Canon fodder

‘Rectify’ quietly carves out a place among TV’s all-time greats

The fact that “Rectify” ever made it to television, much less that it was given four seasons to realize its vision, is a small miracle.

Even in an era when seemingly any television project can get a green light no matter how small a niche it’s aimed at, “Rectify” stands out as particularly surprising. Creator and showrunner Ray McKinnon (you may remember him as the epileptic preacher from “Deadwood”) originally developed the show for AMC during the heyday of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.” But it ultimately landed at AMC’s sister network, Sundance TV—presumably because its glacial pace and aggressive subtlety were deemed too inaccessible for the network’s prime real estate. (And if your show is too understated and slow-paced compared to “Mad Men,” you’ve got a serious outlier.)

But its shift to Sundance was clearly a blessing, because it didn’t get saddled with the unrealistic expectations for ratings and critical acclaim that would’ve come with following in the footsteps of its network brethren. It was afforded a lower profile (some might say total anonymity), and that allowed the show be exactly what it was, let it slowly become exactly what it became—which, hyperbole be damned, is a historically great television show, standing shoulder to shoulder with those titans it nearly joined on AMC and the HBO gems that paved the way for any of them to exist.

Daniel Holden (Aden Young) was convicted of the rape and murder of his girlfriend as a teenager, and spent nearly 20 years on death row. “Rectify” opens as he’s about to be released, shortly after some newly-tested DNA evidence contradicts the prosecution’s original case and a jury vacates his sentence. He’s now free to return to his family’s home in small-town Paulie, Georgia—though despite the vacated sentence, he’s still the prime suspect in the reinvestigation of the case, and he’s hated by the vast majority of the town’s residents. His sister Amantha (Abigail Spencer) never stopped believing in his innocence, and makes one awkward attempt after another to reconnect with him. His mother (J. Smith-Cameron), now remarried, just wants to make him comfortable as he readjusts to a life he thought was as good as over.

A more straightforward show might put Daniel’s guilt or innocence, and his family’s fight to clear his name, front and center in the narrative. But “Rectify” is much more interested in how Daniel’s return affects everyone in his orbit than in serving up dramatic revelations from a sensational murder investigation.

The richest drama, which continues to unfold in complicated and exhilarating ways throughout the series, comes from Daniel’s contentious relationship with his step-brother Teddy (Clayne Crawford) and his borderline-inappropriate relationship with Teddy’s timid, born-again-Christian wife Tawney (Adelaide Clemens). Our first impressions of Teddy and Tawney are as standard archetypes—Teddy is an abrasive prick of a husband and Tawney is a mousey weakling of a housewife. But, like the best fiction, those impressions are soon awash in so many shades of gray that they quickly become a distant memory. Daniel upturns the lives of almost everyone he comes across after his release, but the way he disrupts the lives of Teddy and Tawney and the shock waves that radiate outward from those disruptions provide the series its most intensely emotional moments.

As a character, Daniel runs the gamut from intensely compelling to quirkily off-putting to downright infuriating. Though he sometimes seems saintly and preternaturally gentle, he’s prone to violent outbursts and stupid decisions. Sometimes you want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him, because he could help himself in countless situations—legal, interpersonal, and otherwise—simply by explaining himself. But he seems incapable of doing so, instead freezing up or staring off into the distance or offering an obtuse soliloquy on philosophy or literature.

But all the ways Daniel is naturally infuriating speak to why “Rectify” is so much better than the sum of its parts. The slowly unraveling mysteries and the Southern Gothic small-town machinations are compelling, to be sure. But the human drama that arises from Daniel’s circumstances—buoyed by superb acting, stellar writing and gorgeous cinematography—is so deep and affecting that everything else becomes an afterthought. He’s a victim of fate, but he navigates the world as though he’s been given a gift—one containing endless and unspeakable wonders.

We should all be so lucky. 

The first three seasons of “Rectify” are currently available to stream on Netflix, and the entire series is available on iTunes.

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