Not only do landscape artists benefit from the great performances of Colman and Thewlis, but it's a dark comedy that it actually is. Landscapers, starring Olivia Colman and David Thewlis as the central couple, is both a story of mystery and love based on real chilling and sad events. Here's what you should know about the true story that inspired the series. A life of obsession with cinema and memories, a fractured relationship with the family, a husband who seems to act with the utmost loyalty, all strange, sure.
But how did he lead to the murder? The Edwards have a story, while a police investigation uncovers something different. In dramatizing the story, Landscapers merges the two, blurring the lines between Susan and Christpher's reality and the real world to try to explain their way of thinking. In real life, according to the police investigation, the Edwards' motivation for murdering the Wyncherleys came down to money. It's essentially murder, but ultimately Landscapers is driven by Susan and Christopher's love story, featuring unmissable performances across the board.
Not only do landscape artists benefit from the great performances of Colman and Thewlis, but it is also a dark comedy that is actually tremendously funny in the midst of all the darkness. Often feeling unnecessary, tacky or exploitative, Landscapers manages to avoid all three, without claiming to possess a truth or push an agenda. Landscape artists are truly special, a truly unique vision of a terrible tragedy that should not lend itself to a comedy, but which has managed to do so remarkably by being kind, moving and unbeatable romantic. Landscape designers add an enigmatic style to an already incredible true story with varying results, but Olivia Colman and David Thewlis cement the absurdity with outstanding performances.
Where Landscapers really excels is in portraying the fantasy world to which Susan escapes during times of stress, when she imagines herself and Christopher as characters in the movies she loves. When Landscapers opens, Susan is spending money they don't have on signed photos of Gary Cooper, while Christopher, unable to get a job due to the language barrier, has a total meltdown. It's not the obvious premise for a comedy, but true crime has been reinvented like never before in Olivia Colman's intriguing Landscapers. Landscapers is a meditation on how many versions of reality can there be within a chain of events, on the impossibility of objectivity.
But Landscapers also increases the impact of its stars' performances by avoiding or minimizing awkward moments that could make it more difficult to empathize with the couple. A previous version referred to Landscapers as an HBO drama, when it is a Sky-HBO co-production, broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic; in addition, the series has four episodes, not three. Susan and Edward's scathing Line of Duty interrogations will take a turn when DC Emma Lancing (Kate O'Flynn) breaks through the fourth wall and takes spectators on a guided tour of the Landscapers set, launching into a dramatization of the murder of William and Patricia. Olivia Colman and David Thewlis play Susan and Christopher Edwards in the limited series Landscapers on HBO.
Landscape designers show that, as obsessive about cinema, the Edwards Susan especially see life in cinematic terms.