THE FALL SEASON - TUESDAY

Tuesday has thrown up a mixed bag this fall. Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) is like Marvel without superheroes. I mean, you expect super powers from a marvel story but none are on display. Agent Coulson, who died in one of the films is alive again and in charge of a squad made up of a super soldier, two nerdy boffins, a pilot with a history that she doesn't like to talk about ( but that provides us with flashbacks) and a hacker that they meet on their first outing. They deal with the uncanny and the superhuman, seeking them out and bringing them in for readjustment. It is the same kind of easy watching as Sleepy Hollow, no thinking required but good fun.

CBS are showing my favorite program of recent times - Person of interest. In its second series the big brother spying background seems appropriate what with Mr Snowdens recent revelations, and all. POI is about the surveillance state. A computer genius, Harold Finch played by Michael Emerson of Lost fame creates a machine that analyses data and comes up with names of potential terrorists. However, Harold created a back door into the system to deal with the victims and perpetrators of other crimes that were not related to incidents of terrorism and were being disregarded. All he gets is a social security number. He doesn't know if the person is to be stopped or saved. He recruits an ex special ops soldier called John Reece (Jim Caviezel, number six in The Prisoner remake). Reece deals out the necessary violence and has help from two police officers. Season two has introduced a new member to the team, Reece's old partner in special ops. That's right, the one that tried to kill him. I still love this show although I was sad to see Carter get killed. I rather liked her.

This is the kind of program that falls in to the category of "predictive programming". According to believers in predictive programming the elite are about to radically change society. They want a world govt and international laws that will replace national laws. PP is supposed to get people prepared for the coming changes by subtly releasing information in popular tv shows and movies. This is supposed to soften people up before the implementation of change and also persuade people to accept the changes. I'm not sure if there are statistics to show if it actually works or not but my instinct is that it wouldn't work. I think that people for the most part can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. It would be a lot more logical to push ideas through bogus news stories and documentaries. At least these are made with an assumed air of plausibility which can sway the viewer.

SARAH SHAHI Becomes a regular in the new series

Whatever else it may be POI is gripping and entertaining. In addition, it turns out, it may not be far from the truth either.

Moving on, the CW has gone all spooky, airing The Originals from 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm followed by Supernatural (9.00 to 10.00 pm). The Originals is a new show which is based around a family of a brother, sister and half brother who are the original vampires, now centuries old. At one time they were big in New Orleans but left. Now, 80 years later they return, because half brother Klaus (who is also half vampire and half werewolf) wants to reclaim their own kingdom.

 This is a fantasy world which includes as inhabitants vampires, werewolves and witches, as well as humans. The Vampires rule, have thrown out the werewolves and forbidden witches to practice magic. This kind of stuff is not normally my cup of tea but I have to confess I have found The Originals to be quite fascinating. There are plot twists all over the place that keep it moving forward and good interplay between the main characters. Daniel Gillies is quietly menacing as Elijah Mickaelson and his half brother Klaus, played by Joseph Morgan  is great as the volatile half breed who's usually uninterrupted blood-lust has been slightly tempered by the news that he has got a werewolf girl pregnant. It turns out that half breeds are super powerful so there are those from each community that want his baby killed.

We now go from new program to one that seems will never reach an end. I used to really love this show but it is now downgraded to "like" status because I keep asking myself, What next? I mean the Winchester boys have opened the gates of hell and the world is overrun by demons. To beat them Sam went to hell, coming back, now possessed by the Devil, he has to rid himself of Satan and close the gates of hell. Then in heaven (where the angels are every bit as bad as the demons of hell) there is a power struggle because god is missing, no-one knows where he is. Somewhere along the line Dean gets sent to purgatory along with Castiel, an angel, and takes an entire series to get out. Next they manage to get tricked into shutting down heaven which results in all the angels being expelled and becoming fallen angels who await the receipt of a human host. Oh, and prior to this they stopped the apocalypse so I'm now wondering where the show is going. I hope that is accurate, apologies to fans if not- its season nine and Im working from memory.

