ITV’s The Suspect may explore a chilling murder case, but it also digs into our own fascination with the perfect life and what happens when we discover it’s all a façade, according to one Stylist writer.
Warning: this article contains minor spoilers for episode one of ITV’s The Suspect.
As is often the case with psychological thrillers, our fascination is born from the simple fact that not everything is always as it seems.
The best kind of thrillers keep us guessing, have twists we don’t see coming and characters we wouldn’t dare to dream of committing whatever acts they’re accused of. Essentially, these are the major reasons why The Suspect stands to be one of the most chilling series to have graced our television screens so far this year.
The premise for the series has always sounded truly wild: a doctor who may or may not have a penchant for killing people after embodying some of his patients’ criminal tendencies. Already chilling stuff. But really, The Suspect manages to explore the more eerie aspect of what it means to have a ‘perfect’ life.
We meet clinical psychologist Dr Joe O’Loughlin (Aidan Turner) as he’s about to change someone’s life for the better. He’s tasked with helping a suicidal patient who has climbed onto the ledge of the hospital. What we soon realise, though, is that while Joe is talking the patient down (while perched on the ledge himself), his doctor and friend, Dr Owens (Vigil’s Adam James), actually reveals that Joe has just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. So far, so very positive and sympathy-inducing when it comes to Joe’s public image.
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After saving the patient’s life, he’s quickly plastered on newspaper front pages and revered as a hero. We meet his loving wife and daughter, see his spacious London home and get acquainted with his calm private practice. If ever there was a picture needed for the definition of what it means to have the perfect life, we’re pretty sure Joe would be there front and centre. Of course, we know of his Parkinson’s diagnosis and, while he is grappling with what that means, we quickly learn that he has the kind of strong support system that most people would envy.
So, when a woman is found in a shallow grave in a west London cemetery, it almost seems completely disconnected from Joe’s life and the events that we’ve been given a window into. Perhaps the murder is linked to Joe’s somewhat creepy patient who even makes his receptionist nervous? Or could it be another opportunity for Joe’s expertise to shine? It seems like the premiere episode has two parallel storylines until Joe’s ‘coincidental’ pub run-in with one of the investigating officers of the murder case, DS Riya Devi (Anjli Mohindra).
DS Devi is impressed by Joe’s professional expertise, even going so far as to ask him if he’s thought about a career in criminal profiling. So much so that we next see Joe meeting up with DS Devi and DI Vince Ruiz (Shaun Parkes) at the mortuary. They want to know what kind of person would commit a crime like this, but upon revealing the body, Joe looks aghast at the woman that lies before him. Of course, we can only empathise and can’t bear to think what being in that scenario would be like. But there’s something about the way that Joe sways and looks at the body that points to something more sinister.
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The woman has been stabbed 21 times and DI Ruiz describes it as “an extremely nasty, brutal murder”. The way that she’s been stabbed indicates that she was forced to do it to herself, but just when the case couldn’t get more disturbing, the officers later find Joe in the examination room by himself. “Excuse me?” DI Ruiz says, rushing in.
Joe, in his usual charming and knowledgeable manner, simply tells the officers that the door was open and he wanted to take the chance to inspect the body for himself. He determines that the woman shows signs of self-harm, indicating that she’s definitely cut herself before. He’s a master at quashing any problems, talking them down and hurriedly walking away from the awkward situation.
But when the officers check the morgue’s CCTV, they soon realise Joe lied to them and actually memorised the security code into the examination room. It’s our first taste of the lies that Joe seamlessly comes out with and is only the tip of a very steep iceberg.
While the events that unfold within the premiere episode of The Suspect are pretty chilling in themselves, it’s the dual persona of Joe that leaves for the series’ more riveting moments. Glimpses of himself in the mirror, shots of his shaking hands and furrowed brows show a man who is holding a multitude of secrets close to his chest.
Joe has essentially got it all, and as his friend Dr Owens outlines to him, his Parkinson’s isn’t something that should impact his life as much as he previously thought. “You won’t die from it, you’ll die with it,” he explains.
“And you’ll have everything you had before, including the woman everyone wanted to be with at university… a daughter who adores you, a successful practice, books that by some small miracle continue to sell… and now, it seems, a national bloody hero.”
Social media, the news, friends and those around us are becoming increasingly obsessed with the idea of a ‘picture perfect’ life, even when it’s the polar opposite. It’s born out of the validation we all get when displaying the highlights of our lives and this is the high that Joe is riding out on in The Suspect. But the series also shows how fine the line between fiction and reality can be when you’re forced to keep up a pretence. And, in this terrifying case, how far one man will go to retain his poised façade.
The first episode of The Suspect airs Monday 29 August at 9pm on ITV and will be available to watch on ITV Hub afterwards, with further episodes airing weekly every Monday.
Images: ITV
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