Cracked: The Verdict So Far

Back in early January I posted an article about the new Canadian crime show, Cracked, which looks at crimes that involve people with mental health issues.

I have watched two episodes and about to watch a third and I wanted to share my thoughts on the show.

Cracked is fine. It has it’s flaws but it has some things I like in it also.

The main male character, Aidan, has unspecified mental health issues and he’s teamed up with Daniella who is a forensic psychiatrist. How I watch this show is by seeing how they are showing discrimination as being embedded in every day life.

Using Aidan as an example, he is constantly checked on and watched while working and people can watch this show and take it two ways.  One way people can take this is that Aidan NEEDS to be watched, that his boss is totally right to be suspicious. Or two, the constant need to know what he’s doing and how he’s doing is showing that the boss doesn’t trust Aidan because of his mental health issues.

Other examples include the constant need to pathologize behaviour, assuming everything “strange” is mentally ill, thinking we can see mental illness, and believing mental illness means that a person is incapable.

I do like that Aidan has issues but continues to work and do what everyone else does (because that’s generally how we live), Daniella is compassionate and wants to make sure that people with mental health issues are treated properly by the police, and so far it is showing that if a mental health issue is a factor in a violent crime that it does not mean the person is evil.

There are three incidents that come to mind when I think about why I’ll keep watching this show.

The first one is from the first episode when Aidan and Daniella are trying to figure out how who stab a teen boy in the chest and the insert a light bulb into his chest. Daniella is pathologizing like there’s no tomorrow and Aidan is trying to tell her it could easily just be a robbery and this exchange happens: 

Daniella: You think the killer was using logic when he put the light bulb in a boys chest?

Aidan: Probably not but I’ll start with logic and you can start with evil unicorns and we’ll see who solves it first.”

(Here’s link that includes a clip of that scene)

I laughed out loud!

The second was at the end of the first episode when they are going to catch the murderer who is a young man with schizophrenia who is using the light bulbs to bring people’s power back to his Mother to cure her stage 4 lung cancer. The young man (who’s name I forget) is holding a knife to his chest, hoping that he has enough power to save his Mother, and Aidan put his gun to his own head, hoping to stop the young man from stabbing himself. Aidan begins to say to the young man that he knows what it’s like to have something inside of him that just won’t shut up, that sometimes that voice tells the truth but sometimes it lies. 

I was left feeling a little emotional because I knew what Aidan was talking about and I’m sure many of you will too.

The final incident was a man experience apocalypse hallucinations while in severe mania. Aiden and Daniella at first thought he was the killer of a young woman (he was covered in blood that wasn’t his or his son’s) but in the end, by sharing his experiences of that night through his hallucinations, he allowed them to solve the murder!

Happy ending!

It’s also a bonus that the show takes place in Toronto so I’m familiar with the scenery and the names of places!

If you get a chance to watch the show I would like to hear what you think!

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