The One That Got Away

We watch all the UK detective series and tried this because Richard Harrington is always pretty good since we first saw him on Hinterland. And he's good here too. Can't say it's aterribly original plot, with the reliable blend of false identities, family secrets, and discord between the male/female detective leads. But it held our interest well enough. However the last 30 seconds of the series, the thing which gives the show its name, is just preposterous. It simply couldn't happen based on what we'd just seen for 51 minutes. Not unless the entire criminal justice system has been ignored. Wales has to do better than that.

Brits are pros at this - well-executed police procedurals. You can rely on them to have solid plotting and carefully planned dramatic arcs, capable actors, and three-dimensional characters with realistically grounded problems.

I enjoyed that the pacing wasn't rushed - however, the series could've been an hour shorter. (It annoys me that it appears "compulsory" nowadays to have at least 6 episodes for one story.) There were some unnecessary coincidences, and to be fair, all and all the series wasn't really that groundbreaking.

However, it was still a good binge with lovely Welsh scenery to boot.

The community of Pembroke Dock is rocked, when Abbi Rayner, a nurse is killed, twelve years after Paul Harvey was convicted for killing two other nurses, DI Ffion Lloyd is drafted in the head the case, along with DS Rick Sheldon, the pair know eachother well.

It's a very good, Welsh drama, there was enough here to make me want to binge watch it in two sittings, if you're a fan of Hinterland and Hidden, you'll enjoy this.

It's a typically murky storyline, with plenty of suspects, the obligatory friction between the two central characters, and there's the dysfunctional family.

I wasn't crazy initially about Rick and Ffion knowing one another, I felt that idea has been overdone, but it worked well in the end.

Episode three was the big turning point for me, I thought it was terrific, really had me on the edge of my seat.

You'll recognise so many faces, including Richard Harrington and Elen Rhys, but if you've enjoyed the aforementioned dramas, you'll recognise plenty more.

The acting is first rate, the whole cast perform so well, I'd have to make a special mention for Matthew Aubrey though, I thought he was terrific as Mel Owen.

7/10.

It's very hard to carry a murder mystery over 6 episodes unless the script is great, and this script is far from it. In my experience Welsh crime dramas are glacially slow, it's a slow and painful process keeping up with them.

It is so full of cliches, like a bad American police procedural. A DI is brought back to her former station to work on a case similar to one she helped solve 10 years before. She teams up with her former colleague/lover. From there it's downhill full of cliches. Every new piece of evidence sends them down another rabbit hole. This isn't a "Grace" or a "Vera" or any of the top British crime dramas.

Great cast members like Richard Harrington and Elen Rhys deserve better scripts. This should have been 3 separate crime stories, 2 episodes each and it would have been more successful.

This is what you would expect from the BBC and others.

Usual array of suspects and diversions. Worth watching and probably not for watching in a binge, as you want time to digest.

The usual use of the weather to set scenes and move the plot on.

There is good complexity of character development and the dialogue is believable.

I do wonder if there is always doubt about those higher up,.

And of course the bloke with the glasses is a bit mysterious.

I do wish they made them call "Taser, taser , taser" when they use them, but you can't have everything.

Can you?

And no CGI or AI.

Nice.

And satisfying at the end.