 They still do great random comedy episodes such as the recent Halloween special, but I thought that the writers had it nicely sewn up a few series back (possibly season five). The world was saved from an apocalypse, they were settling down with families: it seemed a good place to end it. Mind you, part of me still doesn't want it to end. Another part of me, however thinks that they are now flogging a dead horse.

The final journey in to fantasy for the night comes courtesy of the family channel and is called Ravenswood. It is a spin-off from the Pretty Little Liars series and is a lot less graphic than the previous two shows (well obviously, it's on the family channel, Duh!). Mind you, I'm getting sick of the gratuitous sex and violence on TV. I wish that we could go back to the days when things were just implied. At least it kept the viewers imagination alive. Ravenswood is about a town of that name which a young man and a girl he has befriended on the bus are on their way to. When they get there they see a cemetery which has their graves and the grave of three other teenagers, who they happen to bump in to. The girl has an uncle that they stay with. He is the town Mortician and is decidedly weird. Anyway to be brief the five kids end up in a car together, have a crash and the new girl is killed. Fear not! however, as she hangs around as a friendly ghost and a story begins where the kids want to know why they are targeted for death. They do some research and discover that there have been accidents in the past involving five teenagers. Against this backdrop they discover that there are malevolent spirits that are out to get them.

It's a pleasant show but I suspect it is way too tame for most adult tastes.

Well that's Tuesday done. I am trying not to get too in depth with the analysis. I just want to give a feel for what the shows are like and return to them when the seasonal festivities are over and the tv schedule returns to something like normal, because I'm not sure what is on a mid season break and what is back to its regular slot in the new year.

The Fall season

A round up of the fall season in the states

It has been a long time since I last commented on the content we viewers are offered on TV. I thought that as I have been absent for so long, rather than write about one program I would cast my eye over the schedule and look at the programs that I have been watching.

My viewing schedule was in good shape at the start of the season. However, as is usual at this time of year the US TV schedule is basically dropped for a month in favor of xmas specials, endless repeats and seemingly endless sports coverage. Add to the mix my pet hate genre the reality show and you basically have a whole load of nothing from week two in December until new year.

So beginning with Monday here are some programs of varying interest.Fox have been screening a new show called sleepy hollow. Recently there have been a lot of supernatural and ghost stories. The horror genre is also spawning new shows. Someone at Fox must have decided to combine a bit of every genre and throw a bit of rip van winkle as well. Having said that I have to admit it is fairly entertaining if you are in to this kind of thing. Tom Milson, who plays Ichabod Crane, resurrected 18th century civil war hero and Nicole Behari (Lt. Abbie Mills) have a good chemistry and the banter between them is funny at times. It is a program for the times as the theme running through the series is the coming of the apocalypse, which Crane and Mills are trying to stop.

A much more satisfying program is The Blacklist (NBC). It is a pacy political thriller in the Nikita mode, but with a more believable plot line than it. James Spader is brilliant as Raymond Reddington, an FBI agent who has been off the radar for years then suddenly shows up at FBI HQ with a list of the most wanted world criminals and information that will help capture them. In exchange for the information Reddington demands to be partnered by a young female agent called Elizabeth Keen. Keen was adopted as a young child and doesn't know who her father is. As the series progresses she begins to suspect that it is Reddington, although he denies it. To add to the intrigue Keens husband may not be who he claims to be and she doesn't know who to trust. Week by week the new partnership, with the help of a backup team hunt down and capture someone on the list. It is interesting to watch because although Reddington is cooperating with the FBI he is also carrying out a covert agenda of his own. This adds to the drama as the viewer is never quite sure what he will do next, although we soon come to expect him to do the right thing in the end.

