TV Review: BBC America Offers Unique Procedural With ‘Whitechapel’

Submitted by BrianTT on October 26, 2011 - 12:22pm

CHICAGO – There is enough of an international obsession with the crimes of the man known as Jack the Ripper that the word “Ripperologist” (someone who is an expert on the most notorious serial killer of all time) has meaning. Over a century after his crimes, we’re still fascinated by this embodiment of pure evil. The fascination runs so deep that it regularly invades our fiction, including Alan Moore’s brilliant “From Hell” and now the BBC America series “Whitechapel,” which opens with a three-part mini-series about a Ripper copycat and moves on to a three-part mini-series about crimes modeled after the notorious Krays. It’s a bit tonally inconsistent but this is entertaining television bolstered by strong performances throughout and the dark edge provided by the word Ripper.

Television Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Whitechapel” is a clever attempt to merge the modern procedural with Victorian-era crime. It’s not that dissimilar to “Life on Mars” in tone in that it also features two very different crime solvers working on what is essentially a very-old case. At its best, the show sometimes feels like it’s trying to ask its viewers, how would the Ripper crimes be solved by today’s police force? The premiere opens with the discovery of a woman bleeding to death near a school. The officer who finds her sees a shadowy figure nearby and a local Ripperologist immediately recognizes that the crime and the mutilation of the woman’s body has been designed to mimic Jack the Ripper’s first confirmed murder.

Whitechapel
Photo credit: BBC America

At first, paper-pusher DI Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) and DS Ray Miles (Phil Davis) discount the Ripperologist or the theory that one murder could be a part of a copycat of the most notorious criminal in England’s history. After some station conflict between Chandler, who is an uptight detective working his first big case, and the other detectives who approach things with a little less OCD, they check into unsolved crimes and discover that, much like the Ripper, this copycat may have killed before. There has been speculation that the Ripper had a victim before his first recognized murder and it turns out that the new copycat did as well.

Whitechapel
Photo credit: BBC America

A bit too much of “Whitechapel,” particularly in the first episode, plays off the differences of approach in the police station tasked with solving a new series of grisly murders. I find it hard to believe that there would be quite as much cliched dialogue about what “real policeman” look like when there’s such a grisly unsolved murder on the books. Too much of the oil-and-water dynamic between Chandler and Miles feels forced, although both actors are quite good, especially Davis (recently seen in “Another Year” and “Brighton Rock”).

I wish “Whitechapel” had a bit more personality. Given its unique subject matter, one might expect something a bit more edgy and bizarre but it’s actually a relatively straightforward program, at least in its first episode. “Whitechapel” should be more fun. It’s a bit straightforward and by the numbers with the Ripper connection being the only element that really allows it to stand above an average cop show. And it feels almost rushed at times with not enough overall running time to build atmosphere or character. The writing often feels forced, especially when Chandler is stuck being the only one who knows that this is a Ripper copycat even when ANY logical policeman would give the theory some weight given the details of the first two murders. The cliches are surprising given the unique subject matter.

The fact is that Jack the Ripper still holds so much interest around the world that books are constantly being written about new theories about his identity (I was actually just reading one last month). With tours of the locations of his murders still being given on a nightly basis, a program about a copycat faces a tougher challenge than the writers might have expected to distract us from the actual case. “Whitechapel” is an interesting variation on the legend but ultimately falls a bit short of its potential.

“Whitechapel” stars Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis, Steve Pemberton, Christopher Fulford, Johnny Harris, Sam Stockman, and George Rossi. It premieres on BBC America on October 26th, 2011 at 9pm CST.