The first season of Rectify is well acted, well written, and much smarter and more engaging than I'd expected

 The Sundance 4-season series (now on Netflix) Rectify (2013-16) is so much better than one would expect from material that could easily have been hackneyed or melodramatic. The basic plot (Season 1) concerns a 40-something man, Daniel Holden (played very well by the laconic Aden Young) who'd been held 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, a teenage classmate in their small, prosperous Georgia town. Daniel is released based on new DNA evidence and returns home, but he's like a stranger in a strange land - so much has happened at home and in the world and he's missed so much of life's experiences that he's a near-helpless innocent, now in a world viciously hostile to him, in that many in the town believe him to be guilty and free just on a "technicality" that they don't or won't understand. So there are many intense conflicts and rivalries, and the creator, Ray McKinnon, and his team play them out with subtlety and w/ highly intelligent writing. Through several painful flashbacks we see pieces of Daniel's life in prison, and in the present we see, in Season 1, the foundations of a lot of the frightening hostility that Daniel faces and will face - and throughout we can believe in all of the characters, even the haters; nothing's overplayed and randomly abusive. Oddly, the first season ends w/out any major resolution and w/ many open questions - as if McKinnon knew that this would play out only in 2 seasons or more; the first season is like a preview, in some ways. Among many highlight scenes: Daniel's sister telling off the sheriff who won't protect the family from violent harassment; Daniel's account to his hateful stepbrother of "conjugal visits" on death row; Daniel's baptism and its aftermath. Definitely a season to stay w/ for Season 2 and beyond.