Hit & Miss

In this unusual British TV crime drama, American actress Chloë Sevigny adopts a Northern Ireland accent to play Mia, a transgender assassin who becomes the guardian of her former lover's orphaned kids, including 11-year-old Ryan (Jorden Bennie), who—as Mia learns—she fathered before her sexual transformation. While Mia takes on a string of assignments to earn enough money for a final sex-change operation, her attention is often redirected toward the volatile brood of scrappy teenagers and adolescents she now has to take care of, including teen Riley (Karla Crome), who becomes involved with a bullying married man named John (Vincent Regan), who also happens to be the landlord of the property where the family has been living. Shameless creator Paul Abbott crafted this show from two separate projects, but they never quite meld. Still, you have to give credit for its brazen approach: in the first few minutes, we see Sevigny show off female breasts and a male prosthetic. The most interesting part of the narrative is Ryan's attempt to come to terms with the fact that his father is a woman, but that storyline unfortunately gets lost in the violent surrounding melodrama. Presenting all six episodes aired on DirecTV in the U.S. in 2012, the series ends abruptly and it is uncertain whether a second season will be filmed. Extras include cast and crew interviews and a Q&A session. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)