The Tourist series 2 review, Culture Whisper
This review contains spoilers for The Tourist series one.
2023 has been a real horror show for the world, and we need prestige silliness now more than ever. That's why anyone with a TV licence should thank writers Harry and Jack Williams for the escapes they’ve secured at the end of this year and the start of the next. As their Coen Brothers-like Northern noir Boat Story winds down, it’s promptly replaced on 1 January with the return of their even funnier amnesiac thriller The Tourist.
Whereas the finale of the first series concluded with an ambiguous suicide attempt, now you see the confused not-quite-hero Elliot (a hilarious Jamie Dornan) at the height of life, alongside his brilliant Aussie partner Helen (a scene-stealing Danielle Macdonald) – smoking weed in bed on a train to Cambodia. The latter left Australia, her police job and her unbearable ex, Ethan Krum (Greg Larsen), to save Elliot, escaping with him to explore the world.
But after discovering a letter from one of Elliot's home friends, Helen suggests a visit to his native Ireland to continue puzzling the pieces of his forgotten life. Series two swaps the sweltering heat of the Australian outback for the cold terrain of the Irish countryside. Predictably, the action starts almost as soon as they arrive – when Elliot decides to shave off his ludicrously long, God of War-like beard. He’s thrown into a violent, slapstick world of long-distance running, assailants in balaclavas and a historic family war.
From the two episodes available to review, series two leans more into a gangster vibe. But as before, The Tourist loves to hopscotch between different genres (particularly noirs and Westerns) with riotous rhythm – simultaneously thrilling and funny. The moral greyness of Elliot’s good amnesiac present battling an evil criminal past continues to crop up, but it’s less of a problem between him and Helen. She doesn’t seem too fussed any more about her partner's prior sins, which involve the supreme red flags of death and drug smuggling.
Despite these cloudy immoralities, it’s hard not to like Elliot – he’s a classic wise-cracking action hero with a line ready for every occasion, pitched perfectly by the Williamses (swerving anything too cheesy). He’s built for biblically absurd situations, ranging from tumbles down mountainous hills to Saw-ish challenges in underground bunkers. And all with little idea of what the hell is happening.
Elliot and Helen are separated from each other, and she tries desperately to work with the local Garda – chiefly via the anxious flop of a detective Ruairi (Industry’s Connor MacNeil), whose own story takes a sinister turn. Inverting Helen’s homeliness in series one, she is now the baffled tourist while Elliot resembles a stranger in his own country. And as usual with the Williamses, several characters populate the episodes with enough brilliant detail to introduce them quickly, vividly and memorably. You never forget a face.
Whereas Happy Valley (excellent as it was) opened 2023 with blunt, grounded brutality, The Tourist kicks off 2024 with ridiculous, bloody and mercurial fun at a thunderous pace. We all deserve to feel good in the new year and, if that’s not possible in the real world, Jamie Dornan’s here to give us a good time.
Originally published on Culture Whisper
