Deborah and Christopher Mitchell have crafted a respected and distinguished career in factual TV as they have written, filmed and produced for many of the major American True Crime channels, including Discovery ID, SNAPPED, National Enquirer Investigates and The First 48. The pair pulled their resources together and co-wrote and directed An Awful Thing has Gone And Happened, a crime thriller directly from their collective true crime wheelhouse.
When her brother is killed, a young woman (Maggie Wehr) is called back home to a small mountain town. Her father is missing and the police become suspicious about his involvement, but the killer continues to terrorize the local community and the woman has to face up to a big secret before she too becomes a victim.
The appeal of true crime TV drama lies in the cat and mouse dynamic between devious criminals and the dedicated detectives on their trail, the re-enactments and talking head interviews drip-feeding the necessary information and building tensions until the culprits are inevitably, and cleverly, captured or shot down in a blaze of gunfire. The constant battle between the criminally insane and the long arm of justice, playing out in real life with personal and communal repercussions on full display. Deborah and Christopher Mitchell, on paper, seem perfectly qualified to undertake a fictional crime plot, with their years of immersion in factual criminality and abhorrent behaviours. In reality though, there is a wide chasm between true crime editorials and a fictional thriller story execution.
The Mitchells start of well, by crafting a very human protagonist. Maggie Wehr, as the young woman who discovers her estranged brother has been murdered, is a likeable and vulnerable character, the epitome of our view on victims and the affect crimes have on the innocent. Wehr portrays the part with doe-eyed virtue, which disarms the most cynical viewer and wears her distress on her metaphorical sleeve. The addition of Robert Lasardo, the quintessential gangster heavy in some of the most popular TV crime dramas, like CSI: Miami, NYPD Blue and Nash Bridges, as the criminal element, is a great coup for the production. Lasardo brings a gravitas to the role and his experience and talent shines through, although an unintentionally hilarious scene where he attempts to hide his identity from the police by using a floral pillowcase completely derails the tension the character actor was aiming for.
Humour, intentional or not, is sprinkled throughout An Awful Thing Has Gone And Happened. This is not unique to the sub-genre, with many successful and award-winning crime dramas like Fargo (1996), No Country For Old Men (2007), Reservoir Dogs (1992) and The Departed (2006) utilizing humour and witty repartee quite effectively to counterbalance the violence. An Awful Thing...however struggles to create harmony between these opposing aspects. The sub plot concerning an office manager, ala Office Space, feels completely out of place and the comedic schtick employed by Coroner Tucker Riddles (Erik Hoover) is utterly perplexing.
A further issue is the stuttering pacing of the plot and clunky dialogue. Tension is lost, when it should be escalating, with characters verbalizing threats and fears, but the audience left in the dark as to the origins or motivations for any of it. The biggest offence committed is the lack of tightness in the script and editing, with the storyline significantly undermined by these shortcomings.
