The Devil's Hour: TV Review

A limited series about a seemingly unsettling case, The Devil's Hour is perhaps the latest of our obsession with darker subject matter on streaming platforms.

However, on the evidence of two episodes screened for review, the show's loathe to fully reveal its hand, making it a mystery series that feels potentially muddled in its opening gambit and a frustrating experience for casual viewers - despite the talent involved.

Call the Midwife's Jessica Raine plays Lucy Chambers, an apparently single mum who wakes every day at 3.33am for no reason.

As if that wasn't enough to contend with, her eight year old son Isaac is an emotionless empty vessel of a child, who has a penchant for repeating her every word back to her and standing motionless.

At the same time as she's dealing with these issues, there appears to be another murder mystery timeline playing out as a young new detective joins a macabre case, somehow connected to Lucy Chambers.

To say not much unfolds in the first two episodes of the show isn't to sell it short, it's just that this mystery is more interested in atmospherics and style than heaps of plot.

It is superlatively acted, and Raine works overly hard to get you invested in the character and her plight. 

Admittedly, the menacing child trope works well, but as previously mentioned, it's not quite clear enough where this is all going - nor is it entirely strong enough to ensure the end of one episode is enough of a pull to press play on the next.

There's little to no Capaldi in the opening two hours gambit, but he makes for a sinister presence when he appears and the tension is ratcheted up.

The Devil's Hour may work as a larger puzzle, and granted the pieces on offer are compelling and solid enough, but they're never quite spectacular. The production works hard to maintain the spooky factor for the time of the year, and the intriguing title - but were it not for Jessica Raine's terrifically unravelling performance, The Devil's Hour would be less enticing to watch.