Wreck: What the Duck!

Wreck is a British comedy horror mystery series that premiered on the BBC in October of 2022, but has just recently began streaming in the United States on Hulu.  The story involves Jamie Walsh (Oscar Kennedy), a young gay man starting work on the Sacramentum, a cruise ship. Unbeknownst to his fellow crew members, he is actually there to find out what happened to his sister, Pippa (Jodie Tyack) who supposedly jumped overboard months prior.  Jamie is going under the name of Cormac Kelly, an identity he bought off the real Cormac (Peter Claffey) who could ruin Jamie’s plans when he decides to show up on the ship to try to win his girlfriend, Rosie (Miya Ocego) back. On Jamie’s first day he meets Vivian (Thaddea Graham), a young lesbian also just started working on the ship and the two quickly become friends and Jamie confides in Vivian why he is really there.  The two begin to investigate uncovering a drug ring operation when another murder occurs perpetrated by someone dressed as the ships mascot, a duck. Can Jamie and Vivian discover the truth about Pippa and survive or will they fall prey to the killer duck?  Watch and find out!

The premise of the show is interesting, and the setting is unique.  There are a lot of creepy vibes and some nice cinematography.  The humor is subtle and dark, and the production does a good job at not playing for laughs but allowing the levity to come from the situational elements and not from corny, over the top jokes.  The acting is all really good with Oscar’s Jamie being likeable and a bit awkward in an adorable kind of way.  He is young and determined to discover what happened to the only person he had left in his life.  Vivian is a strong character with some vulnerabilities that give her character dimension, she is fleeing a homophobic family. The supporting cast all do a good job creating a diverse group of characters, some likeable and some not so likeable. The story is intriguing and there is a good mystery to solve.  The writing was adequate and the overall production value high.

So, with all this going for it, the show should be amazing, right?  Not really.  The show is good and there is a lot to like, but it was missing something.  It didn’t have the magical spark that would make it special and stand out from the thousand other horror / mysteries shows.  It was intriguing enough to keep the audience’s interest and make them want to watch another episode and making the murderer someone dressed as a giant duck was a unique touch with the costume having good balance between creepy and cute, but this may not be a strong enough element to set the show apart.