Season 1 is so gripping as we gradually got to know all the good and bad characters that Mrs. Shullivan and I just had to binge watch the subsequent two (2) seasons over the weekend. It is a captivating mystery/thriller/sci-fi series which stars the always impressive Brendan Gleeson as a retired homicide detective named Bill Hodges who after losing his wife through an amicable divorce, believes he has nothing else to live for but to drink both day and night and the only one who relies on him nowadays is his fully grown twenty year old tortoise (please do not call him a turtle says Bill) named Fred.
Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) has lost his wife through an amicable divorce and is estranged for a few years now from his only daughter who has suffered from drug and alcohol abuse. Bill finds his solace and a revitalized need to once again feel worthy of his crime solving ability when he gets involved in the investigation of the unidentified serial killer named Mr. Mercedes whose crime was to run down a huge crowd of people standing in line at an early morning job fair in a stolen Mercedes Benz vehicle and then he just drove away and abandoned the stolen Mercedes Benz car after killing a dozen or so people and injuring and traumatizing hundreds of other people.
By season two (2) the serial killer is identified and by season three (3) there is a new story line which is indirectly tied to the first two seasons as some of the surviving victims of Mr. Mercedes who were at the job fair try to get on with their lives. Season three (3) is probably more violent than any of the three (3) seasons but not in a true gratuitous violent manner, but more in a comedic way if murder can be considered comical, Mr. Mercedes pulls it off perfectly.
There is a great supporting cast and an even better Stephen King storyline in which Stephen King supplants himself in one cameo scene as one of the many imaginary murder victims in a restaurant. Mrs. Shullivan and I really enjoyed all three (3) seasons but were glad when the series ended because we were beginning to enjoy all of Stephen King's murder and bloodshed so much so that we quickly next turned to a Walt Disney animated classic to come back to reality and calm.
I give this excellent series a highly rated 8 out of 10 IMDB rating
