Despite its obvious seriousness, this is closer to the cynicism of a straightforward crime thriller.
Mann's baroque visual style added a noir atmosphere to otherwise fairly straightforward crime films, with their emphasis on investigative procedure.
And although a "Beast" killer is ultimately unmasked, Wright resists the temptation to give us any kind of straightforward crime story.
The case involving Mensch, who received threatening emails, has been linked to the bill but it was, in fact, a straightforward crime of someone sending offensive communications.
However, a straightforward crime drama might actually have taken more care with plausibility and with the dramatic rhythm of what Dr Davin discovers and when.
Even seemingly straightforward crime dramas such as ITV's current hit Unforgotten are saturated in grief, focusing not just on the murder under investigation but on the despair the victim's mother kept trapped inside her for years.
Yet I'd be blind not to acknowledge that there is a portion of this generation so angry, so apparently disaffected, they feel driven or able to commit unjustifiable acts of anarchy and, in most cases, straightforward crime.
It is more than a straightforward crime thriller; at its dark heart are the threats, pressures and judgments made on women – from domestic violence to ageing, to how they approach motherhood.
It wouldn't do to give too much away about a play that is on one level a straightforward crime drama, but suffice it to say that these three must play perpetrators and their victim, police detectives and their suspect, and, as the poetic and often very funny script puts it, "some kinda imaginary urban wildlife".
What begins as a compelling but comparatively straightforward crime story set in Akron, Ohio – bestselling but bereaved author becomes curious about the mysterious death of a local recluse – takes a sharp left turn into the space-time continuum and infinite improbability takes over as events begin to fold in on themselves.
