The Spectacular is the story of two driven women who refuse to let anything stand in their way. Trouble is, they’re on different sides of the law: one’s a terrorist, the other is the cop hunting her down. They’re both working in what is very much a man’s world, with personal losses in their past, and yet neither allow their pasts to define them. These aren’t the straightforward avengers we’re used to, and the battlefield they find themselves on is increasingly murky.
It’s the late 1980s, and a British soldier comes out of a Netherlands pub after a night out, only to be gunned down in the street. The IRA has just opened a new front in their war on the UK’s military, targeting off-duty troops on leave and looking for a good time in the southern Netherlands city of Roermond in Limburg province.
All this really happened: two separate attacks in 1988 killed five British airmen and injured three others; two years later two Australian lawyers on holiday were gunned down by mistake.
Detective Jeanine Maes (Hadewych Minis) in ‘The Spectacular’. Source: Distributor
In The Spectacular, lead Detective Jeanine Maes (Hadewych Minis) knows she has to do everything twice as well to make her way in a department dominated by men. An expert in terrorism and its tactics, her hard work pays off when she’s put in charge of the squad assigned to track down and capture the IRA members responsible for the attack in Roermond. Totally focused on her work – even the recent death of her child can’t slow her down, despite the damage it’s doing to her relationship with her husband (Jacob Derwig) – she’s exactly the kind of devoted and driven cop you don’t want coming after you.
Rapidly her investigation zooms in on one IRA suspect: Fiona Hughes (Aoibhínn McGinnity). She’s earned the nickname “The Angel of Death”, which gives you some idea of what this pan-European task force is up against. As part of the terror cell working in Limberg, she’s not above using her looks to lure British soldiers to a secluded spot where her accomplice can gun them down. She’s just as relentless and driven as Maes: she even left her family behind in Belfast to go on her mission of death.
Aoibhínn McGinnity plays IRA member Fiona Hughes. Source: Jurre Rompa
The Spectacular is based on fact, but some of the characters are more factual than others. In real life, the person leading the Netherlands’ anti-IRA response was a man; on the other hand, “Fiona Hughes” is based on the real-life IRA member Donna Maguire, who was even more of a criminal mastermind than her fictional counterpart.
Across four increasingly tense episodes, Maes develops a kind of admiration of Hughes’ adventurous life. She may not approve of the choices made by the woman she’s hunting; her commitment to bringing her in never wavers. But there’s some understanding there about the need to push against the confines laid down by society, and The Spectacular does a great job of subtly (and not so subtly) reminding us that the world of the early 90s was in many ways a very different one from today. Big shoulder pads, clunky phones and lots of cigarette smoking are just the start.
It’s a man’s world crumbling down in ‘The Spectacular’. Source: SBS
The case itself rapidly hits a number of obstacles on the police side, even as Hughes’ and the IRA step up their campaign. A car bomb here, the murder of two Australian tourists there; who knows where it’s going to end? It seems like the IRA are always one step ahead, especially now that legendary bomber Declan Moore (Declan Conlon) is heading back into action and threatening an attack they’re already calling “the spectacular”.
While Maes and her team move between Roermond and Belfast in their desperate hunt for the killers, they find not every nation they deal with is on the same page. At home, it’s clear the Dutch government wants things settled quietly. Maes’ mentor (Porgy Franssen) seems more interested in the political side of things than justice. And in Ireland MI5 are working to place a mole in Moore’s unit. Tensions within the terrorist group are driving them towards their biggest attack yet, even as peace negotiations are ramping up between the IRA and the UK government.
Kerr Logan as Patrick Lynch in ‘The Spectacular’. Source: Distributor
Maes’ drive for justice could be putting the entire peace process at risk. But is peace worth it if it means a gang of ruthless killers will go free?
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