We’re always hungry for a new British crime drama to sink our teeth into, and we bet you are, too. Thus, we are simply chuffed to inform you that both seasons of Traces are now streaming on Foxtel Now, BINGE and Apple TV.
Set in Dundee, Scotland, and forever marking another picturesque corner of the UK as a place of horror and death (see Happy Valley for the most obvious example of this trend), Traces follows freshly-minted forensics technician Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor) who has returned to her home town after several years’ absence to take up a new gig at the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science.
However, she’s disturbed to discover that the supposedly fictional case study in an online course she’s taking appears to be the murder of her mother, who was found in a shallow grave over 20 years ago. While her bosses, Professor Sarah Gordon (Laura Fraser) and Professor Kathy Torrance (Jennifer Spence) investigate a case of arson, Emma begins to dig deeper, uncovering old secrets that cast suspicions on a number of possible culprits, including her stepfather (Phil McKee) and seemingly charming love interest (Martin Compston).
Traces boasts an impressive pedigree, having been co-created by actor-turned-writer Amelia Bullmore and legendary crime novelist Val McDiarmid, who has made the “tartan noir” subgenre her own. With its tight focus on forensic investigation, procedural fans will be in heaven as each clue is uncovered and examined and the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together—think CSI by way of Irvine Welsh and you’re in the right neighbourhood.
It’s easy to get lost among the sheer number of British crime serials hitting our screens—for a relatively peaceful country, they make an awful lot of these things. But Traces’ specificity of place, well-drawn characters, and twisty plot will surely help it stand out from the pack.
