Bloodlands

A solid police show with a nice steady stream of twists and reveals, the second episode just dropped on ROKU and it keeps up the intrigue begun in the first. Not so complex that you need a scorecard to follow it, yet it never seems to drag or leave you looking for the FF button. I admit to being a sucker for Irish police shows and this one hasn't disappointed. Edit: I have to withdraw my enthusiasm for this series since the writers decided to make so many characters totally unlikable or dead. They had a great start but I think they dropped the ball big time. For me a show needs to have someone I can root for and they've left me with no one.

Just watched the first episode and really impressed with the quality. Interesting story of a modern crime while demonstrating the difficulty of policing in NI over 20 years after the GFA.

This is a strange program -- all the ingredients seem to be there for a good show but it doesn't get there. Part of the problem is that the plotting is twisted and hard to follow, part of the problem is that the characters aren't very well developed, and part of the problem is that the writing is overly cliched -- way too many "'let's go get 'em" and "there he is!" and "this is an important case and we must do our best" kind of lines.

But the other issue is the strangest -- for whatever reason, the camera spends far too much time focused on James Nesbitt's face, as though the storyline depended entirely on his expressions. He's a good actor but do we have to watch him so closely, follow his every facial tic, watch his eyes watch other people? It's almost as if someone said, "hey, let's do a show about James Nesbitt's face and, sure, we can add some plot and some characters if you want." Weird.

Jed Mercurio was a producer on 'Bloodlands', and the influence of 'Line of Duty' shows: check corrupt police, complicated plot, untrustworthy protagonists, elongated interview scences, and in this case, more than one character with a Northern Irish accent. In fact, the entire story is set in Northern Island, where a contemporary murder sounds echoes of the Troubles. Like 'Line of Duty', it's also very watchable, although the plotting isn't quite as clever. It's a bold move not to give the viewer a central figure to follow throughout, but also a disengaging one. But it's well put together, and supremely watchable, though a little lacking in emotional heft.

The draw was James Nesbitt and a UK Crime Drama. This one takes you on an unexpected path. It's a great murder mystery set in Ireland's Troubles. Great performances. Interesting twists. I give this series an 8 (great) out of 10. {Police Procedural}