Series / Eyewitness (2016)

Eyewitness is American remake of 2014 Norwegian crime miniseries Øyevitne, developed by Adi Hasak of Shades of Blue fame.

The series follows Philip Shea (Tyler Young) and Lukas Waldenbeck (James Paxton), a pair of teenage boys whose romantic encounter in a remote cabin is cut short when they unwittingly witness a triple homicide. Barely escaping with their lives, the boys vow to keep what they saw a secret because Lukas doesn't want anyone to know he's gay. Helen Torrance (Julianne Nicholson), a big city homicide detective turned small town sheriff, is hot on the killer’s trail but finds it increasingly difficult to balance her work with her newfound duties as a foster mother to Philip. To make matters worse, the FBI want the case buried and are doing everything they can to thwart Helen’s efforts to solve it.

The series aired on the USA Network in the Fall of 2016. Due to unsatisfactory ratings, it was not picked up for a second season.

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Tropes found in Eyewitness include:

• Abusive Parents: It's implied that when Bo drinks, he hits Lukas.
• Adapted Out: Helen had a whole task force in the original. In the remake she just has Tony.
• Addled Addict: Anne Shea, though she insists she's getting better.
• Age Lift: In the Norwegian series, the boys were fifteen. They are seventeen in the remake.
• Always Murder: Two overdoses and a suicide turn out to be staged.
• Armored Closet Gay: Lukas, though his denial of his identity has more to do with seeking his father's approval than it seems his personal feelings on homosexuality.
• Bittersweet Ending: For Philip. The killer may be dead, but so is his mom. Right as she was starting to get clean, too.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Bella, though many of her antics probably stem from her father being a career criminal.
• Cassandra Truth: The sixth episode deals with Philip telling Helen that Lukas saw the murders. Unfortunately, nobody believes him because Lukas refuses to corroborate his story and Helen catches him in another lie.
• Closet Key: Philip, for Lukas.
• Composite Character: Sita takes over both the role of Chris’s grieving widow and the biker who double crossed the gang by making a covert deal with Mithat.
• Crying Wolf: Helen finds out the story about Anne's boyfriend overdosing was a lie, therefore doesn't believe Philip about Lukas witnessing the murders. Episode 6 was at some point even supposed to be titled The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
• Cultural Translation: Tivoli, a town in upstate New York, takes the place of Mysen, Norway.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Philip, from having to grow up with a drug addicted mother. Helen, from her time as a homicide detective. She's haunted by children she failed to save, particularly the case where she accidentally smothered a baby while attempting to keep her quiet while hiding from a kidnapper. The incident nearly drove her to suicide.
• Death by Adaptation: Lukas’s mother was alive and well in the original.
  • In the original, Helen shows up just in time to rescue Philip's mother from an overdose. In the remake, she is far too late.
• Disappeared Dad: Philip’s father is never mentioned.
• Driven to Suicide: Sita, feeling abandoned by the Vescovis and facing jail time for the murder of Mithat, opts to jump off a bridge rather than face her fate.
  • Helen, from the events in Buffalo. (See Dark and Troubled Past above) She's inadvertently saved by running out of gas in Tivoli and running into Gabe. Ryan tried to use her old suicide note to stage her death and make it seem like not being able to solve the triple homicide drove her to overdose on pills.
• Fair Cop: Sheriff Helen Torrance and Agent Kamilah Davis both qualify.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sita tries to shoot up in front of her baby and tussles with the wrong crowd. Kamilah is an FBI agent.
• Foreign Remake: The original series, also titled Eyewitness, is from Norway.
• Foster Kid: Philip Shea.
• Gay Bar Reveal: Lukas thought Philip was going to take him to a “regular club” in the third episode. When it’s revealed to be a gay bar via a lingering shot of two men kissing passionately, he gets pissed off and leaves.
• Gay Guy Seeks Popular Jock: Philip and Lukas. Although according to Tyler Young and James Paxton, Lukas was the one to approach Philip first.
• Gayngst: Lukas struggles to accept his sexuality, and witnessing several people getting shot right after his first kiss with a boy doesn’t help at all.
