The premise of Traces is intriguing; a young student of forensics, stumbles into her own mother's cold-case murder, reigniting an investigation of the crime and her presumptions about her family and childhood.
The telling of the story is plagued with amateur writing mistakes and reliance on mind-boggling coincidences.
We can understand how the crime might have subconsciously inspired Emma's desire to excel at forensics. We can even accept that the theoretical test-case in her training might be based on the botched investigation of her mother's murder and that the similarities might trigger her suspicions, but...
Many other coincidences read more like lazy shortcuts for the writers, especially the central romance between Emma and Daniel. The personal, professional and criminal entanglements of their "accidental" meeting are so vast and determinative to the plot, they feel unnatural and deeply contrived.
Having avoided the real work of competent plotting, the writers pad the story with equally contrived and irrelevant romances between supporting characters. In a better story, these dalliances would have added colour and charm. Here they feel like distractions, complications rather than complexity.
A side plot about deadly street drugs, waxes and wanes to fill time, only serving to signal Emma's brilliance as a laboratory sleuth. Skye and Emma's own voluntary brush with these drugs, which might have formed the basis for a season two theme, simply evaporates in the middle of a peevish argument between them.
And after five and a half episodes of meandering plot twists, everything suddenly falls into place. Evil is punished, the good are redeemed and the credits roll.
So much wasted potential. Hence the 4 stars.
The telling of the story is plagued with amateur writing mistakes and reliance on mind-boggling coincidences.
We can understand how the crime might have subconsciously inspired Emma's desire to excel at forensics. We can even accept that the theoretical test-case in her training might be based on the botched investigation of her mother's murder and that the similarities might trigger her suspicions, but...
Many other coincidences read more like lazy shortcuts for the writers, especially the central romance between Emma and Daniel. The personal, professional and criminal entanglements of their "accidental" meeting are so vast and determinative to the plot, they feel unnatural and deeply contrived.
Having avoided the real work of competent plotting, the writers pad the story with equally contrived and irrelevant romances between supporting characters. In a better story, these dalliances would have added colour and charm. Here they feel like distractions, complications rather than complexity.
A side plot about deadly street drugs, waxes and wanes to fill time, only serving to signal Emma's brilliance as a laboratory sleuth. Skye and Emma's own voluntary brush with these drugs, which might have formed the basis for a season two theme, simply evaporates in the middle of a peevish argument between them.
And after five and a half episodes of meandering plot twists, everything suddenly falls into place. Evil is punished, the good are redeemed and the credits roll.
So much wasted potential. Hence the 4 stars.