Running in the same time slot as The Blacklist is Hostages on CBS. It is a political thriller about a surgeon who leads her field ( Dr Ellen Sanders played by Toni Colette) who is called upon to operate on the president. However on the eve of the operation a masked gang take the family of the Dr hostage and tell her she has to kill the president when she does the operation or she and her family will be killed. She is to switch the presidents pre- op medication then operate as normal. She switches the meds, but at the last minute aborts the operation. She outwits the gang, she thinks, but of course they still have her family.

My only complaint about the show is that in real life, at this point, the family would all be killed and the mission terminated. Not in TVland. The op is postponed for two weeks. It seems to me that whoever wants the president dead would find another way now. In episode three the ringleader, FBI hostage negotiator Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott) who is actually the ringleader of the kidnappers has an attempt made on his own life by someone further up the chain of command that wants him punished for his failure.Why does someone want the president dead? In episode two there is a flashback of six months previously. Quintin Creasley  the Whitehouse chief of staff is telling Delaney that sometimes you have to look at the big picture:

"what they are doing is a necessary component of something much more important than just one man.... history calls upon us to do something bigger than we ever expected. Sometimes we are asked to shape the future of the world."
This could be a hint toward the New World Order. This may turn out to be an interesting show, to which I shall return in the future.

As you will see as we progress through the week there are some recurrent themes and plots as well as similarity in programs. I tend to watch things that are not too mainstream and not a comedy (does anyone know of an existing comedy that is actually funny?)

 Not a bad nights viewing, considering.

MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA SEASON FOUR

Masterchef Australia is back on UK screens and I couldn't be happier. Although I am not  big reality TV fan I do enjoy cookery programs, and the Masterchef franchise is my personal favorite. Of the four that I watch I would rank them in this order: Masterchef Australia, then USA, followed by New Zealand then the UK. I always think that the UK version is a bit flat and lacking in dynamism. The US version is loosely based on the Australian model and is good entertainment because it is full of over-competitive, back stabbing contestants who would nobble their rivals food, if they could get away with it! For those of you not familiar with the Aussie program I will give a quick outline of the content.

Masterchef NZ is very close to the Aussie model which is a cross between a cooking contest and a reality show. The contestants live together in the Masterchef house. This allows bonds to be built which is important because the show has lots of team challenges. How people work as a team is very important for efficiently running a busy kitchen. In complete contrast to the American contestants the Australians are super friendly and helpful towards each other. There is normally a happy atmosphere between contestants and a very relaxed relationship between the judges and the contestants.

Speaking of the judges, the usual subjects are all back! The three cheery, chubby Aussies Gary Mehigan, George Carulambos and Matt Preston all return for another season: and thank goodness that they do because I couldn't imagine the show without the three of them. Also featuring on a regular basis will be Matt Moran. They are all great presenters and see their role(s) as more than being judges: in MC Australia there is just as much emphasis put on mentoring and advising the contestants. The aim is to create a cookery fairy tale where a good amateur cook is developed by learning on the way through advice from the judges, masterclasses and from their fellow competitors and turned into a chef that could walk straight in to any top restaurant for a job.

The challenges are varied: the mystery box, the team challenges, the pressure test and of course, the dreaded elimination rounds. There are also opportunities for chefs that win challenges to go head to head with a top chef and if they win they are awarded an immunity pin to be used whenever they may be in danger. The pin can be used only once.

Season four is just beginning in the UK. At the beginning of the first week we see the top 50 being selected. From there the number of contestants is whittled down to 24. Then the series starts in earnest. It is already possible to work out some of the top twenty four from the snippets of commentary of the contestants between rounds. There isn't too much coverage given to those that won't make the final cut.

The show should run for about three months during which time there will be not only excellent cooking on show but great entertainment if the last three seasons are anything to go on. I streamed the whole series but I'm going to watch it again, and give readers an account of this years competition.

As George would say " Boom boom shake the room - we have three months to go!"

