Most true crime series emphasize the "true" part, aiming to give audiences a sense of what really happened in wide-ranging and complex cases. Right from its opening titles, HBO's Landscapers makes it clear that it won't be that kind of show. A title card informs viewers that in 2014, Susan and Chris Edwards were convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but they continue to maintain their innocence. "This is a true story," the next title card reads, and then the word "true" fades away. It's closer to the fake disclaimers at the beginning of each episode of FX's Fargo than to a typical true-crime narrative.
Creator and writer Ed Sinclair and director Will Sharpe push the boundaries of truth throughout the four-episode series. As the Edwards present their account of what happened to Susan's parents William and Patricia Wycherley, the police construct an entirely different narrative. All of Landscapers' main action takes place more than 15 years after the Wycherley's were killed. It's set around when Chris (David Thewlis) and Susan (Olivia Colman) turn themselves in to the police after spending years living on the run. As Landscapers opens, the couple is living in Paris, and if not for a fateful phone call that Chris places to his stepmother, they probably could have evaded the authorities indefinitely.
But the couple has fallen on hard times, with Chris unable to get a job due to his poor grasp of French, and Susan spending their meager remaining savings on expensive movie memorabilia. Chris calls his stepmother Tabitha in hopes of procuring a loan. He admits to her that he and Susan may have done something that might look bad, admonishing Tabitha not to tell the police. Tabitha goes to the police anyway, and that's how they find out that in 1998, Chris and Susan buried the dead bodies of Susan's parents in their backyard.
Susan describes the situation to her lawyer as "a bit of a pickle," and the mild-mannered, polite couple seem convinced that it's all just a silly misunderstanding that can be easily cleared up. Once the secret is out, they make an orderly surrender, traveling from France with train tickets that the police have bought for them. They've had 15 years to get their story straight, and they're confident that it's airtight. They claim that Susan's mother shot Susan's father and that Susan then shot her mother -- but only in a moment of confusion as her mother was making horrible threats and accusations. Chris, they claim, was not present, and he only found out a week later when the couple returned home to bury the bodies.
Of course, their story is not airtight. The police immediately set about poking holes in it. Landscapers presents the details of the crime and other past events in impressionistic flashbacks, often stylized to resemble the classic movies that both Susan and Chris loved. In some instances, the characters interact with actual old movie footage, while at other times they're presented as if they're the stars of a vintage Hollywood Western or romance.
Sharpe frequently breaks the fourth wall, showing actors walking from one set to another, past cameras and crew members, changing wardrobe or breaking character. It's a reminder that everything here is a constructed version of reality, including Landscapers. The show doesn't have any more claim to the truth than the Edwards or the police do. As the evidence mounts, it seems likely that Susan and Chris may have done more deliberate planning of the murders than they're willing to admit, but it's also clear that Susan's parents abused her for her entire life.
Colman and Thewlis are both excellent, maintaining the connection between Susan and Chris even as they're kept apart, and throughout all of Landscapers' meta trickery. Their love remains pure and immutable. Landscapers treats them with care without suggesting that what they did was excusable. The police characters, led by Kate O'Flynn as a relentless detective, are less successfully presented, and Landscapers plays many of their interactions for awkward comedy. It's another deliberately off-putting storytelling technique, but its purpose is muddled.
As the series progresses, though, the filmmaking style becomes more daring and more understandable, climaxing in a final episode that is almost entirely impressionistic. Thankfully, Sinclair and Sharpe have earned the audience's trust by that point, and in the process, deconstruct the notion of what a true crime story looks like. Compared to the current glut of uninspired true-crime documentaries and docudramas, Landscapers is bold and bracing. It's a haunting, melancholy story about two people who are devoted to each other above all else -- including the truth.
Landscapers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT starting Dec. 6 on HBO.