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Penny might be forthright and fallible – she has boundary issues, she’s impulsive, her dinner is often chunks of cheese and red wine – but she’s also thoughtful, warm and community-minded. We see her riding her bike around a beautifully shot Wellington to an environmental action group, basketball games, and a life-drawing class where she models. Each is affected by her anger and her inability to be still; even in the life-drawing classes, she’s on edge.

There are no heroes in this complex tale, and each episode throws up more doubt and questions, echoing the state of Penny’s mind. Has she had too much to drink the night of the party? Are other incidents that caused doubt throughout her marriage also wrong?

Malcolm is astonishing as a woman determined to seek justice, even as her behaviour affects her job and starts to alienate her closest friends and her own family. It’s disappointing that her portrayal of a complicated middle-aged woman often seen without make-up or styled hair, remains noteworthy; not since Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown has someone in a TV series looked so … real.

Peter Mullan is also superb as the charismatic Phil, the “cool dad” that everyone loves, and the supporting cast equally terrific, especially newcomer Tara Canton. The great overarching question that hangs over the series is answered in the finale, but the conclusion of this startlingly powerful drama is not neatly tied up. Like life, it is complicated and messy.