Watch out, spoilers!
—----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------
Mini-series “Long Call” / The Long Call, 2021, began to watch because I watch the TV series “Faith” and “Shetland”, also set on the novels of Anne Cleaves, like this. I watched all 4 episodes in one day. This is a classic British detective with the idea of tolerance towards same-sex relationships and drawing attention to the existence in our time of religious sects. Detective Inspector Matthew Venn (Ben Aldridge) returns to his hometown in Devon shortly before the death of his father, to whose funeral his mother refused him. The fact is that his family belongs to one of the sects there (and there are surprisingly many of them, as I myself could see), professing certain principles, headed by a kind of narcissist, convinced of his exceptionalism. Matthew at one time announced his disbelief, after which he was ordered to be expelled from the sect, and his mother, choosing between him and God, chose God, so Matthew left. However, recently, having learned about his father's illness, he secretly visited him in a hospice. The second reason for the breakup was that Matthew, who has long struggled with his inclinations, still admitted himself gay, so he returned to his city with his partner, but he still does not feel free in this relationship. Simultaneously with the death of his father, a crime occurred there – the corpse of a young man was found on the beach, and Matthew begins to investigate this crime. As the investigation of the event acquires various less serious, but still crimes, reveal some secrets and someone's secrets, so that it is necessary to unravel their whole tangle, while we observe different human types with all their problems and deviations. Of course, he manages to solve the crime to the end, the relationship between some characters becomes clearer, perhaps he will still manage to establish them with his mother. The series is very good, including from a visual point of view. The subject, despite some inconsistencies, is even of interest, including how people involved in the sect behave, actors were also filmed good, young almost do not know, and those older, I have seen many times. Interestingly, gay actors starred in the role of gays, which is not so often the case, and the main character with some complexes on this part is played by an actor who declared himself gay relatively recently, while his partner is played by an openly gay, and, I must say, this is felt in their behavior. For fans of the genre, I can recommend the series.