Acceptable Risk

Elaine Cassidy as Sarah Manning.

With Acceptable Risk, Acorn TV has delivered television's best conspiracy drama in a long time. It starts with what appears to be a straightforward crime--the murder of a senior sales representative for a powerful pharmaceutical company--and then unravels into a complex spider web of global and intimate implications.

The protagonist is Sarah Manning (Elaine Cassidy), a former corporate attorney for Gumbiner-Fisher, a mammoth drug company with headquarters in Dublin. Sarah and her husband of 18 months, Lee Manning, have decided to have a baby. It's a major family decision, considering that Sarah has two children from her first marriage. Tragedy strikes, though, when Lee is murdered during a business trip to Montreal.

Angeline Ball as the detective.

When Detective Emer Byrne (Angeline Ball) assists the Montreal authorities with their investigation, she discovers that Lee and Sarah's activities were being monitored with sophisticated tracking equipment by someone working in the U.S. Embassy. Meanwhile, Sarah realizes how little she knew about Lee's life prior to meeting him at Gumbiner-Fisher. None of his American relatives can be contacted, not even his parents. When a woman claiming to be Lee's ex-wife shows up, Sarah is understandably skeptical. 

Matters only worsen when involved parties start to turning up dead and questions begin to arise about how Sarah's first husband Ciarin died. Sarah's sister Nuala goes so far as to suggest that Lee may have killed Ciarin. It's an interesting claim, especially considering that Nuala and a former business partner may somehow be involved with Ciarin's death.

With its myriad subplots, Acceptable Risk needs a heroine that the audience can believe in and root for. Elaine Cassidy (Harper's Island) provides that with her aggressive performance as the truth-seeking Sarah. Angeline Ball (The Commitments) complements Cassidy effectively as the dogged detective. In the early episodes, the two actresses excel at showing their characters' mutual distrust in one another. As the series progresses, Sarah and Emer gradually learn that their shared drive to uncover Lee's killer binds them together and they form an unlikely friendship.

Evil Dr. Hoffman.

Unfortunately, while the show boasts strong female protagonists, it settles for an obvious, creepy villain. As played by Morten Suuballe, Dr. Hoffman, the head of Gumbiner-Fisher, sets off bad-guy alarms with his first appearance. It would have been much more effective if he turned out to be ruthless, but ethical.

There are other minor flaws, too, such as when the intelligent Sarah acts irrationally or provides too much information during a conversation. I was especially bothered when she allowed her teenage daughter to be left home alone after taking the kids out of school as a precaution. Keep in mind that the house's security system had been breached earlier.

Overall, though, these are minor quibbles. Acceptable Risk is an engrossing, entertaining conspiracy drama that juggles multiple mysteries and takes aim at shady international politics and business dealings. Who could ask for more?

All six episodes are currently streaming on Acorn TV.