Review: Gareth David-Lloyd’s New Web Series "Girl 9" is a Cross Between "24" and "Saw"

David-Lloyd, left, and Joe Absolom

Ex-Torchwood actor (and AfterElton.com favorite) Gareth David-Lloyd has a new web series, debuting this week on Fearnet.com, that’s a cross between 24 and Saw (with a little The Silence of the Lambs thrown in).

Police have finally captured the serial killer Vincent Boylan (Joe Absolom from Doc Martin and Personal Affairs), and it’s up to David-Lloyd’s Matheson to interrogate him.

But despite being handcuffed to a chair in a reinforced steel cell, Vincent is far from powerless. It seems he knew he was going to be caught – or maybe he wanted to be caught – and he’s set up in advance a few aces for him to play. Soon Matheson realizes that his capture of the killer isn’t quite done, and this “interrogation” is just another game of cat-and-mouse in their long-running battle of wits.

The series, which is told in real time over six five minute episodes, includes most of the tropes of the genre: the ticking clock, the girl in danger, the brilliant and seemingly all-powerful killer, and the unprepared detective who turns out to have a very personal stake in the outcome.

In the serial killer genre, this is all extremely well-trod territory. Then again, this is a web series, not a movie, and they do a pretty effective job of working within the constraints – the lower budgets, the time limit – of the medium. Much of the series is set in the darkened interrogation room, but the result is an intentional, and very effective, claustrophobia.

The performances are good too, especially Absolom.

The series’ biggest problem? Once the show reveals its most shocking twist (in the fourth episode), there isn’t another twist, another reversal of fortune, in the final act. Instead, things play almost exactly as you’d expect, which just isn't all that satisfying (although the episode does get credit for "going" somewhere bold in the sixth episode).

Girl 9 premieres Tuesday on Fearnet.com.