Hit & Miss - DVD

Content: Mia (Chloë Sevigny) seems at first glance to be a normal young, attractive woman. But Mia has two big secrets that set her apart from other women. For one, she is a pre-op transsexual. For another, Mia is a contract killer who carries out her jobs with ice-cold precision. In her private life, she lives in complete seclusion in an abandoned warehouse. The only person she keeps in regular contact with is the gangster Eddie (Peter Wright), from whom she receives her orders. But a letter changes Mia's entire life: her former friend Wendy reveals to her that they have a son together - eleven-year-old Ryan (Jorden Bennie). When Wendy dies of cancer, Mia is now expected to care for Ryan and his half-siblings Riley (Karla Crome), Levi (Reece Noi) and Leoni (Roma Christensen). But when she arrives at the remote Yorkshire farm where the family lives and reveals her identity to the children, she's not exactly welcomed with open arms. Riley, Ryan's eldest sister, in particular, just can't get her head around the idea of Mia as guardian. But Mia wants to fulfill Wendy's last wish no matter what, so she has to come to terms with her different roles as head of the family and professional killer, as a man and as a woman. But this is further complicated for her by the brutal John (Vincent Regan), the owner of the farm, and by a romance with the handsome Ben (Jonas Armstrong)...

With hit & Miss, Paul Abbott, who has created such acclaimed television fare as Shameless and Mod on Page 1 (the template for the Russell Crowe film State of Play), has created a truly unusual concept. This was created by Abbott combining two ideas that were on his desk into one series: that of a hitman and that of the transsexual mother of a family of five children. Two concepts that don't really fit together. But Abbott and writer Sean Conway have found a way through which the two disparate ideas together not only create a coherent overall picture, but also, despite their somewhat absurd character, seem very believable and close to reality.

In addition to the good scripts, the atmospheric imagery and the sometimes quite drastic depiction of violence, the performances of the actors, especially Chloë Sevigny, are responsible for this. At first, the actress was unsure whether it might not be better for a man or a transsexual to play this role, but fortunately allowed herself to be convinced to play this unusual character. The turmoil that Mia embodies, and not just because of her gender identity, is something that Sevigny's intense acting allows the audience to relate to well. Not only the realistic-looking penis prosthesis, which is used in the very uninhibited nude scenes, but primarily body language and facial expressions show that in Mia both man and woman, both mother and killer unite - and how much she wants this brokenness to end.

It's to the creators' credit that they tell the story and all its dramatic plotlines with a somber seriousness and have largely eschewed humor. Only here and there is a bit of dry and jet-black British humour discernible. This is good in that a series about a transsexual hitwoman could easily have degenerated into embarrassing silliness. But the makers always find the right tone here to maintain a certain credibility, through which the viewer is riveted to the end to the partly yet very carried told events.

All characters show great potential for development, which is why it would have been nice and interesting to see where their journey leads in a second season. However, despite good reviews and enthusiastic viewer reactions, the first season of Hit & Miss will also remain their only one. This is a shame, of course, as the series, shot on a fairly small budget in Manchester, hasn't actually finished telling its story. Still, viewers aren't really left hanging in the air. There is a cliffhanger of sorts, but given the fact that the series itself tends to go down rather unconventional paths, even this can be considered a fitting finale for the story. However, if you don't like ambiguous endings and prefer to have everything presented very clearly, you definitely won't be happy with this outcome.

Hit & Miss is another good example of how television today is in many cases more daring and willing to compromise than cinema and can produce first-rate quality in terms of acting, dramaturgy and craftsmanship. Certainly nothing for the broad mass taste, but who appreciates British crime dramas of the gloomy kind, if these also still paths beyond the mainstream, this 6-part series can be warmly recommended. Worth watching!

Picture + Sound: The somewhat drab, earthy color scheme, well-matched contrasts and good image sharpness capture the atmosphere of the series very well. The sound is mixed very powerfully, which is particularly noticeable in the dialogue and music, but also positively here and there with atmospheric ambient sounds and coherent surround effects. Overall, not an audiovisual revelation, but for a TV production absolutely succeeded. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the second DVD features very extensive interviews with producer Juliet Charlesworth (approx. 18 min.), lead actress Chloë Sevigny (approx. 12 min.), series creator Paul Abbott (approx. 21 min.) and writer Sean Conway (approx. 11 min.). plus a Q&A hosted by British TV presenter Mariella Frostrup (approx. 25 min.), with Sevigny, Abbott and Conway joined by executive producer Nicole Shindler. Overall, perhaps not quite as spectacular, but all the more revealing extras. Worth seeing!

Conclusion: Hit & Miss is a very original and unusual series concept, which unfortunately went too much against the mass taste with its very direct, gritty and sometimes quite brutal execution and therefore will not continue after these six episodes. This may be alone in view of the excellent performance of Chloë Sevigny more than a pity, but altogether does not change anything about the high quality of this single short season. The mixture of thriller, drama and intense character study is television on a very high level, which can be warmly recommended to lovers of sophisticated and unusual TV entertainment. Recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp