This 2009 Trilogy Starring Andrew Garfield & Sean Bean Is the Best Thriller Saga You've Never Seen

True crime fiction takes many forms, and explores many facets of the same stories. We have true crime sagas from the point-of-view of the criminals, from the point-of-view of the detectives, from the point-of-view of the victims, and many, many more. We have true crime sagas that posit unproven theories, true crime sagas that aim to solve decades-old mysteries, and true crime sagas that simply depict the closest version of the truth they can find.

Then there's the Red Riding trilogy, which is a different beast altogether.

Adapted from David Peace's novels of the same name, the three-part TV movie saga was released in the U.K. in 2009, and arrived in America the following year. From a distance, the story takes its inspiration from a real-life crime spree, that of the infamous English serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper. But don't come to this story looking for a rote recitation of facts, or even a clear sense of perspective with the benefit of hindsight. In Red Riding, true crime is a springboard, a chance to dive into the craggy, complex world of darkness that allowed such a criminal to thrive. It's a brilliant diversion from what you'd expect, and it's all streaming right now on Peacock.

Andrew Garfield, Sean Bean star in Red Riding trilogy

Set in Yorkshire around the time the Ripper was operating, the story takes place in three distinct time periods, each of which takes the name of a film: 1974, 1980, and 1983. Using the Ripper's crimes as a starting point, the films take a fictionalized approach to exploring not just a version of the crimes themselves, but the entire world around those crimes. We see these tragedies unfolding through the eyes of a cub reporter (Andrew Garfield), a grieving mother (Rebecca Hall), a real estate developer (Sean Bean), a detective (Paddy Considine), and all sorts of other often unsavory characters, each with their own role to play in a story that's so much bigger than a body count. 

Like Peace's books, Red Riding is not out to offer easy answers to a clear mystery. The Ripper of this story is not the same Ripper you might know from history, and his crime spree is not depicted with a neat set of clues and nested answers that all eventually point to an obvious suspect. Instead, the story is more interested in how Yorkshire responds to a monster in their midst, and how the culture surrounding that monster feeds it. Corruption abounds in the world of Red Riding, shady land deals and racism and police brutality and a host of other problems that are reflective of the real world of 1970s and 1980s working-class Britain, and it all seeps into your bones like a cold wind.

The characters, many of them tied to the corruption in ways they're both aware of and oblivious to, are then left with a dilemma much bigger than one killer. Their entire society is a crime scene, they're collaborators in it whether they like it or not, and they have to find a way through with something of their souls still left somewhere inside. That means remarkable performances, particularly from the likes of Garfield, and an endless complex string of interactions. 

These emotional and thematic threads, plus stylistic shifts that mark the passage of time courtesy of directors Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, and Anand Tucker, make Red Riding a remarkable meditation on the weight of true crime as it's unfolding in real time. Like James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia before it, it's one of those stories packed with meaning even when it strays from hard facts, and it does a remarkable job of making you feel the stress, the discomfort, and the sheer raw power of living through one of these moments. That all means it's not an easy watch, but if you're tired of the same true crime grind, it is an essential one.

The Red Riding Trilogy is now streaming on Peacock.