'Back to Life' Episode 1 will see recently released inmate Miri struggle to cope with life in an unforgiving society
Miranda aka Miri Matteson (Daisy Haggard) has been released from prison after 18 years and the first thing she does is breathe in the fresh air and feel the sunlight on her face. This woman has no clue about what has happened in almost two decades and yet she is expected to fit right in.
The displacement that she would feel or the judgment about her past actions will certainly come in the way of Miri getting used to the new surroundings, and that is exactly what we see in the trailer. For instance, the first time Miri receives a call regarding a job interview, she is excited and even informs her parents about the same.
On the day of the interview, however, she is rejected over the phone and the person who speaks to her even calls her names. The picket fence of her home in Hythe, Kent, is painted with obscene words and the more Miri tries to move away from the past, the more difficult it gets for her to leave it all behind.
Miri even tries to reconnect with her ex-boyfriend Dom (Jamie Michie) after all these years only because her parents lied to her about him still having feelings for her. When she comes face to face with the truth about Dom, it only humiliates Miri and she retreats further into the shell that she has been building since she has come out of prison.
It starts with her family. They do not trust her around knives, always try to keep an eye out for her and are always in doubt about how she will react to certain things, which included the truth about Dom. In doing all of this, what the family forgot was to try and understand the situation Miri is currently in. An interesting plot device in the show is keeping the reason Miri went to jail undisclosed. Initially, at least, to give audiences enough time to understand Miri and begin to sympathize with her.
As she struggles to get a job, have a normal conversation with a neighbor or even try to take a stroll on the streets, it becomes spectacularly clear that we are dealing with a society that is not only unforgiving about her past crimes but somehow also revels in insulting her and humiliating her. Does Miri deserve all the criticism that she has been receiving? That is something we have to decide after seeing Miri's life unfold in the show.
The first episode of 'Back to Life' will air on Showtime Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET November 10.