Jamaica gets the tortured detective treatment in the Get Millie Black trailer

Tamara Lawrance's undeniable charisma is the big takeaway from HBO's new show Get Millie Black, created by Marlon James.

By William Hughes | November 14, 2024 | 7:56pm

Photo: HBO

TV News Get Millie Black

Jamaica gets the tortured detective treatment in the Get Millie Black trailer

HBO’s new crime show Get Millie Black is currently facing the same question that’s faced every other moody detective series about crime solvers haunted by their past that’s Broadchurch/True Detective/Mare Of Easttowned its way onto prestige cable in recent years: What is it about this case, this tortured detective, that’s uniquely worth watching? From the show’s first trailer, released online today, there are at least two easy surface answers to that all-important query: The show’s Jamaica setting, colored by the work of author and series creator Marlon James, and Tamara Lawrance’s performance as its title character, a former Scotland Yard detective who returns to the country of her birth after rejecting London life, only to get pulled back into it by an investigation surrounding a missing girl.

For the sake of that—especially Lawrance, who brings instant charisma to the role that’s evident even from this short tease—we can hopefully forgive some bog-standard Tortured Detective lines like “You spend so long looking for lost people, you finally lost yourself!” In addition to its star, Get Millie Black also features performances from Joe Dempsie, playing a Scotland Yard cop who comes to Jamaica on a case of his own, and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr as a fellow Jamaican cop.