Over the past few years I’ve been covering this show. And earlier this year it came to an end with a third and final season. So let’s see if it’s a solid bookend to the complex cavalcade of the McCalls.
Ladies, gents, and non-binaries… “Guilt” season 3.
After heading to Chicago to get away from a bad situation, brothers Max and Jake (Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives) find themselves having to head back to Scotland to deal with everything that’s been causing them trouble, hopefully finding a solution to them once and for all. Add conspiracy, the Scottish underworld, and old wounds getting opened back up, and you get a recipe for the events that unfold this season. And I found the story here to be really engaging, presenting a really intense, nuanced, and funny path to a really satisfying end. It is a bit hurt however by its episode count. 4×60 minutes is not optimal for such a big story, it makes it feel a bit stuffy, causing the pacing of each episode to drag. The story itself is great, so it is ultimately a satisfying narrative, but I do wish it’d been split across maybe five 45 minute episodes instead. It’s a bit polarizing in that sense. Great story, poor pacing.
The characters (both old and new) remain as colorful, complex, flawed, and insanely entertaining as we’ve come to expect from this show. And what this season solidifies most is that Max McCall remains one of the most interesting protagonists of recent years. As shady, spiteful, and slimy as always, his journey here is so engaging and Bonnar is as spectacular as ever. Jamie Sives is also great once again, making for a warm, fun counterpoint that works really well against Bonnar’s Max. The rest of the cast, containing people like Emun Elliott, Greg McHugh, Phyllis Logan, Anders Hayward, Isaura Barbé-Brown, and many more, all absolutely killing it.
Arthur Sharpe returned to compose the score for this final season and he killed it as ever. A fun mix of inspirations (typical thriller score, a little rocky, a little jazzy infusion), it really fits the colorful world of the show. There’s also a decent amount of licensed tracks used throughout, most pertaining to older rock music, and it fits each respective scene in such a fun way.
As with the previous two season of “Guilt”, each episode was written by series creator Neil Forsyth, with season 2’s Patrick Harkins returning to direct all four episodes. And the craft here is just great. Nicely shot, edited in a tense and fun way, holding just long enough on each shot, it’s just each member of the crew bringing their A-game to make this the best possible end to this series.
The show/season has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 100% positive rating. On Metacritic it exists without any real score. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7.4/10.
While its rough pacing does bring it down a bit, the final season of “Guilt” is a satisfying end to the McCall brothers’ journey. The story is great, the characters are great, the performances are fantastic, the music’s really good, and the directing is great. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Guilt” season 3 is an 8.45/10. So while flawed, I’d say it’s definitely worth watching.
My review of “Guilt” season 3 is now completed.
Gonna miss looking forward to new episodes of this.
TheMarckoguy 