Better than cosy crime? This new show makes murder fun

2 weeks ago 4

Grosse Pointe Garden Society ★★★½

There’s something about Grosse Pointe. Maybe it’s the intriguing name. Or perhaps it’s that this affluent suburb of Detroit presents the perfect kind of upper-class serenity for writers to dig beneath and subvert. Either way, the location has proven an attractive setting for creatives wanting to make something barbed and wicked, from John Cusack’s brilliant hitman comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) to the underrated soapie satire Grosse Pointe (2000-2001). And now Grosse Pointe Garden Society, a terribly likeable drama that boasts a hearty enjoyment of murder.

Melissa Fumero in Gross Pointe Garden Society.

If there are well-established genres in crime drama of gritty crime and cosy crime, GPGS fits into a slightly more niche but increasingly prominent category, which might be dubbed gleeful crime. Think How to Get Away with Murder or Why Women Kill: shows that don’t so much gloss over the unpleasant details of murder as revel in them. It’s the kind of show that kicks off with a murder and then puts you on the killer’s side.

GPGS is centred on have four troubled souls, all members of the titular local gardening club and all dissatisfied with the uncertainties of their own lives. Birdie (Melissa Fumero) is an uptight socialite trying to burnish her image in the community after a drunken accident. Alice (AnnaSophia Robb) is a high school teacher and aspiring writer whose career is nowhere near where she hoped it would be. Catherine (Aja Naomi King) is a disillusioned real estate agent in a loveless marriage. And Brett (Ben Rappaport) is a divorced dad trying to stay connected with his kids.

Melissa Fumero as Birdie, Ben Rappaport as Brett, and AnnaSophia Robb as Alice in Grosse Pointe Garden Society.

It’s a classic set-up for drama, with all the gardeners disenchanted with the stultifying milieu of respectable suburbia. It’s a shame for them that the means to that breakout turns out to be murder, but you have to take the opportunities you’re given.

The body in question is buried beneath the garden club – this is not a subtle show – and the subject of much mystery. It’s some time before the identity of the victim and the events by which they met their fate are revealed, and there are numerous suspects waiting to get their comeuppance.

The series struggles with earnestness at times and is at its weakest when it tries to twang the heartstrings a little too hard. It’s at its best when the characters are sniping waspishly at each other and the tensions running through the two-faced Grosse Pointe society crackle and spark. The plastic fakery of the people around them, the hypocrisy and sheer nastiness of the world the quartet are trapped in is dialled up to 11 in bright, technicolour, slightly hyperreal style with death being the circuit-breaker.

The sharpness and wit of the writing is the greatest selling point, but the cast also plays it as big and bold as possible. Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) is the MVP, playing Birdie with a glorious blend of judgment, entitlement, withering selfishness and wild-eyed panic. She’s the poster child of the over-the-top fun that GPGS achieves when it opens the throttle and lets the blood run free.

Grosse Pointe Garden Society is now streaming on 7Plus.

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