This thriller about a successful lawyer with a beautiful family drags a bit – until things go bananas with prescription drugs and night terrors
But Emma is the protagonist in a British psychological thriller, of the kind that used to blaze across two breathless episodes on ITV midweek, but now hangs around for six rather more pretentious ones on Paramount+. So Insomnia, adapted from her own novel by Sarah Pinborough, says to Emma: nice upper-middle-class life you’ve got there. Be a shame if something absolutely bananas happened to it.
But this landmark is not just an ugly number: when Emma and Phoebe’s mother hit 40, her mental health problems worsened, causing the girls to be taken into care. Now Emma is having trouble sleeping, with visions of her mum’s disturbing night-time behaviours. The news that her mother has been transferred from her secure facility to a hospital deathbed ratchets up Emma’s own instability.
Getting there means navigating one of those stories that relies on suppressed memories bubbling to the surface when dramatically convenient. If everyone could just remember everything now, they could save us several hours of viewing time, and save Vicky McClure from having to do so much anguished staring in sweat-soaked silk pyjamas.