The Crow Road: Episode 2 - “Kenneth” (1996)

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something I'm really liking about The Crow Road.  The main performances have a great, human quality, and the drama moves in such a quiet way.  I like the exploration of the different characters' religious beliefs.  Kenneth – Prentice's father, whose atheism is much talked about – peddles fairy stories and pourqoui tales.  Prentice's Uncle Hamish has divorced himself from traditional organized religion and forged his own cracked form of faith; his prayers for God to smite the ungodly, from the Khmer Rouge to people who buy puppies before they're sure they can handle the responsibility, get some of my biggest laughs each episode.  And of course, there's Prentice himself, who isn't sure what he believes but desperately wants something bigger than what he can see.

 

In “Kenneth,” Prentice's mission to find out what happened to his Uncle Rory proceeds by fits and starts.  He's acquired a box of Rory's old writings, a confused jumble of fancy and fact littered with hints about his secrets, his unknown fate.  But Prentice, like most young people, is composed largely of confusions, concerns, and hormones, and life keeps getting in the way of his search.  There are troubles with school, with love, and with Kenneth (with whom Prentice forms one half of a stubborn feud,) and even the Rory Prentice conjures in his head can't keep his thoughts focused on the task at hand.

 

Still, progress is made.  Among Rory's papers are accounts of a shared childhood secret, a pivotal hunting trip.  A mysterious stranger has knowledge that points to something larger.  A few pieces are starting to slide into place.

 

Again, PC is used not liberally but well.  A portrait is gradually forming of Rory, built out of his own writings and Prentice's memories.  I think I'm fondest of the scenes that come out of the accounts he's written.  There's an awkward dinner scene that practically squirms with discomfort, and a post-hunt smoking session is perhaps the truest look we've seen so far as to what Rory is (or was?) like.  

 

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And on a different note, can I just say:  no series 8 until autumn of 2014?  Good grief, Moffat, what are you doing to us?  Not including the 50^th anniversary and the Christmas special, that will make it more than a yearbetween seasons.  Remember when the split-season was introduced in series 6, and it was supposed to be so great because we’d never go more than 3-4 months without new Who?  Now, we’re getting fewer episodes at a time and still having the long wait.  Ridiculous.  I get that Moffat’s busy, and I’m excited that new Sherlock is on its way, but if you can’t devote Who the time it needs, then maybe you shouldn’t be running it.