The Jetty

Set in a fictional northern town, The Jetty follows recently-widowed constable Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman), whose investigation of a local arson case soon becomes more complex, opening up old cold cases and wounds deep within the town’s past as well as Ember’s own. Ember delves deeper into the shadows of her community to find answers but her investigation soon becomes messy and deeply personal, and everything she thought she knew about her town, her life and even her late husband quickly gets turned on its head.

The Jetty is a very ambitious show, attempting to tackle several weighty topics such as misogyny, homophobia, sexual exploitation and domestic violence over its four-episode run, working these themes into a story already heavy with complex character dynamics and more twists and turns than a bag of pretzels. There are a lot of moving parts in the narrative machinery, but The Jetty manages to work them in effectively without blunting the pacing or getting in the way of its character arcs. The delivery of its core motifs is perhaps a little heavy-handed, but not so much so that it pulls its audience out of the experience.

The tension created by the dense, layered writing is amplified by the camera work and sound design, which communicate a tangible atmosphere of claustrophobia and isolation and bring out the dark underbelly of the show’s sleepy town setting, with the style on show also compensating somewhat for the occasional clunky piece of dialogue.

The cast also put in a lot of work to sell the multi-faceted storytelling and distinctive style of the show – Coleman is a stellar leading lady, perfectly capturing Ember’s emotional rollercoaster, and the chemistry with her various co-stars brings out new dimensions to their performances, adding to the depth of the show and helping the story deliver on many of its talking points.

Overall, The Jetty is a show with a lot of passion at its heart and many things to say about a number of important issues. It’s maybe not the most subtle story, but that bluntness is as much of a strength as it is a weakness, and it hits more than it misses, aided by a cast of compelling characters and slick, stylish presentation.

Umar Ali

The Jetty is released on 15^th July 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Jetty here: