Detective Theo Richter is exactly the sort of brooding figure you’d expect to find at the helm of a gritty crime drama. He’s solitary, tough, and all too familiar with the darkest and most sinister parts of the town he calls home. There is, however, nothing typical about this Dublin-based police officer, nor six-part Irish-New Zealand series The Gone.
When we meet Richter (Richard Flood, whose CV includes Grey's Anatomy, Shameless and ), he is grappling with the reaction to his shock announcement of early retirement, a decision that seems inexplicable for an Irish Special Branch detective at the peak of his career. With just weeks to go until his time on the force is up, the seasoned cop’s plans for a quiet exit are quickly put aside when he receives an unexpected call from New Zealand. Now tasked with solving the mystery of a young Irish couple who have vanished without a trace from the picturesque town of Mount Affinity in Aotearoa, Richter must venture to the other side of the world to search for two of his own.
The fear in the call from Judge Hannah Martin (Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley) is palpable and her concern that daughter Sinead (Rachel Morgan) and Sinead’s boyfriend Ronan (Simon Mead) are victims of the notorious Fallon gang is not without basis. The Dublin-based Fallons are, after all, a criminal family out for revenge following the conviction and imprisonment of their father, a decision handed down by Hannah. She might be in in New Zealand visiting her daughter, making Ireland a literal world away, but Richter knows that Hannah has a target on her back wherever she goes, and for the Fallons, family is fair game.
Though the crime feels very much tied to Ireland, Sinead and Ronan had begun a new life in New Zealand and, as Richter quickly realises, there’s no guarantee that the answer isn’t to be found in the town itself. Recently promoted local cop Detective Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe) is assigned to lead the case, and her return to her hometown comes with more than a little trepidation. The disappearance of Sinead and Ronan has left the tight-knit community of Mount Affinity in shock, but has also fanned the flames of the conflict between locals and recently arrived tech conglomerate Houkura, with Huia’s estranged family at the centre of the chaos. Together, Richter and Huia must combine their knowledge of the Irish underworld and the complex history of Mount Affinity, to determine who could know more about what happened to the missing pair than they are letting on.
Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe) and Theo Richter (Richard Flood). Credit: Geoffrey Short / Kotare Productions
As tensions build, the glaring similarity of the couple’s disappearance to the events preceding the Mountain Murders, brutal killings that rocked the town years earlier, is far from reassuring. It’s a connection that Irish journalist Aileen Ryan (The Quiet Girl’s Carolyn Bracken) wants to explore further, and she isn’t letting the potential Fallon connection go unnoticed either. Her persistence in pressing anyone who will listen for answers turns the pressure up on the detective duo, and puts those around her, and herself, in danger.
Though they attempt to remain as detached and analytical as possible, the case is undeniably personal for both Richter and Huia. Richter tries to maintain his steely exterior despite facing a secret internal battle that is as much mental as it is physical, and Huia is forced to confront the trauma of her past and the distance she feels from her Māori heritage all while trying to prove herself as a young female detective on her first case. The truth demands a high price of both of them, and it quickly becomes clear that finding out what happened to Sinead and Ronan isn’t the only mystery to be revealed as the series progresses.
Though it plays by many of the tried and tested rules of its much-loved genre, The Gone isn’t afraid to break a few either. Every instalment of the series manages to blend distinct and disparate cultures, and create a connection between two worlds that are usually separated by thousands of miles. What is left is room for characters that are as complex as they are authentic, and a story that, in spite of the otherworldly scenery against which it is set and the intricacy of the crime it details, feels grippingly real.
The Gone is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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The Gone
