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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Forget Davos. The real game-changers and earth-shakers are meeting somewhere far more exclusive and remote. In a secluded corner of Iceland, at a futuristic hotel — less five star than Death Star — a tech entrepreneur has gathered some of the world’s finest minds for a summit tackling impending global disasters. Among them are roboticists, astrophysicists, disrupters, activists and, curiously, a true crime author. Just as well, as one of the guests will soon be dead.
Ironically for a show set in such an isolated expanse, the new seven-parter A Murder at the End of the World largely ends up going over familiar ground. As a whodunnit unfolding at a retreat for the elite, it recalls last year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery; as a Nordic-set noir led by a punkish female hacker-cum-sleuth, it evokes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Though stylishly executed and sufficiently intriguing, it offers less entertainment than the former and fewer dark thrills than the latter — and no Daniel Craig.
Instead we have Clive Owen starring as icy technocrat Andy Ronson and Emma Corrin as Darby Hart, a coroner’s daughter who has lately turned a cold case into a red-hot bestseller. After a bookshop reading — which prompts a lengthy flashback to her unofficial investigation and whirlwind romance with fellow amateur detective Bill (Harris Dickinson) — she’s approached by an AI avatar inviting her to a getaway organised by a reclusive billionaire.
Before she can figure out why she’s there, Darby is blindsided by the revelation that, of all the clandestine conventions in the world, this one is also hosting Bill, whom she hasn’t seen in six years. Their aching reunion is soon interrupted by a shocking death, however. An unfortunate accident, says Ronson; murder, insists Darby, who begins to follow her suspicions.
The presence of all-knowing, data-harvesting digital assistants and discussions about the merits of “alternative intelligence” in everything from art to environmentalism bring a contemporary resonance to an otherwise traditional twisty mystery yarn. Darby is a distinctly Gen Z gumshoe, her grit married with tech-savviness and sensitivity, but the slightly derivative plot and laboured thematic commentary might leave you feeling a little cold.
★★★☆☆
First two episodes on Disney+ in the UK from November 14, then new episodes weekly. On FX and Hulu in the US
