[yasr_overall_rating]
Quarry, a disillusioned Vietnam War vet, returns home to Memphis in 1972 only to find rejection and scrutiny at every step. A mysterious man known only as The Broker gives him an offer he can’t refuse – to work for him as a hitman.
“Quarry” is set in 1970s Memphis and its primary focus is on Mac, a man home after his second tour in Vietnam. There is no warm welcome for Mac and a job is not easy to come by. Not even when someone is putting a high stack of cash in your hand. What there is though, is plenty of sex and even more violence in this stifling Southern crime noir. The sex might make you hot under the collar and the violence may provide a few queasy thrills, but neither are able to quicken the blood of this awkwardly paced drama. There is no end to events in “Quarry.” There is plenty going on, subplot after subplot. But what should feel like a constant frenzy, hearts aflutter and eyes wide, is more like time slowing. There’s the unnerving slow build of agitation. Your eyes roll to gaze at the nearest clock. So, what is wrong with “Quarry?” To put it simply, “Quarry,” lacks soul.
The pilot episode has friends Mac Conway (Logan Marshall-Green) and Arthur Solomon (Jamie Hector) coming home after their second tour in Vietnam. They are met with aggressive protesters at the airport, due to their involvement in a massacre in Vietnam. While their wives Joni (Jodi Balfour) and Ruth (Nikki Amuka-Bird) are thrilled to have their husbands back, other family and the community as a whole are less so. The realization of this settles as neither Mac nor Arthur are able to get fulfilling jobs.
There is a turn of events however, when Mac encounters The Broker (Peter Mullan), a man who seems to know everything about him. The Broker tries to persuade Mac to work for him as a hitman. He tosses Mac a bag of money and reminds Mac of how hard it will be for him out in the world being who he is or rather for who he is known as being. Despite the Broker’s advice, Mac refuses, only later to find out his friend Arthur takes the offer and then everything falls to shit. By the end of the episode Mac’s life is strategically unraveled and is begrudgingly working for the Broker.
“Quarry” is part HBO’s “True Detective,” in respect to its gritty tone and part “Breaking Bad,” in regards to its moral ambiguity. But it lacks the execution of either of those shows to make it as great. The fault does not (I believe) lie with the actors but rather the writing. The dialogue is excessive and clunky. At times it’s as if the characters are being force-fed words rather than there being a natural flow. The characters feel inauthentic, bordering on caricature. I will note though that this issue applies primarily to the support characters, which may seem overly particular but truly it is an issue that detracts from “the good” of the show.
Logan Marshall-Green as Mac and Damon Herriman as Buddy, a fellow worker for the Broker, are the heart of and most interesting elements of “Quarry.” Marshall-Green does a stellar job playing the anxious and near-broken Mac. There’s a constant sweat-slick film on his skin. It’s as if the mugginess of summer in Memphis affects him alone. He’s wiry with the demeanor of a hunted fox. Herriman does an equally grand job as Buddy. There is too little of him in the series even though he is by far the most endearing character. I wish there was a show centered around just him and his mother, Naomi, played by an expert Ann Dowd.
“Quarry” is neither a failure nor winner. With patience it can be endured and enjoyed. The design is spot on and the music featured is great. And the main characters are almost “there.” They are teetering. They’re hanging in there with a little life left to them, not yet snuffed out by apathy. The series could be saved if it got “tighter.” This first season was spread too thin. In an attempt to keep action rolling and hearts fully endeared, there was a slew of unnecessary subplots that watered down and hollowed out essential characters, leaving the audience with the task of deciding whether or not to care about them at all.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD Tuesday, February 14th
