Jeri Jacquin
Coming to Bluray from Cinemax and HBO Home Entertainment is
a stunning series that will leave you on the edge with QUARRY: The Complete
First Season.
It is 1972 and the world is dealing with the Vietnam War.
Mac Conway (Logan Marshall-Green) has returned home to the town of Memphis with buddy Arthur
(Jamie Hector). Both trying to get back into their lives, finding jobs to help
financially with their families has become difficult because of an incident
that happened while in Vietnam .
Mac returns to wife Joni (Jodi Balfour) and tries to find a
job as a coach but it doesn’t work out. Arthur returns to wife Ruth (Nikki
Amuka-Bird) and works on being a father to his sons, including Marcus (Joshua
J. Williams).
After a dip in his pool, Mac meets The Broker (Peter Mullan)
and Karl (Edoardo Ballerini), two men who are about to make him an offer. He
shows Mac $30,000 in cash saying it is all his to become a contract killer. Mac
can not see this as an answer to his problem and The Broker packs up the money
walking away.
The Broker also approaches Arthur who takes the money but
needs Mac’s help. Only asking his friend to be a lookout Mac agrees. What
started out as an easy way to make money goes horribly wrong and Mac is now
responsible for the return of the $30,000 which gets away.
Knowing he doesn’t want his buddy’s wife to know what really
happened, Mac now must carry out hits until The Broker says the debt it paid
now. If that isn’t hard enough to deal with, Mac learns that Jodi hasn’t been
exactly upright herself with a man named Cliff. Imagine who Mac takes out first
in his new job.
The police are getting involved as Det. Tommy Olsen (Josh
Randall) wants to solve this case quickly. He begins to work the case
discovering that he knows the victims sister Sandy (Kaley Ronayne). Mac is
still trying to figure out how to handle what is happening and visits his
friend Buddy (Damon Herriman) looking for more answers.
Mac also visits his father hoping Dad can give him the money
to pay back The Broker. Ruth is about to meet Moses (Mustafa Shakir), a man who
also knows The Broker and he wants to find out how much Ruth knows about the
missing money.
In the meantime Mac and Buddy are off to do a gun deal that,
of course, also goes wrong but the extra clean up means more money is taken off
the $30,000. Suggs (Kurt Yaeger) is watching what Mac is doing and gives him a
message kidnapping by kidnapping Joni. Now Mac is in anger mode and will not
stop until he has Joni back. Needing the help of The Broker he has to hide with
her in an old motel.
In hyper vigilant mode, Mac looks at everyone coming and
going out of the place. Suggs isn’t letting go easily doing some investigating
of his own to find Mac and Joni. During a confrontation in their room that
leads to a mess, Mac must now tell Joni everything. Detective Olsen digs deeper
and still believes that Mac has something to do with Cliff’s death.
Not in town to help his buddy’s son Marcus, he comes close
to being hurt when a bus of African-American students is under attack. Home safely,
Marcus and Ruth watch as the man responsible is finally arrested.
Mac and The Broker are talking because there are questions
as to how much Joni knows. Convincing his boss that Joni knows nothing, he
returns home to find money from his father but nothing even close to what Mac
needs. Knowing who the next hit is, Mac does what is necessary to reduce his
debt while Moses searches Ruth’s house for the original $30,000.
While all of this is happening, Mac doesn’t know that Joni
has been talking to his father about selling the house. During a showing, The
Broker visits pretending to be a buyer getting information from Joni about what
they are up to. The missing money is discovered by Marcus who doesn’t tell
anyone what he has found.
What happens next with Mac is out of control as a carnival
becomes the meeting point and a showdown that has everyone turning on each
other. Finally, the whole story of what happened in Quan Thang bring to clarity
as who is responsible. Once all the bloodshed is over, Mac deals with a man
from his past and pays The Broker the rest of his buddy’s debt.
But nothing is ever that easy to walk away from.
