'The Third Day' Episode 1 Review: Jude Law's HBO miniseries promises to be an enticing psychological thriller
Spoilers for 'The Third Day' Episode 1 'Friday - The Father'
The premiere of HBO's new drama miniseries was interesting to say the least. The series' will have six episodes that will be divided into 'Summer' and 'Winter'. 'Friday - The Father' falls in the category of 'Summer' and chronicles the events that take place after a man named Sam (played by the incredible Jude Law) rescues a young girl in the woods. He takes her home, to an ominous Osea Island, and finds that the local inhabitants are preparing for an annual festival. Unfortunately, while this may seem like something one should be curious about, it seems as though the locals are secretive and protective of their home and the island is kind of impossible to escape.
With the opening scene showing Sam seemingly arguing with his wife about money, the narrative takes a quick turn to submissive sadness when Sam goes to the river and floats a child's T-shirt in the waters. On his way back, he sees a young girl at the edge of a small ledge in the woods instructing a small boy to help set up a noose for her suicide attempt. Her jump, even though determined and without hesitation, allows Sam to race to save her. Deciding to take her home and answer her pleas of not calling the police, Sam and Epona (Jessie Ross) make their way to Osea Island through a causeway that's open or closed based on the tides.
On the island, Sam meets the Martins, a couple that runs the local bar in town as Epona asks to be taken to them. Even though he wants to get back home to his wife and children because their garden center business had been burgled, he seems to be worried about Epona. The young girl seems to have a hostile father named Jason (Mark Lewis Jones) who carries a gun as a pet. Unable to make it off the island because the tides had swallowed the causeway, Sam spends the night at Martin's bar with Martin promising that he could leave in the morning. Here, he also meets another potential protagonist of the first half of the series — Jess (Katherine Waterston) — who is there to study the Island's way of things.
There is not much that one can deduce from the first episode but it is heavily focused on the 'Summer' protagonist — Sam. Law's character is often the front and center of the camera, emitting a sense of desperation and confusion grappling with an inherent pain. Turns out he had lost a son "a long time ago" and Mrs Martin (Emily Watson) had recognized him from the TV. After spending the night at the bar, the end of the episode sees our protagonist running in the woods to find the young boy he so clearly saw with Epona. Following him to a tree, Sam finds what seems to be a gutted human. Everything isn't what it seems, that is something the audience can be sure of right off the bat.
While some may find the premiere really slow, we have to say that the distinct imagery of the episode foreshadows a lot of eerie happenings. Epona drinks saltwater and swears there was no little boy with her in the woods, the locals of the islands are preparing for a festival with odd masks and dances, Mr Martin (Paddy Considine) and Larry (John Dagleish) greet each other with a backward sign of the cross and the oddities of dead bugs. It makes you question if Sam is dealing with reality or a deeply seeded hallucination. What does stand out almost instantly is the imagery with its sharp colors and strange circumstances. From a dead orange dragonfly revealing ants to a rodent cut into perfect symmetrical shapes. We are yet to know what this means, but it looks like the series might be heavily dependent on metaphors to push a disturbing narrative forward. Not to mention, religion seems to be an odd driving force for the inhabitants of Osea Island.
HBO has almost never failed to deliver a series that not only peaks interest but has a narrative that's unique and hardly ever predictable. 'The Third Day' premiere gave us a bit of 'The Woods' or 'The Wicker Man' vibes, and since there are two more episodes of 'Summer' we can't wait to see how Sam proceeds in this unexpected journey. Not to mention, seeing Law on-screen in a determined role probably gives the series a big thumbs up ahead of time. While we don't want to jump the gun with just one episode having been aired, we would presume that the 'The Third Day' seems to be on its way to becoming an enticing psychological thriller. Fans of this genre would know that it is challenging to keep a thriller interesting and unpredictable, but 'Friday - The Father' fosters enough welcomed confusion and definitely holds enough suspense and intrigue to want us to watch next week's episode titled 'Saturday - The Son'.
'The Third Day' airs on Mondays from 9-10 pm ET on HBO. The episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max as well.