Oscar Kennedy
I was ready to hate Wreck. Promos for the horror-comedy-slasher-thriller-whodunnit bristled me. The killer, a vacant-eyed duck furry, seemed too ridiculous to be frightening; the genre hodgepodge felt over-inflated. And yet…
The series, a British import from BBC Three (which targets the network’s younger audience), first aired in the UK in Oct. 2022, and takes place largely below deck on a cruise ship called the MS Sacramentum. It opens with a staffer aboard, a woman named Pippa (Jodie Tyack), jumping from deck into a stormy sea to escape from the aforementioned murderous duck. Knife in wing, the duck is ready to kill, and Pippa refuses to be a victim.
Fast forward three months, and Pippa’s 19-year-old brother Jamie (Oscar Kennedy) has talented Mr. Ripley’d his way onto the Sacramentum, to solve the mystery of what happened to his still missing sister. Pippa, it seems, was at the top of the cruise ship social hierarchy, which means her disappearance has ruffled nearly everyone’s feathers. Jamie is, as his love interest Olly (Anthony Rickman) says, “bottom of the ladder, when it comes to nonsensical, cruise ship, subculture,” which allows him to move somewhat in the shadows.