TV80: The Missing, Season 2

The first season of The Missing is one of my favourite TV detective dramas of all time, so Season 2 (2016) never had a chance to live up to my expectations. Still, Season 2 remains well above the average TV fare, even ‘cable’ TV fare.

Tchéky Karyo returns as Julien Baptiste, one of my all-time favourite TV characters. This time he is called about a case in Eckhausen, Germany, where Alice Webster, a girl who went missing eleven years before, suddenly walks back into town and mentions the name of another missing girl, Sophie Giroux, whose disappearance Baptiste had investigated in 2003 (with unfortunate results).

Alice’s parents, Sam (David Morrissey) and Gemma (Keeley Hawes), and brother Matthew (Jake Davies), are ecstatic, if overwhelmed. Sam is a British army officer stationed in Eckhausen, so the British military is immediately involved in the investigation into Alice’s whereabouts during the past eleven years. Father-daughter army officers Adrian and Eve Stone (Roger Allam and Laura Fraser) are the key players there.

After being called by Eve (who just wanted information on the Giroux case), Baptiste drops everything and drives to Eckhausen, where he upsets everyone with his seemingly obsessive theories, including one in which he believes the returned girl may not be Alice at all. Baptiste is driven by his failures in the Giroux case and by the fact that his genius for interrogation and deduction is stymied at every turn in his investigation. But there may be more going on in Baptiste’s head than just frustration and anger. 

As in the first season, The Missing dances around between different time periods, mostly 2014, when Alice returns, and 2016, when Baptiste continues his investigation (which will take him to Iraqi Kurdistan) after various kinds of therapies for his recently-diagnosed brain tumour. The writing and structure of Season 2 may not be up to the level of brilliance of the first season, but it’s still superb work for television. As in the first season, the strength of the series is the character development and the acting. Everyone is excellent, with Karyo’s performance again standing out, and with a special mention for the two women in lead roles (Hawes and Fraser).

Unfortunately, the second season has a number of plot holes and contrivances that make it inferior to the first season, not to mention some inconsistent behaviour. The story involving the British military and Iraqi Kurdistan is fascinating and trying to make a vital point, but that story has a number of flaws which undermine this effort. The ingredients for greatness are all there, but they don’t come together the way they should.

Nevertheless, The Missing, Season 2 is top-notch TV, deserving of the **** I gave the first season, even if it is a step down. My mug is up.