UNFORGOTTEN is the best show on television. 

There. I said it. Granted, I have not seen every tv show, but with the premiere of Season 4 on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery, it is time to acknowledge that from the premise to the writing to the acting and everything in between, UNFORGOTTEN is extraordinary storytelling at its best. 

Season 3 concluded with DCI Cassie Stuart, played by Nicola Walker, deciding to retire. Her work investigating cold cases with DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) had taken a toll. But she has 3 months left before she can claim her pension, a regulation the Met refuses to budge on, so she returns just as her team is beginning their investigation into the death of a young man some 30 years earlier whose body has been discovered (sans head and hands) in a refrigerator.

UNFORGOTTEN tells seven separate yet connected stories, and normally, this would put me off a show. It’s a lot of threads for viewers to track, but this show does it so perfectly that viewers are not scrambling while they watch, but instead are simply transfixed. The five suspects are front and center, but the stories around DCI Stuart and DI Khan are also woven throughout. 

UNFORGOTTEN is one of those rare shows that does not tell a story at its surface, doesn’t just lead us on a step-by-step procedural journey. The procedure is there, of course, but the subtlety of the remarkable performances addresses the characters’ motivation to allow us to experience the often painful journey though the case. In that way, the experience of watching it is more akin to reading a book, which is the highest praise I can give a tv show. 

Unlike so many shows nowadays, UNFORGOTTEN does not rely on dual timelines. There are no scenes that start with a “30 Years Earlier” caption. Instead, we meet each of the suspects today, and as the investigation progresses, we learn more about how their roles in the events of the past have affected their lives. This includes addressing challenging societal issues—racism and sexism among them—in a manner that feels much more like real life than social media. 

As much as the stars, each of the the supporting characters in UNFORGOTTEN is remarkable, both in their roles in the story and the performances of the actresses and actors who play them. But as in the previous three seasons, Walker and Bhaskar stand out. They deserve all the awards available for bringing tremendous nuance and depth to roles that could easily have been caricatures. 

By the time viewers reach the heart wrenching conclusion of this season, they are so deeply invested in the story that it is impossible to look away from the screen, even for a millisecond. It is the very definition of unflinching. 

Apparently there is an American remake of this series in the works, which I find unfortunate because Chris Lang, the creator and writer, is not involved, and this series is so much more than its premise. Luckily, though, American viewers can see the original now on Masterpiece Mystery on PBS, the PBS streaming app, or Amazon. If you’ve missed any of the previous three seasons, they’re all available too. 

So I will finish as I began: UNFORGOTTEN is the best show on television. Don’t miss it.