Okay, I’m a little embarrassed! There I was, writing up my end of year retrospective, setting my goals for ’24, and then figuring I’d rest up for the last few days of this year before getting back to the ol’ blog slog! But I wasn’t counting on the appearance of a nifty little murder mystery miniseries that I might want to pass along to you. It’s got a lot of the stuff we all crave: an isolated setting, closed circle of suspects, and at least one fiendish serial killer. You know, all the stuff that somebody like, oh, say,Agatha Christie might come up with. 

Except Agatha Christie had nothing to do with this. 

I heard you gasp! Did you think I was going to write about the BBC’s latest Christie adaptation, Murder Is Easy? Well, you can bet I will do just that – as soon as it becomes available in America. 

Meanwhile, the FX network, through the streaming service Hulu, hired Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the co-creators of the Netflix series The OA, to come up with an idea for a limited series. The pair were excited about creating an amateur sleuth, this one a Millennial woman, and combining elements of science fiction with those of a traditional whodunnit. The result, A Murder at the End of the World, is a dark, cerebral and beautifully acted murder mystery that is full of twists from start to finish. 

A standout Emma Corrin (The Crown, My Policeman) plays Darby Hart, an expert hacker who throughout her childhood was fascinated by her father’s job as the county’s medical examiner. Working with him led her to discover evidence of a serial killer dubbed The Silver Doe for his habit of collecting silver jewelry off his victims. Her past investigation into the killer’s crimes has led Darby to write a book about her experience, and when we first meet her, mystery fans will get a kick out of the fact that she is heading to The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City to give a reading and sign copies. (The author she follows is played by shop owner Otto Penzler.) 

It is Darby’s act of chutzpah to read from the final chapter of her true crime tale, and as she does, we witness a climactic flashback as she follows a promising lead with her crime-solving partner William “Bill” Farrah (Harris Dickinson). Things get incredibly harrowing on their journey, reach a frightening cliffhanger – and then stop. Don’t worry: we will eventually learn what happened to Darby and Bill – but this is not even the main mystery of the series. Back in the present and out of the blue, Darby receives an invitation from multi-billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) to be his guest at a retreat in an unknown location. Darby has no idea why she was selected, but she wants to go because Andy’s wife is Lee Anderson (played by co-creator Marling), who is a renowned hacker much admired by Darby. 

She boards a plane headed to their mysterious location and meets her fellow guests, including an astronaut (Alice Braga), a woman who builds smart cities in Shanghai (Joan Chen), a film director (Jermaine Fowler) and a churlish businessman (Raúl Esparza). More guests await them at their destination, a modern wonderland of a hotel in the vast wilderness of Iceland, equipped with a highly organized staff. Darby is mesmerized by the high tech of it all, including a personable AI assistant named Ray (Edoardo Ballerini), but she remains baffled about why she has been included in this prestigious company. And then she comes down to the first dinner and finds sitting directly across from Bill. Yep, that Bill, the one who helped her track down a serial killer, who fell in love with her along the way and then deserted her at the end of their investigation. 

Bill’s presence complicates matters for Darby, but it gives the writers license continue the story-in-flashbacks of the hunt for the Silver Doe and the debilitating effect it had on their relationship. This keeps the remarkable Harris Dickinson front and center, which is great – because by the end of the evening, Bill will be dead. It is Darby who discovers him and who does some quick sleuthing to determine he was murdered. She had better work fast: before the seven episodes are done, more than one of the other guests will also be dead, and Darby’s life will be endangered in all manner of scary ways. 

As I said, this is a thinking person’s mystery that hits the edges of science fiction but still supplies us with a relativelyrational solution at the end. It’s serious in tone as well, with nary a wink or a smirk as it trots out the GAD conventions in a package that is wholly modern, thanks to the high tech aspects, and marvelously eerie, thanks to the setting (some of it was filmed in Iceland.) Corrin and Dickinson have a fascinating off-kilter chemistry together, and veterans like Joan Chen, who I loved years ago on Twin Peaks, and Clive Owen add intrigue with their fine performances. 

While there are plenty of moments of thriller-esque danger and suspense, it all culminates in a good old-fashioned gathering of the suspects where a solution that Agatha Christie probably never could have thought of unfolds. It leads to a climax that might remind you of something similar in a classic 1968 film. But I will say no more for fear of spoiling the fun. 

I’ll admit I’m a little late to the show because I was waiting for the whole thing to drop and then was distracted by my very first bout with COVID. A Murder at the End of the World was the second most streamed TV series for two weeks in November and is now available in its entirety on Hulu. Given the international nature of its cast, I trust my friends outside America have access to it as well. 

Happy viewing! And once again . . . Happy New Year!