4 5 mins 12 yrs

Revelations present Mia and Ben with an uncertain future in ‘Hit and Miss’

I know I’ve raved about Hit and Miss, but it really is the best thing on British TV at the moment – there’s nothing like it! Combining brutality, isolation, raw emotion, grief, and a family negotiating how to be exactly that, “a family.” Coupled with the complexities of life and death we don’t usually see – all set to stunning scenery and country music, makes this must-see viewing.

This week skeletons are starting to come out the closet with brutal effects. A hit goes wrong for Mia resulting in a fall from a freight container, which in her bruised delirious state walks her right into the path of an oncoming car’s windscreen. When she awakens in hospital she’s been placed in the men’s ward and catheterised. After it’s removed (another shot of her member. I think we get the idea writers) she then has the humiliation of being forced to use the gents toilet, and has to make a hasty escape when she gets jumpy with the police presence around the hospital. Anxious to move the car before its seen she drives it concussed (luckily the country roads are pretty much deserted as she swerves about), Ben seeing her go past follows and stays at the farm with the kids after he carried in a collapsed Mia. Of course shady Eddie isn’t far behind checking if she was seen, and getting Levi to stash more dodgy things at the farm that he’s,”not to tell Mia”.

Meanwhile Riley (Karla Crome) has her own violent encounter with farmer John (Vincent Regan), the vile man devoid of humanity who beats his wife and throws the pregnant teenager into the muddy ground telling her; she’s to “get rid of the baby.” I think the “or else” is implied with the throat grab later on. However her bond with Mia is growing as she desperately wants to tell Mia about her pregnancy, but instead shares a tearful moment letting Mia brush her hair as a sign of acceptance like her mum did. Levi is finding a common ally in a new potential girlfriend. However the youngest members of the family are projecting their grief to outside sources. Ryan releases frogs from a school project to save them from being dissected, after being traumatised seeing a cow shot dead. While little Leonie is seeing and talking to her dead mother Wendy, and hearing her through the CB radio.

Chloe Sevigny as transgender Mia is the epitome of an anti-hero who seems to have more misses (which you could add the wavering accent too) in life than domestic hits as opposed to her stealthy success as a hitman. But you can’t help but will everything to come good for her and the family.  Each week they are forced to re-evaluate their situation and each other. Her relationship with Ben is stepping up a gear, and it’s not long before she has to admit to being a pre-op transsexual after he tries to kiss her. Jonas Armstrong does a convincing job of a man uncertain if to react angry, disgusted or confused. However Mia soon has a method of showing him how their relationship can work… and he’s all too willing.

I’m sure Eddie’s stash will blow up trouble for the family soon. Plus will the nurses remember Mia to the police? After-all, an Irish accent, combined with a transgender patient and no name, they’re unlikely to forget her!

This series is turning into a gem for Sky Atlantic, and is showing what a good script and imagination, combined with a talented cast really can do.

4 thoughts on “Hit and Miss Episode 3 Review

  1. The acting, casting, direction, design, locations, are all excellent. As woman myself of transsexual experience, albeit as very transsexual child, not one who could have ever fathered a child, I’m genuinely delighted at how Chloe Sevigny is portraying that aspect of her role. She really is superb actress. However…. the plot-line, and a great many of the key events are a huge let-down.

    It is not just that I cannot see any such woman being an assassin – we usually flee from any sign of violence, and the risk to ones entire life of being assaulted and disfigured, or arrested, exposed, and imprisoned would be immensely larger that for anybody of a different background. It would be the total end of hope, after decades of really painful need, suffering, planning, and effort.

    But, really, how many assassinations could there possibly be in the Manchester area without it being a national scandal? If so many people know how to order an assassination of even small-time rivals in crime, wouldn’t it have become known to the police ages ago? Where are all the CCTV cameras? And would a successful serial assassin live and keep her gun in an unlocked house where kids wander around all the time? Its as though the plot just didn’t interest the writers, only he characters.

    A final insiders niggle: I haven’t researched the price of such property but she buys the small-holding with her savings that were still insufficient for sex reassignment surgery, yet the best surgeon in the world, plus flights to Thailand, plus a month out there, which would be really the best and safest deal, would be less than £15k, this year –  evidentially she has no need whatsoever of any of the more expensive facial feminisation surgery, for hair removal, or any of the extras like breast augmentation or removal of an adam’s apple (that’s all believable; some of us are like that) which might push the total up past £50k. I cannot imagine that property would cost less than £14k. It might well be ten or twenty times as much. So I guess that’s a really huge hole in the research and plot – with her earning power she would have had surgery ages ago, probably wouldn’t be doing any more such work, if she could ever have done such things, and wouldn’t have the dangly bit attracting so many camera shots, and causing so much complication.

    1. Wow what an amazing reply! Thank you for your openness. I too have often wondered about the cost considering how much she earns. I think they appear to be using creative licence on that score. Glad you think that Chloe is portraying the character well.

  2. I find it too unbelievable. Her accent, the situations, everything. I love Chloe, but I’m beginning to wonder about her career choices. Sadly, Hit and Miss is a miss…and amiss.

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