Starts off so well but really turns crap by the end. I was so impressed by the opening few episodes that I sent out e-mails messages saying as much, largely due to the electrifyingly good central performance by Martin Freeman, who remains great throughout the decline, as does Ian Hart in his episodes, despite sporting the worst wig in TV history.
By episode three the cracks begin to emerge. Freeman’s Carson fails to make one single arrest on any shout out emergency he responds to. The main plot has him protecting a dim drug traffiker who has nicked £300,000 of cocaine off serious drug lords, but he goes soft on anyone he deals with after threatening them with police brutality on the way. It peaks when he pulls over a spectacularly drunken driver who turns out to be a vicar, who even says he’ll do it again. Letting him go for the sake of his job would be nice if not for the obvious risk he presents to everyone else on the road.
Even the drug drama peters out. Carson (Freeman), easily hides the drugs in a police incident cupboard, and tells a serious drug lord who had his mate (Hart, himself a major drug dealer who threatened to kill Carson’s estranged wife) stabbed and set on fire) that she isn’t really a bad sort because she only acts to protect someone already in prison, though she behaves with extreme cold hearted professional calculation, even frightening Hart’s character after he himself proves so intimidating.
The tone throughout becomes, if you only turn criminal because you are stressed it’s OK. Carson himself seems so on the edge and stressed to the eyeballs that sending him out as a forlorn hope first to the scene responder seems bizarre. Everyone, police and criminals alike, know he is on the edge. He is in no fit state for such duty. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be employed while mentally ill, just not in a hard front line job that can only worsen his condition.
Adelayo Adedayo plays her role well as a rookie cop who really shouldn’t be in the force, as she is shocked and unable to handle virtually every situation she encounters, and wants to blow the whistle on everyone but doesn’t know where to start. She is eventually relegated to putting the kettle on while Carson sorts out the suspects, witnesses and grieving relatives. Her only chance to shine is when she exposes her abusive boyfriend in front of his boss and workmates at the firestation where he works.
The final episode amounts to Carson getting everyone off his back and easing his tensions one by one before going back on the beat with his uneasy alliance with his partner alone still to address. It’a a tying up loose ends and putting ribbons on them ending.
Well acted, but superficial, with a message that no one is a criminal or evil. They’re just a bit stressed and they’ll stop it (even after committing a few murders) if you chat with them and offer them a cup of tea.
Arthur Chappell
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