PERCEPTION

ABC NETWORK

STARRING Eric McCormack - Daniel Pierce ( Will and Grace)
         Rachael Leigh Cook - Kate Moretti (Robot Chicken, Psych)
         Arjay Smith - Max Lewicki
         Kelly Rowan - Natalie Vincent (The O.C., Boomtown)


It isn't very often that something original comes along these days, it's all been done before, but Perception is quite original. I'm not saying that it is good, but it does have an original idea.The main character of the show is a college lecturer in neuroscience  who also acts as a police expert. There is a little twist, however: he has psychiatric issues himself which include full blown hallucinations, an aversion to crowds and difficulties with social interaction. He employs a student called Lewicki to keep him to a routine. Despite these setbacks he has a brilliant brain and deductive powers to rival those of Sherlock Holmes.

The show manages to be in places both gritty and witty, presenting the viewer with main characters that are likeable.In each episode Pierce has to balance his advisory work with his academic work and his episodes of psychosis. He refuses to take medication.The problem with the show is there is no depth of plot. Pierce lectures on mental functioning so every week he is called in by Moretti to advise on a case that revolves around a person with mental problems. Pierce outlines the condition and each week a different mental illness is covered (The concept of what exactly mental illness is , of course is open to discussion. I use it here only to indicate that in the story this is how people are categorized).

Pierce is often in conversation with his dead girlfriend as well as other spooks. Each week a different ghost, sometimes historical ghosts will help him to solve the case. Excuse the pun but this is really a crazy premiss: that a police department would use as a consultant a man that is schizophrenic, not on meds and who talks to non existent people. Obviously somebody sat in an ideas conference one day and said: "Hey I have a great idea for a police consultant with a twist - lets make the lead character a schizophrenic who just happens to be an expert in mental illnesses!" To bypass this awkward plot hole Pierce becomes a police consultant because Moretti was a student of his.

Rather annoyingly his apparitions solve the case(s) by coming up with big hints and clues for Pierce: so really he is projecting his own thoughts through his hallucinations. His dead girlfriend seems to serve the purpose of helping him deal with situations and rationalize his behavior. As is the case with TV detectives he always comes up with the answer out of the blue towards the end of each episode.

I can't help feeling that Perception is nothing but a novel idea. The plots aren't good enough to stand up as an average detective series but there are not enough laughs in it to call it a comedy. My feeling is that the comic element should be beefed up because the show is weak as a detective series. Some of the writing though indicates that it could easily be turned into a comedy spoof. It is on the ABC network which probably means it may not reach the end of season one, let alone get a season two if it doesn't get ratings quickly.

In closing, this is not a program that will make many of us rush home to see it, or have us set the Tivo to record it. It is, to use an old adage Chewing gum for the eyes. I perceive a short run for this show.

ALPHAS SEASON TWO

SY-FY 12 PART SERIES

STARRING: David Strathairn - Dr. Lee Rosen (The Bourne Legacy, The Whistleblower)
          Ryan Cartwright - Gary Bell (Bones, Madmen
          Warren Christie - Cameron Hicks (True Justice, Happy Town)
          Malik Yoba - Bill Harken (Defying Gravity)
          Laura Mennell - Nina Theroux (Sanctuary)
          Anita Ghanizada - Rachel (General Hospital: Night Shift)
          Mahershala Ali - Nathan Clay (Crossing Jordan, The 4400)



A look at season two so far.

At the end of season one the Alphas team was in turmoil: pushed to their limit by the

government and suffering internal problems. Dr Rosen decided to announce the existence of

Alphas to the world and the government were not ready for that. So the start of season two

sees Rosen committed and the team split up. The first objective is for the team to reform.

The series begins with Rosen in a session with a psychiatrist. He knows why he has been

locked away and when his daughter (also an Alpha) visits him he tells her that he will be

out as soon as there is an incident. This proves to be correct, as Cameron and Bill find out

when they take an Alpha to the infamous building seven, where the government lock up the

troublesome Alphas. While they are there they see Gary: he has been imprisoned and had a

chip implanted in his head, as do all the incarcerated Alphas (I bet the govt. would love to

chip our brains!). However the girl that Cameron and Bill bring in can control electric and

shorts out the system and all the Alphas wake up.