  • James Paxton states that Lukas feels that the murders and the ensuing fallout are punishment for his sin of liking a boy.
• Gay Moment: The first scene in the cabin where Lukas compliments Philip’s camera work. Followed by some soulful eye gazing that makes Philip mistake Lukas’s intentions and make a move.
  Lukas: You’re amazing. [Beat] I mean, you’re awesome.
  • Luckily for Philip, Lukas’s initial panic wears off and he reveals that he’s into him too.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!: Helen’s experiences as a homicide detective in Buffalo almost drove her to suicide. She still keeps her suicide note in her old case files. Ryan found it and planned to use said note to stage her suicide when she was getting close to finding the truth, but stopped after he found out her newest lead was a dud.
• Heroic BSoD: Because Helen refuses to believe him and Lukas pushes him away and humiliates him, Philip breaks down and calls Social Services, demanding to be relocated. He then gets drunk and tries to crash Rose’s party, but ends up passing out by a car on her lawn.
• Happily Married: Helen and Gabe certainly are.
• Incompatible Orientation: Lukas and Rose.
• The Killer Was Left-Handed: Chris Petronelli was left handed, but his body was found holding his gun in his right hand, which leads Helen to deduce that the crime scene was staged.
• Leave No Witnesses: The killer would have shot Philip, if Lukas hadn’t intervened. He goes back to finish the job, but ends up killing the wrong kids because one of them borrowed Philip’s distinct bomber jacket, which is the only detail the killer saw of Philip. When he finds out that Lukas was the actual witness, he tries to kill him too.
• The Loins Sleep Tonight: Lukas attempts to have sex with Rose but can’t get hard.
• Maternally Challenged: Helen is obviously uncomfortable with parenthood, listening to audiobooks on the subject and speaking tersely with Philip. Gabe, by contrast, is warm, easygoing, and communicates well with his foster son.
• Men Don't Cry: Lukas sneaks away from a memorial assembly because he doesn’t want people to see him cry.
  Lukas: I can’t be crying like some bitch, not in front of the whole school.
• Missing Mom: Lukas’s mom died when he was 6.
• Mood Lighting: The colors in the show are dark and desaturated. Not surprising, as Catherine Hardwicke is one of the directors and executive producers.
• Never Suicide: Ryan killed Bella and made it look like suicide, and when Helen was getting close to finding the real killer he planned to do the same thing to her, even going to far as to use her old suicide note, but changed his mind when he heard that she never ended up finding the gun.
• Noodle Incident: The only thing of note that ever happened in Tivoli before the triple homicide was something involving a bear.
  • Tony brings it up again in the finale, fully intending to tell Helen all about it but due to the tense situation they're in she tells him to save it for later. It's never brought up again.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Being a cop in Tivoli is extremely boring, which is the way Helen likes it.
• Papa Wolf: Mithat might be a morally corrupt heroin kingpin, but he loves his daughter and would go through great lengths to protect her.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Tony, Helen’s eager but inexperienced deputy.
• Secret Relationship: Lukas and Philip have one.
  • Not so secret after the finale. In the epilogue, Lukas has fully embraced his sexuality and isn't afraid to be affectionate with Philip in public.
• Shell-Shock Silence: When Helen wakes up after the explosion. The same effect is used to signify Lukas’s fragile mental state, as well as the killer’s when his secret gets closer to being exposed.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: When Philip threatens to tell Helen everything, Lukas pushes him up against the wall and kisses him, begging him not to.
• Straight Gay: Philip and Lukas.
• Suicide by Cop: In the finale, Ryan raised his gun as if he intended to shoot Helen and Philip, but she shoots first. When she examines his body she finds out that his gun wasn't loaded.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Lukas and Philip in the second episode, after drinking hand sanitizer.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Chris Petronelli is introduced as though he's a main character, only to be killed off within minutes of the first episode.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Lukas, in spades.
• Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: The club Philip takes Lukas to in the third episode.