(This article contains spoilers for season 1 of Screw. You can catch up on all the action now at SBS On Demand.)
Beneath the banter and the drudgery, C Wing at Long Marsh Prison has always been a powder keg. The first season of Screw ended with the fuse being put out at the last second, but the death of an officer inside the prison isn’t the kind of trouble that just goes away. Whether you’re a shifty officer or a scheming inmate, there’s now a spotlight shining on you – and under that kind of pressure, nobody’s secrets are safe.
Senior officer Leigh (Nina Sosanya) has moved up in the world since we first met her. She was promoted towards the end of last season, though in the world of Screw that just means she has more to lose. Her big secret from last season has all been sorted, and she’s no longer spending her nights sleeping in a spare cell – in fact, she’s now got a new partner for sleazy hotel hook-ups. There’s only one downside: he’s also her boss, the prison’s new acting governor.
That’s the kind of gasp-worthy twist that makes Screw such gripping viewing. Series creator and writer Rob Williams used to teach art in prison (and volunteered inside them for years after that), and the dark comedy that runs through the series has the quirky feel of first-hand experience.
For every situation that seems a little unlikely, there are two more where truth is clearly stranger than fiction. Not to mention the grimly humorous banter that runs throughout the series, which is exactly the kind of coping mechanism you’d expect from people trapped (in one way or another) inside the system. It might be a grim situation, but a lot of those one-liners are pretty funny.
Inside the prison, many of the inmates stick together along national lines. The Latvians are trying to distil vodka in the radiators, which could have explosive results; the Kosovan prisoners are busy with a recipe for yogurt, which isn’t quite as innocent as it sounds. Everything seems a little low-stakes, as much about avoiding boredom than anything else – but when you have nothing to lose, even low-stakes schemes can lead to deadly results.
Nobody on C Wing knows that better than Officer Rose (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell). The newcomer who arrived at the beginning of the series, she’s now a little older, a little wiser, and still very much in over her head. Last season, she was part of an organised crime pipeline smuggling contraband into the prison. Things got so bad that she was trying to get herself sacked to escape (simply resigning would have only made it worse). The only relief was her growing friendship with Leigh, which offered some hope of finding a way out.
Now it’s her first day back after the events of last season, and it seems the hole she’s in has only gotten deeper. Her crime connections now blame her for the failures of last season, and they’re not exactly people with a live-and-let-live attitude. Now she’s forced to turn to her former gang contact Louis (Ben Tavassoli) to try and find a solution to the threat posed by a new arrival… if she can figure out a way to get him to help her.
The good news is, none of these issues are automatically career-destroying, let alone life-ending. If there’s one thing both officers have proven to be good at, it’s keeping a lid on secrets. So it’s just a matter of keeping their heads down and keeping the temperature inside the prison low… or it would be, if the prison wasn’t rocked by rumours that there’s an undercover cop on C Wing.
With his identity a secret from everyone, including the prison staff, the only thing they know for sure is that nobody’s safe. Leigh’s told by the acting governor to sort it out, one way or another. She’s got to uncover the undercover officer before the inmates sniff him out – because, as the governor kindly points out, another death on C Wing will mean the death of C Wing.
Of course, things are never that easy inside Long Marsh Prison. The undercover cop is a risk to everyone, even if Leigh does figure out his identity; Rose’s problems aren’t going away in a hurry, either. The future of the Wing is balanced on a knife-edge. And knives in prison? They’re always bad news.
Screw seasons 1-2 are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