A hostage situation develops and Rosen is called in by Clay to negotiate. Before he does he

visits Rachel, who we see in a previous scene has shut herself in her room. In addition to

this problem and Garys situation it appears that Nina has gone rogue, using her ability for

personal gain and not working with the team. Once they are all reunited they go to building

seven. Life is not exactly smelling of Roses for Rosen (sorry!) as there appears to be a lot

of resentment in the team because of his TV announcement, which he made without warning

anybody. Naturally, being the gullible fool that he is Rosen walks straight in to the middle

of the Alphas and thinks that he can win them over with a few softly spoken words. Series

One should have taught him that never works, but he seems to have an unshakeable belief that

he can get everyone to live together in perfect harmony (cue McCartney and Wonder).


The Alphas being held at building seven all escape, thereby giving the team plenty of work

to do in the coming weeks trying to recapture them. There are other problems on the horizon,

too, the biggest of which is the growing power of Stanton Parish, a man believed to be over

two hundred years old. Of course the series needs a Stanton Parish because the team need

someone as powerful as them to oppose, otherwise there would be no problems for them to

solve. Just like Batman has the Joker, and Fringe had the alternative universe and now the

watchers, Rosen and the Alphas need a foe like Parrish.


The second season looks like it will be as good as the first, and the star, for me, is Gary,

played by Ryan Cartwright. Gary is always unintentionally funny, particularly his inability

to display tact, which inevitably leads to  comic situations. The rest of the cast are ok, but

Cartwright stands out as the best performer.

Naturally there are comparisons made between Alphas and Heroes, but whereas Heroes petered

out, the writers seemingly unable to find a direction for the storyline Alphas is written

far better with a strong storyline that appears to have a direction. Part of the problem

with Heroes was that there was neither a task force to stop the rogue Heroes or an organized

criminal gang. The writers tried in the last series to create a funfair full of baddies but

still couldn't find an endgame with which to bring a resolution to the story. Alphas is

better written, with the characters better thought out and the action is dynamic.  However,

there does seem to be a plethora of Alphas, so many that they are in danger of losing their status as special

or different. I mean, what percentage of the population is supposed to have these powers?





The series is about to kick off again in the UK on Sy-Fy. I have watched five episodes and

can tell fans of the show that they are not going to be disappointed. The growing menace of

Parrish, the escaped Alphas and the behavior of Nina give Rosens team plenty of headaches

in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

BLACKOUT

BBC1 3 PART DRAMA

FEATURING Christopher Eccleston (Daniel De Moyes) Previous Roles Dr Who,Heroes,
Dirvla Kirwan (Alex Demoyes) Ballykssangel, Injustic
Ewen Bremner (Jerry Durrans) Trainspotting,
David Hayman(Henry Pulis)
Andrew Scott (Detective Dalien Bevan) Sherlock
       

Christopher Eccleston plays the role of a corrupt coucillor with an alcohol problem who sells information about council tenders to a businessman to ensure he gets the contract. However something goes wrong and an argument ensues. In the next scene De Moyes wakes from a drunken blackout to find that he is covered in blood. When he gets to a council meeting he discovers that the man he met in a dark alley the night before is now in hospital unconscious. He now begins to get flashbacks and realises that he attacked the businessman (Henry Pulis).

De Moyes relationship with his wife is also on unsteady ground and most scenes featuring the two are tense . The whole series is dark and edgy, and as the story develops De Moyes finds himself more out of control. Finding himself in need of advice he goes to see his sister Lucy played by Lyndsey Marshal (Being Human, Titanic TV mini-series) who is a lawyer. Her current case involves armed drug gangs, and as she is standing talking with her brother an assassination is attempted on her but brother Daniel jumps in front of her and takes the bullet. As he recovers in Hospital his sister brings Jerry Durrans to see him. Durrans is a fellow councillor who sees an opportunity to get De Moyes elected as Mayor. Now the plot thickens.

