If you enjoyed the first season of British espionage thriller The Capture, wherein Detective Inspector Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) investigated the seemingly cut-and-dry assault and kidnapping of barrister Hannah Roberts (Laura Haddock) only to discover that nothing is clear-cut in a world of deepfake technology and cyber warfare, we have good news: season 2 of The Capture is now streaming on ABC iview.
Written and directed by Ben Chana, The Capture lifts the lid on the perils of our own disinformation-soaked, terminally online world, forcing us to confront how easily we can be manipulated by technology and bad faith actors. In the first season, surveillance footage makes it seem that British soldier Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) was guilty of the central crime, but it wasn’t long before DI Carey uncovered an intricate and far-reaching conspiracy.
In the course of her investigation, she discovered the existence of Correction, a suite of sophisticated software used by the powers that be to fake up digital evidence—technology with some fairly horrifying implications.
Season two explores some of those troubling implications in great detail, as Britain’s security minister Isaac Turner (I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu) got targeted by Chinese government agents using a deepfake video to make it seem like he’s reversed a vital policy stance that will allow Chinese facial recognition software to be installed in British border control checkpoints—what could possibly go wrong? Once again, a vast and labyrinthine conspiracy awaits our heroine, this time even deadlier than before.
The Capture has, ahem, captured a genuinely impressive cast including Ralph Ineson, Charlie Murphy, Indira Varma and, much to our delight, the great Ron Perlman returns as CIA Section Chief Frank Napier. If you like your espionage thrillers chilly, bleak, and downbeat, The Capture season 2 is just what the doctor ordered.
