Line of Duty

[Stanfordian]

finishes this week and i did not want to let it pass without comment

very fine acting and writing in a plot of brilliant indeterminacy

a virtuoso interrogation scene in last epiisode and we will have to rethink Ms Hawes as rather a lot more than eye candy .... stunning portrayal of ... [we will know soon!]

Hiya aka Calum Da Jazbo,

It certainly makes for compelling watching. Some of the terrible happenings will have put off a generation of Police recruits.

[eighthobstruction]

A bit OTT in plot sometimes (re level of corruption: right down to 2 prison warders on same shift)....but very good....Hawes must have put on a couple of stone as part of character....but very good at keeping it all together so far (as with first series....which had a proper ending)....I reckon Morton [Neil Morrisey] will play a part....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well if they can't tell the difference they should be put off

want a shed load of documents any one?

[Paul Sherratt]

We'd somehow contrived to overlook this series ... so downloaded five episodes and were hooked enough to have to watch the whole lot in
in one sitting, finishing at 1.30 am last Saturday. And we were having to get up again at 6.00 am for work.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i doubt the end to the first episode can be bettered!

[JoeG]

Utterly brilliant - even better than first series and possibly the most thrilling drama I have seen. Jed Mercurio is an excellent writer - I remember watching his hospital drama - the only one I have ever watched (mind you Helen Baxendale may have also had something to do with that!)

[DracoM]

And it's just about to start!!

[Barbirollians]

thought that was rather a let down.Maybe that was the point to make the criminality so mundane.

[Hornspieler]

thought that was rather a let down.Maybe that was the point to make the criminality so mundane.

Excellent up to last week, this final episode sank into completely inexplicable nonsense; leaving us to work out who were the baddies and who were the goodies and finally printing an epilogue as if this were a true documentary.

New characters suddenly appeared from nowhere and the heroine turned out to be the guilty one all along.

Bah! Fiddlesticks!

Hs

[Richard Tarleton]

I thought it was rather beaten by the clock - a bit of a scramble at the end. It almost needed another episode. The switch into flashback mode I found rather a lurch, it was suddenly narrating from a wholly different point of view...but as Denton wasn't about to confess, it was the only way of telling the story. I googled "Line of Duty plot summary" in a search for enlightenment and found this, in my view excellent, review. It cleared up a few things for me. Overall outstanding TV.

Here's her review of episode 5. There's a link to reviews of earlier episodes at the foot of each one. The review of episode 2 reminds us that there was another lengthy, virtuoso interview scene in episode 2.

[Flay]

For those like me who missed the last episode, it is repeated at 10.30pm on Sunday.

[Richard Tarleton]

For those like me who missed the last episode, it is repeated at 10.30pm on Sunday.

Oh dear! Hope you didn't read Hornspieler's post! Spoiler alert!

[Flay]

Oh dear! Hope you didn't read Hornspieler's post! Spoiler alert!

No, I was very careful to look away

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hmm. If clear-cut "goodies" and "baddies" and stories with clear-cut beginnings and endings are necessary, then yes, I can see that the last episode might seem disappointing. Better to stick with the excellent Shetland and DCI Banks for those features.

SPOILER ALERT

But the point of Line of Duty is that it's an ongoing story continuing between series: features left "in the air" at the end of series one were carried over into this series, and will no doubt continue todeve;op in series three. The basic ethos is that there are no clear-cut dividing lines between "goodies" and "baddies" - the whole puzzle behind this series has been whether of not Denton was an innocent being set-up by her corrupt senior, or actively involved in the murder of the police officers in the first episode. As it turns out, the solution was "neither" (or, if you wish, "both"). The parallel question about the guilt/innocence of Dryden had an equally brilliant "neither"/"both" "solution"). No "new characters suddenly appeared from nowhere" - everybody who was involved in the last episode had appeared in earlier episodes (if anything, the opposite was true - with the murder of Jessica Raine's character after episode one, or Mr Akers after part three. And the way Dot was accepted onto the AC-12 team right at the end ... just like that chord when Salome kisses John the Baptist's head!

Things aren't simples: and I loved the assumption of maturity that the writer gave his audience - so rare in TV drama. Greatly looking forward to Series Three (after a break to get my breath back).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Hmm. If clear-cut "goodies" and "baddies" and stories with clear-cut beginnings and endings are necessary, then yes, I can see that the last episode might seem disappointing. Better to stick with the excellent Shetland and DCI Banks for those features.

SPOILER ALERT

But the point of Line of Duty is that it's an ongoing story continuing between series: features left "in the air" at the end of series one were carried over into this series, and will no doubt continue todeve;op in series three. The basic ethos is that there are no clear-cut dividing lines between "goodies" and "baddies" - the whole puzzle behind this series has been whether of not Denton was an innocent being set-up by her corrupt senior, or actively involved in the murder of the police officers in the first episode. As it turns out, the solution was "neither" (or, if you wish, "both"). The parallel question about the guilt/innocence of Dryden had an equally brilliant "neither"/"both" "solution"). No "new characters suddenly appeared from nowhere" - everybody who was involved in the last episode had appeared in earlier episodes (if anything, the opposite was true - with the murder of Jessica Raine's character after episode one, or Mr Akers after part three. And the way Dot was accepted onto the AC-12 team right at the end ... just like that chord when Salome kisses John the Baptist's head!

Things aren't simples: and I loved the assumption of maturity that the writer gave his audience - so rare in TV drama. Greatly looking forward to Series Three (after a break to get my breath back).

much as i felt though i needed a replay to get the 'real' Denton story - a tragedy of good intentions ..... MS Hawes stunned me by her inhabiting a body so clearly not her own and a character so completely damned by fate