Logan Marshall-Green as Mac is absolutely amazing and I
think I’m a little bit in love. He plays this character hard core and even with
moments of emotion with his wife, it is difficult for Mac to find any solace or
peace. Of course that seems a tad strange considering what this character is
willing to do but after two tours and horrible final experience in Vietnam , what I
consider strange and what Mac considers strange depend on perception.
Marshall-Green seems so engrossed in this character that I’m almost afraid to
see him smile.
Jodi Balfour as Joni is a woman who has watched her husband
slowly turn into someone she almost doesn’t recognize. She is also a woman
trying to keep their home, work and take care of everything while Mac is away.
Once Balfour understands what is at stake, she almost has to figure out how to
fix it and live through it at the same time. Wonderful performance by Balfour.
Nikki Amuka-Bird as Ruth and Joshua J. Williams as Marcus
are dealing with the death of Arthur. Ruth works hard not knowing what killed
her husband or why and Marcus makes a find of his own and it could cost him.
Damon Herriman as Buddy works well with Mac and has an
interesting relationship with his mother and although he wants to walk away, I
don’t see it happening. Josh Randall as Det. Olsen has an itch to solve this
case. He feels as if he’s following all leads but becomes clear that Mac has
something to do with it all. Kurt Yaeger as Suggs is definitely someone to be
seriously afraid of.
Mustafa Shakir as Moses definitely has a duality problem
here. Looking for the original $30,000 and discovering if Ruth knows anything
about it makes him the sneakiest criminal. That being said, he also seems to be
developing feelings for Ruth which means when the time comes a decision will
have to be made.
Other cast include Aoibhinn McGinnity as Mary, Skipp Sudduth
as Lloyd, Happy Anderson as Det. Vern Ratliff, Olafur Olafsson as Credence
Mason, Tom Noonan as Oldcastle and Ann Dowd as Naomi.
HBO Home Entertainment has an extensive array of
critically-acclaimed and groundbreaking programs found on Bluray, DVD and
Digital HD. They have provided viewers with some of the most amazing programs
with huge fan bases that include the shows True
Blood, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, True Detectives, The Wire, Entourage and Game of Thrones. Launched in 1984, HBO
is world wide in viewed entertainment in more than 70 territories around the
world! For more of what they have to offer please visit www.hbo.com.
The Bluray and Digital HD includes Deleted Scenes-a fascinating selection of more than two dozen
deleted scenes from Season 1, Inside
Quarry-get an inside look at each episode of QUARRY with the cast and crew, Quan Thang Inquiry Scenes-Check out
declassified interview footage in which Mac and other soldiers testify to the
events of the Quan Thang Tragedy, About
Quarry-delve inside the setting, characters and storylines of QUARRY with
the cast and crew.
Also found on the Bluray is Music of Memphis-join the cast and crew for an inside look at the
classic R&B soundtrack and live music seen in the show, Recreating 1972-the cast and crew of QUARRY reveal how they
turned back the clock to recreate the sets and styles of Memphis in 1972, Love Letters-hear the recorded
correspondence between Mac and Joni while he served in Vietnam, Car Chase Picture in Picture-join
QUARRY star Logan Marshall-Green for this action-packed look at the staging of
a rough-and-tumble car chase from the series
and Music Videos-watch a
collection of music videos featuring some of the blistering tracks from the
series.
TUBS OF POPCORN: I give QUARRY: The Complete First Season
four and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. This is a fantastic series filled
with twists, turns, stories within stories, hallucinations, memories,
flashbacks, cold-heartedness and so much more. Every time I thought I knew what
was coming, I was pleasantly (or unpleasantly) kept guessing. Nothing is worse
than figuring everything out before it happens.
Yes I am intentionally once again being vague because this
is another amazing series from Cinemax that is worthy of experiencing for
yourself. The cast should be so proud of themselves for making a series that
has us all waiting for Season Two!
QUARRY came to television creator Graham Gordy, Michael D.
Fuller and director Greg Yaitanes via novels from Max A. Collins.
In the end – every man has something worth killing for!
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