Netflix's New Show Starring Jamie Dornan is a Must-Watch for the Fargo Fans
There's no worse scenario than finding yourself with amnesia and being hunted by those who want to kill you.
Summary
- Not long ago, the first season of The Tourist, starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, was released on Netflix.
- The series is about a man who finds himself in an Australian hospital with memory loss and people trying to kill him.
- The first season was critically acclaimed and the second season will be released on Netflix at the end of February.
Memory loss is a popular trope in the movies. There's Paul Verhoeven's cyberpunk action film Total Recall, Christopher Nolan 's neo-noir thriller Memento, Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity, and countless other examples. But what if that trope were filtered through the stylistic prism of Fargo 's first season, and the search for identity and its grisly consequences were set in the context of a small rural town? You will get the show called The Tourist.
Starring Jamie Dornan, the first season of The Tourist aired in the UK on BBC One, in Australia on Stan and in the US on HBO Max. However, HBO dropped the project after just one season, and now it has been picked up by Netflix, who will be showing the second season to American viewers for the first time. Until then, let's find out what the show is about and why it's definitely worth watching (especially if you're a Fargo fan).
New Jamie Dornan Thriller Now on Netflix
The Tourist isn't technically a new series, as the first season aired in the US on HBO Max. However, it recently became available to a wider audience in the US (and other countries) with the addition of the first season on Netflix. Moreover, the second season will be released on the streaming service very soon, on February 29, 2024.
The show was created by the writing and producing duo of brothers Harry and Jack Williams, who brought us the excellent British mystery thriller The Missing, and who also served as executive producers on Fleabag. In other words, from The Tourist we should expect a classic British thriller with rare but sharp and always spot-on elements of black comedy. Except that the setting (at least in the first season) is not British, but Australian.
Jamie Dornan, star of The Fall and the man recognized by the New York Times as the Golden Torso, plays The Tourist, a character known to the viewer simply as 'the man' (though as the story progresses, we learn his name... well, or several of them). After his car is run over by a semi-truck for unknown reasons in the opening scene, the man wakes up in a hospital in a small Australian town. The only catch is that the protagonist suffers from amnesia, and as he tries to discover his identity, he is regularly confronted with attempts to kill him.
Probationary police officer Helen Chambers, played by the talented Danielle Macdonald, becomes interested in the case. Helen is a mirror image of the man, as she also doesn't know her place in the world, being under constant pressure because of her weight.
By the way, the upcoming second season will take Dornan's character to Ireland to further search for his identity, where he will face the dangerous consequences of his past self's actions.
Is the Show Worth Watching?
Narratively and stylistically, the show is quite similar to Fargo, especially in terms of Macdonald's character. She is very reminiscent of Deputy Molly Solverson, played by Allison Tolman: a little simple, a little naive, but a great, sharp cop with an incredibly kind heart and empathy. She literally becomes the counterpoint to both the cynicism of her town and the blood trail that follows the man.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season had a 97% rating from critics who called the show a fairly straightforward but no less entertaining mystery. Well, binge-watch the first season and look forward to the release of season 2 on February 29!