Get Millie Black is HBO’s latest hyper-specific whodunit

As much as it’s famous for cursing, nudity, and dragons, HBO is also known for a certain kind of prestige crime thriller. Whether it’s 2023’s Full Circle, 2021’s Mare Of Easttown, or 2018’s Sharp Objects—the latter an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name—the formula is thus: A horrible crime happens in a corner of the world that has a hyper-specific demographic with its own unique speech patterns and codes. A heroine tasked with saving the day has sordid connections to that community, a lot of family drama shoved into her mental closet space, and absolutely no work-life balance. The crime, and the guilty party, are usually fairly predictable after a few episodes. But the acting is often sensational. 

Enter Get Millie Black. An HBO partnership with Channel 4 in the U.K., where it will air next year, the five-part miniseries stars Shakespearean-versed theater actor Tamara Lawrance as the titular unflinching and dogged gumshoe Millie-Jean Black. A former Scotland Yard detective, Millie’s latest case sends her somewhere she’d vowed never to go: her hometown of Kingston, Jamaica. There, Millie cannot hide the fact that her dedication to finding a missing kid runs just as deep as her emotional wounds from a childhood filled with abuse. Perhaps saving this one will bring about the absolution she craves from the ghosts of those she could not rescue?

Like with a lot of the other shows, Millie is also saddled with the dead weight of a partner she does not want, an outsider to this community whose presence is severely stressing out her trust issues. In this case, it’s Game Of Thrones alum Joe Dempsie’s Luke Holborn, an investigator with his own complications who has an ingenious way of doing things. Soon, Millie’s need to pull at one string unravels a whole sweater of the city’s corrupt underbelly. Unfortunately, this is not that elaborate of a scheme, and the plot that unspools is probably just as audiences first expect it to.

But again, just like its limited-series ancestors, this doesn’t necessarily mean Get Millie Black is either a bad or boring show. Judging on the first four episodes provided for review, what Millie—like Mare and the others before it—might lack in surprising criminal revelations it more than makes up for in compelling characters, dialogue, and environments.

Millie marks the screenwriting debut of show creator Marlon James, the Jamaican novelist whose A Brief History Of Seven Killings was the 2015 recipient of the Man Booker Prize. And it’s set in a world he knows well: The series’ lead is modeled after his mother, Detective Inspector Shirley Dillon-James. Plus, James left his home country to escape anti-gay persecution and violence, and several subplots in Millie involve queer and/or gender non-conforming characters who are not allowed to live as their true selves. (In one episode, Millie wears a T-shirt that shows her support for the LGBTQ+ community that includes the line “The T is not silent.”)

Working alongside executive producers like Jami O’Brien (Industry) and director Tanya Hamilton (Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty), James & co. have assembled an engaging cast. In addition to star Lawrance, there’s also a standout performance by Shernet Swearine as Janet Fenton, an exceptionally alert young woman who is determined to rise from her predestined station in life. More pragmatic than Machiavellian, Janet is single-minded in what she knows she needs to do, giving a powerful monologue in a later episode that explains her choices. Similar praise should be awarded to Chyna McQueen, whose depiction of trans woman Hibiscus reminds that allies are great, but they will never really understand the fears and frustrations that this minority group encounters daily. Meanwhile, James’ dialogue mostly pops, especially in scenes involving Swearine and McQueen. And the production design and cinematography are ace, with the show hopscotching between vibrant daytime settings and disturbingly dark and shadowy nighttime ones that suck you right in (even if the mystery doesn’t).    

Get Millie Black premieres November 25 on HBO