‘Rectify,’ it’s all about the character

Few people would want to see a TV drama that could be described as a character study. More than ever, viewers expect dramas to be driven by strong plots, preferably in long arcs that can stretch for a season or longer.

Sundance’s new series “Rectify” bucks that trend, placing a compelling main character in various situations that gradually deepen our understanding and empathy but don’t move him much beyond point A. Although this stasis may puzzle some viewers, the show is engrossing throughout its six episodes.

Premiering with two episodes tonight at 9 p.m., the series covers the week after the release from death row of Daniel Holden (Aden Young), who was convicted of the murder of a fellow high school student but has been freed because of the discovery of DNA evidence implicating an unknown assailant.

Daniel, who seems to have been psychologically fragile to begin with, is socially and emotionally unprepared to rejoin his mother, Janet (J. Smith-Cameron), and sister, Amantha (Abigail Spencer), in the same small Georgia town where his alleged victim’s family still lives. Amantha still feels she has to defend Daniel.

The district attorney who prosecuted Daniel’s case, Ronald Foulkes (Michael O’Neill), now a state senator, wants the current DA to retry him.

Complicating things further, Daniel’s mother has remarried: Her husband, Ted (Bruce McKinnon), and Ted’s son, Ted Jr. (Clayne Crawford), now run the tire business formerly owned by Daniel’s late father. Janet and Ted Sr. have a teenage son, Jared (Jake Austin Walker).

The seeds for major plot developments are planted early and soon show signs of sprouting, but they never really grow. The show is much more interested in having Daniel confront people or situations that reveal who he is and how he became that way.

Encouraged by his lawyer to give a speech outside his prison, Daniel speaks in an oddly bookish tone that reflects the fact that he has been living in isolation with only reading as entertainment. In flashbacks, we learn that he befriended a convicted child murderer named Kerwin (Johnny Ray Gill), with whom he conversed through an air duct.

Ted Jr. pretends to try to befriend Daniel, mainly so he can discourage him from joining the family business. When Ted raises the subject of the women who sometimes fall in love with death-row inmates, Daniel responds by describing an act of sexual violence in prison, which sounds even more horrible delivered with Daniel’s odd vocabulary and flat affect.

Daniel’s adventures range from banal — he puts on a suit and tie to go to the optometrist — to surreal. In episode 5, he takes a road trip with a scary stranger (W. Earl Brown), with whom he steals some goats and then gets into a fight.

Ted Jr.’s naïve wife, Tawney (Adelaide Clemens), befriends Daniel and encourages him to get baptized in her church. This plot thread has its comic potential, but like most of the show, it turns out to be deeply sad.

Though “Rectify” clearly has good guys and bad guys, it’s to the credit of the writer, Ray McKinnon, that nearly all of the characters surprise us at one point or another. The dialogue is both vivid and naturalistic.

As Daniel, Aden Young never seems to be reaching for either laughs or pity, although he gets both. Despite his reserved performance, by the end of the sixth episode we feel we know Daniel well.

While being grateful for that, most viewers will probably wish for more story. It’s conceivable that “Rectify” was meant to be 13 episodes or longer and was simply cut off after six.

But those six episodes are well worth watching. Maybe McKinnon can rectify the plot issue in a second season.