• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 19, 2023

A suburban housewife resorts to murder when her past suddenly catches up with her.

She believed she had made a clean sweep of her past life long ago. But now she has to make another “clean sweep” of her movements, actions and pieces of evidence related to a murder she commits in Episode One of “Clean Sweep,” an aptly named drama coming to Sundance Now and AMC+ on Thursday.

The six-part series comes fresh from Ireland, where it premiered last month, a little over four weeks ago.

The murder committed by the woman, Shelly Mohan (Charlene McKenna, above photo), has an air of ambiguity. 

She brought a gun to a confrontation with a figure from her past who has been stalking her -- perhaps merely to wave it around and scare him. But it is doubtful she really wanted to shoot him, much less fatally. 

The revolver is one of two kept in a small safe in her home, which she shares with her husband, Jason (Barry Ward, also pictured above), their teenage daughter and slightly older teenage son, and a younger son who suffers bravely from an unspecified chronic condition.

The handguns have to do with Jason’s job. He is a detective in the local police department.

Since it is a small department in a community where there are comparatively few murders, he gets the assignment to investigate a murder that his own wife committed.

As much as anything else, “Clean Sweep” is about secrets and the cost of keeping them. As Episode One unfolds, Shelly’s inner life is revealed to have already been a spider’s web of secrets having nothing to do with the murder she just committed.

Shelly is a stereotypical, modern, harried, suburban mom dealing with an obnoxious teen son, an ailing small one, all the household chores and responsibilities, and a husband who works long hours.

At one point in the first episode of “Clean Sweep,” he admonishes her for her boozing and pill-taking. Meanwhile, she suspects he is having an affair.

There is no evidence of one -- just the assertions of two people whose testimony is wholly unreliable.

She even dabbles in a possible affair herself, but loses her courage when the man she has gone off with at midday to a windy seaside dune moves in to kiss her.

Was she really intent on having an affair with him, or was she just leading him on or testing herself? It is the same kind of question raised by the murder. Did she intend to kill the guy or just threaten him?

Watching Shelly suffer with her secrets and her fears is an intense experience. The question at the heart of her struggle seems to be: Can she make a “clean sweep” of her life history and all its defects and regrets -- or will she learn that there is no “clear history” button for real life?

“Clean Sweep” premieres on Thursday (June 22) on Sundance Now and AMC+.