The lead character finds out that Pulis died in hospital so now he has a murder to cover up. This does not prevent him from standing as Mayor and winning the election. At this point he is still under the delusion that one man can make a difference, so when the cleaning contract is next discussed he suggests creating a workers collective that would run the company. This is seen by the other council members as a pipe dream and Durrans has to take De Moyes aside to point out that he works for a company who will get the councils business and De Moyes will help because they know he murdered Pulis. This means that our hero has to do a complete turn-around on his position in the next meeting, announcing that Durrans will head a committee looking in to the company's offer.

De Moyes's social juggling now gets out of hand: he battles against his urge to drink, his girlfriend Sylvie, who he had sex with in an alley prior to meeting and killing Pulis saw him do it. So did a drunk. He now has two people to keep quiet. To add another twist, a police detective is putting the pieces together and he just so happens to be Sylvies ex-husband. Someone tries to kill him to protect the Mayor, at which point both he and De Moyes realise just how deep the corruption goes.
The finale sees De Moyes stand in front of the press to confess, in order to bring all the guilty parties to justice.

This was a well put together drama with an excellent cast, and for the most part the writing is believable. It did leave me wondering: " is this what goes on in our local councils?" It is not difficult to accept that it may, given that we have learned in recent years of MP's committing fraud with their expenses claims and bankers, who are at the very core of our economic system have been involved in fixing the LIBOR rate and losing our pension money by hedge betting on the stock exchange, ripping us off with PPI insurance and lending money to people that they knew couldn't afford to pay it back, therefore causing a recession.

Is there a moral to this tale though? Is the writer saying that power does corrupt, and will corrupt anyone that takes a position of responsibility, or is this a simple tale of an individual making some bad choices? Is the system to blame or is it those that people it? Life, it seems these days is based on shady underhand deals, privilege and contacts: the substance of the individual doesn't matter, all that matters is the perpetuation of the system. Perhaps the point is that we are all doing things that we don't want to do and don't know what to do instead, and faced with choices that we may think we are free to make we pick a card unaware that the deck has been stacked in the dealers favor.

Whatever the intended message this three part series was engrossing and for once I was actually looking forward to a program coming on, I can't remember when that last happened. It's a pity that it only had three parts, although on the plus side this does mean that there was no unnecessary padding out to make a full series. A good watch that deserves a repeat showing (it's not often that I say that, either!).

LINE OF DUTY

BBC2 5 PART DRAMA

FEATURING Martin Compston (D.S. Arnott) 
      Lennie James (DCI Tony Gates) Hung, Columbiana, Jericho and The Prisoner remake
       Neil Morrissey (DC Nigel Morton) Men Behaving Badly, Waterloo Road
      Craig Parkinson (Cottan) Misfits, Whitechapel
      Adrian Dunbar (Superintendant Ted Hastings) Ashes to Ashes
          Vicky McClure (D.C. Kate Fleming) This Is England

It's about time there was some new drama on TV, we don't seem to get much for our license fee these days. I was drawn to this because it stars Lenny James, an excellent actor and I have to say he does not disappoint in Line of Duty. In fact the main cast are all excellent and the writing is for the most part of high standard and the plot is credible.

The basic story centres on an internal investigation in to the arrest record of one Tony Gates, Officer of the year winner, who has been "Laddering". This is a method of adding charges to a suspects arrest charges thus making it look like crimes are eliminated from the list of unsolved cases and in return the police speak well of the accused in court. The department of Internal investigation headed by Superintendant Hastings (Dunbar) believe that Gates won his award by acting dishonestly.

The story begins with D.S.Arnot, who is in the armed response team. There is a mix up during a raid and an innocent man is shot. Arnot resigns from his unit because he does not want to adhere to the official account of events that his entire team have been told to adhere to for the official hearing into the incident. Hastings offers Arnot (Martin Compston) a spot in his team that is being set up to investigate Gates. He is joined by D.C. Kate Fleming (McClure) who has talked her way into Gates's team to gather evidence from the inside. Gates's team has three other members, D.C. Morton (Morrissey), D.C. Cottan (Craig Parkinson) and D.C. Kapoor (Faraz Ayub).

