Why David Tennant Slays ‘The Escape Artist’

Not all Masterpiece Mystery! series are created equal even though I would watch them just to see Alan Cumming and his overripe Scottish brogue. On June 15th a three-parter arrives from the BBC with David Tennant (duh, Dr. Who) as Will Burton, a youngish London junior barrister who’s never lost a case. He’s not cocky exactly but he has the nickname of ‘The Escape Artist’ because he is an expert at getting criminals off, even if that means ferreting out a technicality that frees a monster. This really aggravates his ambitious courtroom rival, Maggie Gardner (Sophie Okonedo of Hotel Rwanda). And the passion with which Burton takes on cases (shades of Tennant’s OCD detective in Broadchurch) distracts from his attendance at his son’s soccer games, which his loving wife Kate (Ashley Jensen) tolerates reasonably well by taking long soaking baths.

But when Kate sees her husband’s latest defendant, the acquitted killer Liam Foyle (Toby Kebbell, soon to star in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), at her bathroom window the separation between court and home contracts replaced by fear and dread. You know where this is going — but not where it will land. Watch the first episode and you will cry out over the cliffhanger for it to continue right then, that very minute. (That’s why I love purchasing the DVD, now available via PBS, because instant gratification cannot come soon enough.)