Tin Star

Our Review

Tim Roth as an English police chief in the Canadian Rockies with a whiskey bottle in one hand and a dark secret in the other. Tin Star is a revenge tragedy in the key of Twin Peaks: Jim Worth, an ex-Scotland Yard undercover cop, relocates his family to Little Big Bear, Alberta, a town about to be transformed by an oil refinery — and his violent past follows him, along with a corporate enforcer (Christina Hendricks, clearly enjoying herself) representing the company transforming the region.

Roth is the whole show: the choice to play Jim’s blackouts as a full separate character (Jack, the violent alter he compartmentalizes) is either brilliant or ridiculous, depending on the episode — by the end it’s both, deliberately. The Alberta mountain scenery is a character, the small-town eccentrics are well-drawn, and the escalation from police procedural to full-on western bloodbath is confidently staged. Three seasons, complete story.

Verdict: Watch it. Fargo by way of the Rockies with a British accent.