We next meet Gates in a cafe with his "bit on the side". He witnesses and intervenes in a robbery and in return the cafe give him his breakfast for free. This presents an opening for the anti corruption team to start an investigation.Then it gets interesting. As Gates picks up his award he gets a phone call from his girlfriend Jackie (Gina McKee) who has been involved in a hit and run whilst under the influence of alcohol. He helps feign a burglary and the theft of her car to cover it up. Unfortunately it turns out that she has knocked down and killed her accountant (deliberately) .Before he knows this Gates handles the case himself to bury it. Of course it comes back to haunt him.

The team are working on a gang/ drugs related investigation. Jackie turns up at the police station to give an interview about her "burglary". Gates lets her know he has found out what she did. He decides to end the relationship. The evidence against him is mounting and as it does Gates's personal life is going into freefall. Arnott visits the Cafe Gates and Jackie were at and finds out Gates was not alone, which gives him someone else to investigate. He learns about the hit and run.

 In the drugs case there is a take over going on which is the reason for the deaths that they are looking into. It transpires that Jackie launders money for the drug dealer. At the end of episode two Gates goes to Jackies house to arrest her, but ends up doing other things with her instead, then sees her murdered. He is knocked out and his fingerprints are put on the knife.

By the time Arnot gets there the body is gone and Gates is searching the premises, covering any tracks of having been there and claiming that he came to arrest her. It becomes impossible for him to deny that he was involved romantically with Jacky so he has to keep making up new stories as new evidence is presented to him. In a stroke of brilliance Gates turns the drugs investigation in to a terrorist plot. This creates a big distraction but unfortunately for Gates the Drug Baron that had Jackie murdered is keeping the body and knife with Gates's fingerprints on it to force him to work for the gang. He is expected to bring Arnot to a location where they will deal with him. He does this but has a change of heart. He then arranges for the gang leader, referred to as Tommy to be brought in. Gates goes rogue and gets Tommy in his car to tape a full confession. Once he has it he pulls over. When Arnot and Fleming get there he pleads with Arnot to ensure his family are taken care of then walks in front of a lorry. Arnot reports that Gates died in the line of duty.

The story ends with Cottan preparing to take Gates place and we see him talking to Tommy, an old friend, it appears. Corruption wins.

This is the second drama that I have seen on the BBC in the same month that deals with corruption, the other being Blackout. Our society, it appears, is corrupt throughout.

There are a few stereotypes evident in the writing. Arnot most definitely has small man syndrome being defensive, unable to control his temper and at times is hostile towards authority. There is also a boy, Ryan, from a council estate who is drawn in to crime because his single parent mother is a slag and neglects him. A good example of this is when he is arrested his mother won't go to the police station because he "has social workers for that sort of thing". When he is brought home all she says to the police is "You better have fed him". Being a working class person who knows some single mums that work hard for their children I have to say I hate this representation of single parents.

I did, however, like the way in which the hysteria that surrounds terrorism was shown. The threat of terrorism is being used to increase surveillance of the public, limit the internet and to make public searches acceptable even without evidence of a crime being committed. The drama also shows how crime does pay and that our institutions are infiltrated by criminals who pervert the course of justice. Cottan's promotion is the end result of years of planning, sending out the message that the fight against crime is now futile. I mean to say who are the good guys and who are the baddies?

There is also an interesting contradiction in Arnot's behavior: he will not lie in the shooting case yet he lies for Gates, perhaps because he identifies with him being singled out, or maybe because he states earlier on that resources ought to be used to get criminals off the street, not to investigate the police.

In conclusion, Line of duty was well acted by a great cast, particularly James and Dunbar, the storyline was for the most part credible ( the bolt-cropper incident with Arnot aside - he really would have lost some fingers) and the direction was spot on. If anyone at the BBC is reading this: more like this please.