Get Millie Black is a British television series created by Marlon James, marking his debut as a television creator. it features a talented cast, including Tamara Lawrance as Millie-Jean Black, Joe Dempsie, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr and Chyna McQueen. The crime drama is set to air on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and HBO in the United States. The series, which premiered on November 25, 2024.
We meet Millie-Jean Black, a dedicated police officer in Kingston, Jamaica, in the first episode of the new series Get Millie Black. She is very involved in finding missing people, but her time as a detective at Scotland Yard in London is always close by. When Millie takes on the case of Janet Fenton’s disappearance when she was 16, she gets caught up in a web of lies, secrets and the return of someone from her past: Luke Holborn, a Scotland Yard detective with his own plans. As the investigation goes on, Millie’s past and present seem to be coming together, forcing her to face ghosts she thought she had left behind.
Get Millie Black Season 1 Episode 1 — “Millie”
The show starts with a scene from Millie’s childhood. We see her happily painting her brother Orville’s toenails, but then their mother comes in and screams at them. Orville is punished for something she thinks is disrespectful to men. When Millie is angry about how mean her mother is, she pushes her into a mirror. This starts a chain of events that will change Millie’s life forever. Because Millie’s mother is angry, she sends her to England. This is the start of Millie’s troubled relationship with her past.
Years later, Millie thinks about the social and personal ghosts that keep following her. Millie goes back to Jamaica after her mother dies, but when she finds out that Orville was never really dead like her mother said, she wants to find out the truth about what happened to her brother. Millie is determined to seek justice as an adult because of the death of Orville and the harsh environment she grew up in.
In Jamaica, Millie and her partner, Curtis (Gershwyn Eustache Jr.), are working on a case about Janet Fenton, who is 16 years old and has gone missing. Sister Agatha (Dorothy Cunningham), Janet’s teacher, says she is a model student but it’s soon clear that Janet has been acting strangely lately. According to her mother, Ruth (Sherando Ferril), she doesn’t care where her daughter is and even thinks Janet might be prostitution after seeing her with an older boy who drives a fancy car. Millie follows her clues to Janet’s room and finds a card for a strip club called Hot Pinky. This gives her more information about the case.
While Millie and Curtis look into it, Millie has to deal with how her family works, which isn’t easy. The place where her transgender sister Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen) lives is not safe for her. Hibiscus tells Millie that she’s been fine living alone for years and doesn’t want to move in with her. Millie’s anger grows, and when she goes to the police station, she sees Hibiscus being mistreated by being put in a cell with men. This shows how transgender people are treated unfairly in Jamaica. Millie pays the guard to let Hibiscus go, but it’s clear that their tense relationship is taking a toll on her.
Millie and Curtis go back to the case and talk to Hit Girl (Dorothy “Patra” Smith), the owner of the Hot Pinky club, about Janet. Hit Girl says she doesn’t know anything, but another dancer says Janet was seeing Freddie Somerville (Peter John Thwaites), a rich and promiscuous young man who often goes to the club. People know Freddie as a “rich boy who likes ghetto girls,” which suggests that he has darker sides, especially since he has been with girls underage in the past. Because the detectives think Freddie is involved, they decide to talk to his family about it.
When they get to the Somerville estate, Mr. Somerville (Paul Issa), laughs off their questions because he thinks Janet is just another girl his son is “slumming” with. Millie is not afraid to question his assumptions and keep going until she finds a clue that suggests Janet might have been pregnant. Before they can dig deeper, Millie’s boss calls and tells her she should not have questioned the Somervilles. Millie runs away to a bar, where she meets Hibiscus again and tries to persuade her to move in with her for safety. Hibiscus turns down the offer, which makes things worse between them emotionally.
Weird things happen in the investigation when Millie and Curtis are called to the Somerville house to find a dead body. The victim is badly scarred and has defensive wounds and signs of being forced inside. Millie finds Janet’s positive pregnancy test in the trash and thinks it belongs to her. When the police say the victim is Freddie Somerville, though, Millie is still not sure. She points out differences, like how Freddie has an earring on but the victim doesn’t. Freddie may have killed someone in self-defense and then run away but when Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie), an officer from Scotland Yard, shows up, the case takes a strange turn.
Holborn tells Millie that Freddie is a key witness in a well-known case in the UK and that Freddie needs to be kept alive. Millie, on the other hand, is interested in Janet and thinks that Freddie’s family is part of a bigger plot. Millie’s investigation runs into a brick wall. Her boss tells her to follow Holborn’s lead, but Millie won’t give in. She’s sure that Freddie’s family is part of a bigger plot and she’s set on finding out what really happened with Janet.
Hit Girl tells Millie that Freddie and Janet are hiding out in a house in the hills, which makes things very tense. Even though Millie and Curtis are on their way, Hibiscus and her friends are attacked first. This shows how dangerous it is to be trans in Jamaica. Men with cricket bats and crowbars surprise Hibiscus and her friends. Hibiscus gets away but Deltreece (Shaunak Antonia Wilson), one of her friends, is beaten badly and left for dead.
Millie and Curtis find Janet hiding at Freddie’s house in the end. Janet says she’s waiting for her boyfriend to come home, but before they can find out what’s going on, gunmen attack the house. A shootout breaks out between Millie and Curtis and Corsica (Nestor Absera), one of the men looking for Freddie. Even though Millie kills Corsica, the danger is not over and it is still not clear what will happen to Janet.
At the end of the episode, Millie is still standing over the chaos not changing her mind. The investigation into what happened to Janet Fenton has only just begun. As Millie digs deeper into the case, she must also deal with the ghosts of her past that could get in the way of her quest for justice. Get Millie Black promises to be a tense, thrilling crime drama with deep emotional stakes, and this episode sets the stage for what’s to come.
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