There’s a new sheriff in town…and her name is Millie Black.
Detective Millie-Jean Black is the protagonist I’ve long awaited for. She’s brash, fearless, selfish, frustrating, and the perfect mix of self-destructive that reminds me of the female characters I love the most. Within a sea of British female detective stories such as Mare of Easttown, Marcella, and Happy Valley, HBO’s new limited series Get Millie Black, strides against the current, not only because of its forceful protagonist, but in the complex themes and harrowing stories it explores.
Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
As the first episode begins, viewers are immediately dropped into the sunny and skittish streets of Kingston, Jamaica: the capital city of the island country with a massive influence on the world. Despite Jamaica’s global influence, Get Millie Black is the first show in my memory that dares to portray the country in this light; an honest, unflinching portrait that paints the heart of Jamaica in more colors than the typical ‘guns and gangs’ or ‘steel pan drums’ and ‘irie’ Western media is used to seeing.
We’re introduced to Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance) in her youth and the close bond she shares with her sibling, Orville, who is cruelly and relentlessly bullied by the pair’s homophobic mother. Millie and Orville seek refuge within each other until a violent incident gets Millie shipped off to London, propelling her on her hero’s journey. As an adult, Millie becomes a Scotland Yard detective investigating missing persons cases, all the while yearning to reconnect with the sibling she misses back home. Running from her present and back to her past, Millie returns to Kingston to save the sibling she thought she’d lost forever and rescue the lost children she encounters in a means to save herself too. What follows in the ensuing five episodes (four of which were available for review) is a noir, crime thriller with increasing twists and turns that set every nerve ending on fire until its thrilling conclusion.
Not a moment onscreen is wasted on the unnecessary. Every word uttered and every person we meet ties in to the bigger mystery at hand. Each episode is narrated from the perspective of a different character who is trying to decode the mystery that is Millie-Jean, introducing us to the bevy of people integral to this narrative.
We meet Curtis (Gershwyn Eustace Jr.), Millie’s partner and closest friend. Just as eager to solve cases as she is, Curtis puts himself in the line of fire in more ways than one to support Millie, much to the dismay of his boyfriend and fellow JPF (Jamaica Police Force) colleague. Curtis is pulled between two worlds as his dedication to his career forces him to hide his relationship and his sexuality.
Photograph by Des Willie/HBO
We also are reintroduced to Millie’s sibling and the driving force behind her choices, Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen). After her transition and the death of her mother, Hibiscus goes to live in the Gully, Jamaica’s sewer systems that are real- life home to LGBTQ+ Jamaicans seeking refuge from societal ire and looking for the freedom to be themselves. Despite Millie’s attempts to save Hibiscus from the dangers of her life on the streets, she insists on staying with her sisters in the Gully—the only place that has ever allowed her to be her truest self.
Photograph by Des Willie/HBO
Another major player is Detective Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie), dropped into the middle of the narrative and right into Millie’s world. He’s a celebrated Scotland Yard detective come to shake up Millie’s world as his investigation in the UK intertwines with her missing persons case. The intermingled investigations lead the two detectives to butt heads at different turns as they unravel each step of the mystery as it unfolds.
Photograph by Des Willie/HBO
As a Jamaican-American, who has visited several times and whose family is from the island and still mostly lives there, I was excited to witness this production. It was clear in every scene the intentionality to maintain an authenticity to the real life setting as much as its fictionalized characters. Most notably, most of the dialogue in the show is spoken in Jamaican patois, the native language of the country which 97% of the population speaks. So many shows set in Jamaica about Jamaicans (made usually by people who are not Jamaican) try to toe the line between Standardized British English (the official language of the island) and Jamaican patois in a way that sees the native tongue on the losing end. What audiences are accustomed to is a homogenized, sing-songy accent that muddles patois’ distinct cadences and rhythms by infusing so much English, the Jamaican accent sounds like a Miss Cleo parody. Creator and executive producer Marlon James’ commitment to not bending or twisting patois to make it palatable and digestible for audiences is refreshing. I didn’t once roll my eyes or laugh in bitterness because the accent I grew up hearing and the language my family communicates in was finally represented in its full glory. So what if viewers have to read subtitles just to understand? They do it all the time anyway.
I was also pleased to know that the majority of the cast and crew of Get Millie Black are Jamaican or have Jamaican heritage. Marlon James is from Jamaica as well as Chyna McQueen. Tamara Lawrance is British-Jamaican, lead director Tanya Hamilton was born in Jamaica, the supporting cast were all Jamaican actors, and though not Jamaican, Gershwyn Eustace Jr. is British-Trinidadian. In an interview, James told The Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica’s national newspaper, “’We hired more than 200 Jamaicans as crew, and 98 per cent of the cast is Jamaica[n]. It’s five episodes, four of which were shot in Kingston and Hellshire. At every single turn of this Jamaicans were so wonderful and helpful and wanted this thing made, and now we are here, and this [is] something which I never really thought I would say … mi can tell mi modda seh mi a mek TV show’”.
Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Photograph by Destinee Condison/HBO
Get Millie Black was created and executive produced by Booker-prize winning author, Marlon James and is his first foray into scripted writing. It is also co- executive produced by Jami O’Brien and Simon Maxwell. The limited series is a welcome challenge to the typical crime thriller audiences are used to. It is intriguing not just because it’s a narrative that focuses on Black (specifically West Indian) and LGBTQ+ people. Get Millie Black is exciting because it stares straight into the soul of a country and society it admires enough to portray all of its sides—good and bad. It examines the ills that permeate Jamaican culture; effects of post-colonialism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, colorism, abuse and reflects it back to viewers through the lens of a police investigation and the woman at the center of it all. There were stunning, heart wrenching performances all around especially from Lawrance, McQueen (in her first ever role), and Shernet Swearine, who plays Janet Fenton, the young school girl at the center of Millie’s missing persons case. All three women, all in different stages of their lives, struggle against the constraints of their circumstances and fight to claw their way past the suffocating traumas that follow them with every step. The narrow balance between anger and despair each actress brings to their role cuts deep to the heart and pulls viewers closer and closer so that every win and each heartbreak feels more high stakes than the last.
Having not seen the finale, I’m left with many questions and just as many answers because I finally got to see a Jamaica that looked more like what I’d come to know of. A Jamaica I’ve been begging to see and one I’d to talk about with anyone who would listen to me. We having a saying in Jamaica “we likkle, but we tallawah” which roughly translates to “We’re small, but mighty”. It means that although Jamaica is a small, impoverished country, it is filled with a people and culture whose impact has touched every corner of the globe. And though we’ve waited decades for it, the island powerhouse will finally get an international stage to exhibit its realities and not its stereotypes. As creator Marlon James says, “This is the first major international TV show to put my home country, Jamaica center stage…”
While Get Millie Black is certainly the first of its kind, it was well worth the wait for something like this to come along.
Get Millie Black premieres tonight, November 25, at 9pm on HBO and Max and will premiere in the UK in 2025 on Channel 4.
