I've mentioned before how emotionally invested I get myself into books and television programmes. I've found myself getting attached to characters I've created myself in the past too. It's normal, right? Maybe. But when it's a story of this emotional intensity, I think it's a natural reaction to be crying by the end credits.
'The Crash' shouldn't have appealed to me. I shy away from things I know will upset me at certain times. But, something made me want to watch this two part drama.
The story revolves around a group of friends, their ages aren't ever specified but at a guess I'd say they're all around the eighteen-nineteen mark. Main character, Kate (Sacha Parkinson) has returned home from university for Christmas. Instead of a romantic reunion with boyfriend, Tom (Lewis Rainer) the couple are dragged out to the pub by their friends. The scenes flip between two cars. The first driven by Tom, the second driven by Ethan (James Burrows). This is the most intense section of the whole programme. As a viewer, we know what's coming, but it's waiting for that one tiny misjudgement that causes it. Immediately after the crash, we're shot six months into the past.
The flashback scenes are told before, during and after the school prom. You see how the group interact with each other, how their friendships and relationships develop and decisions about the future are formed. They talk about how they wouldn't want to be without one another (Kate's move to university sparks this off) and it's upsetting because you've already seen what happens in the future, but so many things are still uncertain.
In that first episode, the bit that really got to me was seeing how the teens parents reacted. Rachel's (Georgia Henshaw) parents run across a field towards the crash site. And Kate's parents drive over in their car. There's arguments with police and paramedics and it's so desperate and agonised. Of course by the end of the first episode, viewers will have learned of two fatalities, one is very obvious, the other is a huge surprise at the end. And we are left wondering who will survive the second episode.
The second episode is immediately after the crash, keeping up the intensity. It's quite fast paced at first. Parents are making their way to the hospitals their children have been sent to. The first ten minutes are heartbreaking. I don't want to give absolutely everything away, but it made me cry. We learn of everyone else's fate, death or survival and how the parents react to the outcome. In particular I found Tom's section of the episode extremely upsetting. Again, without giving too much away, there's a lot of tension between him and his mother towards the end. It's interesting to see how family life plays out after such a horrific accident, even more so when Ethan and Tom face trial to see if the crash was an accident or if they'll go to prison for causing death by dangerous driving. The group's dynamics change dramatically throughout the episode, and Rachel in particular goes through such a transformation.
The ending is very poignant. The survivors head to the crash site for the first time in months. A few choice words are had, but things are resolved as a group of school friends turn up brandishing red balloons to let off into the sky. Now, I was crying at this point! The end scenes don't include much dialogue, if any at all, but it's so emotionally charged, it can still move even the stoniest of hearts.
'The Crash' really does make you think twice. The story is a true one. Car crashes do kill a lot of young people every year, but the point of this two part drama wasn't to highlight boy racers or young people being reckless. Tom's character makes one misjudgement and it costs lives. The other characters aren't distracting the drivers, no one is drinking or doing drugs. It is simply a mistake, one accident that changes everyone's lives forever. And I think that's the biggest impact. Accidents can happen by being reckless, of course they can, but the point of this wasn't to bathe young drivers in a bad light, it was to simply highlight the risks and cause awareness.
If you haven't watched The Crash, but want to (have tissues at the ready) you can on the BBC3 website.
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