Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E03

So I’m beginning to get the hang of this show’s format. Every week the detectives inch closer understanding what the killer is trying to achieve, whilst new side characters are slipped in and given their own subplots that may only seem tangentially connected at first, but eventually end up being fairly crucial to the overarching flow of the series.

As much time is spent on these periphery characters as it is on our lead investigators, which means that there’s the danger of what I call AAK syndrome (that is, Audience Already Knows syndrome).

Because the viewer is given access to information that the investigators are not, the show spends a fair bit of time showing us Karl and Elise figuring out stuff that the audience is already aware of: that Suze was stealing medication from the nursing home, that Suze and Gemma had the same pimp, that the teenagers who find the veteran are not involved with his kidnapping. But there are a few clever ways in which they manage to avoid the pit-falls that comes with this “viewer knows before character” style of storytelling...

For one thing, despite being given plenty of scenes that focus on Stephen and his interaction with his sister and the refugee he’s trying to assist, we still know virtually nothing about him. He’s completely unknown to the investigators, and yet the only reason we know that he’s involved in the case (barring that he’s got a picture of the murdered prostitute on his computer) is simply the fact that the show itself is showing him to us. It’s not a question of whether he’s involved, but how he’s involved, and so far that’s as much a mystery to us as it is to Karl and Elise.

Likewise, when a pair of teenagers accidentally discover the kidnapped war veteran at the abandoned train station, the tension is built over the fact that we know they’re innocent, whilst the police watching the live-feed naturally assume that they’re involved with the crime. Furthermore, we’re engaged because we’re also aware of the terrible danger they’re in and are powerless to inform the police what’s really happening.

It’s a clever way of creating suspense out of the AAK syndrome, and an interesting look (from a Doylist point-of-view) at how the doling out of exposition/information can shape a viewer’s perception of events and characters. The fact that I don’t really feel as though I’m “bonding” with Karl and Elise probably has much to do with the fact I’m still waiting for them to catch up to what I already know, and yet I’m in a unique position as a viewer in regards to what’s happening on a larger scale and in seeing other characters whose relevancy has yet to be revealed (such as the runaway teenage girl who wound her way throughout the events of this episode).

This was a great shot: she's making eye-contact with her
stepmother who just lied about her father being at home. 

As always, the cold and clinical atmosphere is quite off-putting, and though some scenes are difficult to watch, they’re not gratuitous or even explicit (in fact, Anna’s rape scene in Downton Abbey was probably more harrowing than what happened to the refugee mother in this episode, and Whitechapel was certainly more gory than anything depicted here). Peppered throughout are a few little moments of kindness or humour, but The Tunnel certainly isn’t going to be one of those shows that I pop into the DVD player for some casual background noise while I’m working.

Sadly there was only one scene from Angel Coulby this time around, though it was a fairly amusing one (she sold the kids on e-bay). I’m hoping that future episodes will feature her more heavily, as I’m sure I’ve read an article that indicates she has a fairly large role to play later in the drama. I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps the mixed-race marriage with Karl will have some sort of significance given the killer’s emphasis on immigrants and inequality and racial issues. Either way, I hope we get a better look at her kids as well!

Still, this has probably been my favourite episode so far. That the killer’s game is becoming more complex makes for a nice comparison to the fact that he’s also beginning to make mistakes. The police are slowly but surely catching up – though given there’s still seven episodes left suggests that he’ll still have the upper hand for a while yet.