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Hard Sun Review: What is hard sun?

359945.jpgWhat do you get when you overlay a gritty, hard-edged police story onto a quietly interesting science fiction background? While Blade Runner might be the first thought that pops into your mind, the actual answer is the new BBC One television series Hard Sun. Blade Runner, was more the opposite, that is it was a science fiction story etched onto a police tale. In Hard Sun, the sci-fi is only directly present in bits and pieces, however it is always there in the background softly humming along. The main story however, is based on the classic police serial drama, with a number if unique twists.

Spoiler Alert!

As with many police dramas, Hard Sun centers on the relationship between the shows two main characters, Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Hicks, played by Jim Sturgess; and Detective Inspector Elaine Renko, played Agyness Deyn. While both are good at their jobs, they are also damaged in very fundamental ways. There are questions as to Hicks ethical and moral fiber. He is sleeping with his ex-partner’s wife and there are suspicions that he was somehow involved in his partner’s death. As for Renko, there are questions about her relationship with her teenage son, who we find early on, tried and almost succeeded in killing her some years back. Hicks and Renko, know about each other’s sketchy background, though they do not admit to it. As consequence, while they work well together, a low-burning tension remains between them. This tension is further acerbated by the fact that, while working their first case together, they come onto a cache of information, stored on a flash drive, known as the “Hard Sun.” The information, in essence, details a government cover-up of the coming end of the world. According to the Hard Sun information, the end of the world will arrive in five years.

Rather than provide the flash drive to the appropriate authorities, whom Renko fears will kill her and Hicks, Renko forcefully takes the flash drive from Hicks, hides it away. She reveals only a portion of it to the news, as a warning to the powers that be, if anything were to happen to Hicks, herself or their families, the rest of the information will be released to the public. However, in revealing it, Renko unleashes a storm of attention as people try to understand, “what is hard sun?” Naturally some people see whatever they want, including and accurately, a guess that it means the end of the world. This leads to a spike in crimes and acts committed in the name of the coming end of days.

This is where I think the show’s concept is genius. The end of the world is coming in five years. Accordingly, countless people start doing things that they would not normally do if they believed the world would go in existing indefinitely. While this might mean finally taking a vacation for some, for others it unleashes their pent up depressed, darker, and more evil selves. Hicks and Renko, are two homicide detectives who understand this spike has something to do with the coming of the end of the world, but must hide this fact from family, friends, and their colleagues then add the fact a secret government cabal is actively looking for the chance to eliminate Hicks and Renko by any means necessary. With such a rich backdrop, there are a lot of ways the writers can take the story. So far, they have focused on standard criminal case investigations, though the cases have all been related to the effects of Renko’s release of Hard Sun information. But it is likely at some point, the series will touch on other aspects of the story. According to an article I read, the creator of the story has already sketched out a five-year story arc. If that is true, he could introduce a character or point now, and but bring it out in more detail in series 2, 3, 4 or 5. That is if the series lasts that long, which based on the first four episodes it should.

What do you think? Do you know what the hard sun is?

Written by lao.san on Feb 1, 2018

Comments

BL4CKH4T posted 6 years ago

Looks Interesting

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