Get Millie Black is a gritty crime drama created by the Booker Prize-winning novelist Marlon James, marking his first work written for television. A co-production for HBO and the UK's Channel 4, the five-part series is among the first major HBO dramas set and filmed largely in Jamaica, steeping its mystery in the streets, patois and social fault lines of Kingston.
Tamara Lawrance stars as Millie-Jean Black, a Jamaican-born detective who trained at Scotland Yard before returning home to work missing-persons cases for the Jamaica Constabulary Force. When a routine disappearance collides with a Scotland Yard investigation led by a visiting detective, played by Joe Dempsie, Millie is pulled toward a dangerous web of trafficking and long-buried family wounds. Gershwyn Eustache Jnr plays her partner Curtis, and Chyna McQueen appears as Millie's sister Hibiscus.
The limited series earned rapturous reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, holding a perfect critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and drawing praise for its performances and its vivid, unsentimental sense of place. It aired on HBO and Max in the United States in late 2024 and on Channel 4 in the UK in early 2025. It streams on HBO Max.
Like fine red wines, pate de foie gras, and escargot, Criminal Minds probably is an acquired taste: The crime drama psychoanalyzes the psychoanalysts, definitely building tense drama, but ironically downplaying the crimes. The New York Times has described Criminal Minds as "cerebral," a euphemism for "nerds with guns." Brilliant writing and compelling characters, however, make it work. The stories represent an elite team of specialists"”the FBI's "Behavioral Analysis Unit" "” who, in just forty-four minutes, can deconstruct a crime, profile a criminal, and bring everything to a profound resolution complete with quotation from literature. Naturally, the feds encounter resistance from local enforcers eager to protect their turf. Just as naturally, many of the stories spark viewers' recognition, because they are "ripped from the headlines." Two features sustain viewers' interest in this sometimes too-heady-for-primetime series: First, every audience loves a good hunt for a psychotic serial killer; and, second, in Criminal Minds, many of the good guys are almost as twisted as the bad guys.
