Review: Netflix's 'Toxic Town' Is Decidedly Not the Feel-Good Series of the Year

Netflix’s latest British miniseries, Toxic Town, is basically a laundry list of things you’d rather not see on television: toxic waste, birth defects, the heartbreaking deaths of babies, and deadbeat dads. That it remains as watchable as it is owes a lot to its phenomenal cast, led by Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who) and Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus), with strong supporting turns from Robert Carlyle, Rory Kinnear, Brendan Coyle, and Joe Dempsie, among others.

Dubbed the British Erin Brockovich, Toxic Town is based on the Corby Toxic Waste case. The short version: Corby was a booming steel mill town until the ’80s when the mills shut down and 10,000 people lost their jobs. Over the next 15 years, the city attempted cleanup, hauling toxic waste through town to a quarry. The dust from the dump trucks coated the city, seeping into the air and, ultimately, into the lungs of pregnant women. Over the next decade, birth defects — particularly limb deformities — spiked.

You can probably guess where this is going. But credit to writer Jack Thorne, director Minkie Spiro, and the stellar cast for making it an engrossing ride nonetheless. Whittaker and Wood play two of the mothers, Susan McIntyre and Tracey Taylor, whose children suffered the consequences. Susan’s son was born with a limb defect, while Tracey’s daughter died shortly after birth. Rory Kinnear plays the barrister taking on the case, while Brendan Coyle plays the city council leader doing everything in his power to avoid legal responsibility. There’s also a nice turn from Stephen McMillan as a reluctant engineer caught in the middle.

The four-episode series follows the familiar beats of a legal miniseries, but the well-drawn characters keep it compelling. Whittaker’s Susan is a tenacious single mom navigating the endless surgeries her son undergoes to make his hand functional, while Wood’s Tracey is drowning in grief and guilt over her daughter’s death. The show doesn’t dwell too much on the horror of infant mortality, instead focusing on the fight for justice — and on making Coyle’s character an absolute bastard of a villain.

Let’s be honest: it’d be a real shit series if the city won. So I don’t think I’m spoiling much by saying there’s a legal victory in the end, bittersweet though it may be. But more than the verdict, Toxic Town is about the people we meet along the way. It’s not exactly uplifting, but it’s an absorbing journey toward justice in an era when justice often feels out of reach.