on the key. As for the flash drive, they haven’t opened it yet. Once they visit the pub again, Hannah confirms that Isla left with Karolina. Bart calls Mallick to suggest moving on her now, but he is worried that Karolina will flee if they do. They see Isla, but question whether they should wait or follow her. They agree to go after her since Mallick only said not to go after Karolina. As they follow her, Isla is approached by someone in a white van. They get out and throw her into the back. Davis runs over and gets in as well while Bart calls for backup.
Granite Harbour Review
The opening episode of Granite Harbour was a mixed bag with some good elements and other bad elements. The series has the basics down well since the camerawork is good, the scenery is nice, and the soundtrack is effective. None of the scenes are too dark although there was one that looked like the colors had been drained. Still, Granite Harbour looks great even when the characters are inside.
Some performances could be better but that would be easy to overlook if everything else fell into the right spots. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen because the show is filled with clichés and one character that is obnoxiously over-the-top in every scene. Viewers have seen almost everything in Granite Harbour before since Davis begins working at a new police station where he is constantly questioned and even bullied.
Eventually, he’ll prove himself and Jaiyush Mallick will back off if viewers are willing to stick it out. Even though the performances were just okay sometimes, I liked DC Davis Lindo’s charisma and attitude early in the episode, but those things were quickly put on the backburner and replaced by clichés. There was a lot that could’ve been done with that only for it to be overshadowed by the overwhelming abuse by Mallick.
Truthfully, DC Lindo was more likable than DI Ray because he was so eager and optimistic early on. This likely could’ve been a much different, far better show without the cookie-cutter formula or the addition of the constant killjoy. The opening episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Granite Harbour can be found on Reel Mockery here.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
