Payback

If you're looking for an excellent mystery binge watch, I highly recommend this series. The mystery starts right away and builds to the end.

Morven Christie is always likeable, even more so in this role. Her life is flipped upside down and she's left trying to make sense of the who and why. She is thrown into a world she knew nothing about and used her resilience and determination to power through.

Peter Mullan is fantastic as a powerful, dangerous man. I'm used to seeing Julie Graham play strong yet sensitive characters and she does a great job as a crime lord's wife.

I'd never seen Prassana Puwanarajah before and was captivated by how well he portrayed a DC who was a mix of empathetic and intense. I'll be watching for him in other roles!

This show had me gripped from the first episode despite some really strange story constructions.

I'll get to those, but first I have to say the ending was incredibly unsatisfying. Almost all of the loose ends were left loose. As a whole, the series didn't make sense.

There was a police mole who really didn't have any influence on anything.

Why did Jarred do what he did?

How did the container fit in?

Perhaps the biggest question, which we knew was never going to be resolved, was why did Morris have to rely on a pretty ordinary suburban accountant to devise such brilliant schemes. He could have got anyone to do that. In fact, as it turned out, he almost didn't need her at all.

The DCI breaking all the rules and acting without any evidence of ethics gets away with it.

The financial forensic investigator seems to have a strong conscience but he has no impact on solving the crime.

Morven Christie was brilliant and her acting probably saved the show.

Overall, I'd say it was worth watching, but don't expect to understand the plot when you get to the end.

I thought that the first episode was a bit slow and had too many plot holes although, as I am not going to write "spoilers", I won't list these. But they did reduce my final rating from 9 ot 8.

However, having now watched all the remaining 5 episodes, it does get better as it goes along - with fewer plot holes - and finishes with a good last episode, with no open ending laying the ground for another series.

I thought that all the actors playing the main characters did well, and there were few weaknesses. I also liked the writing and direction and, unlike so many crime series these days, didn't rely any chases between the "goodies and baddies" to bolster the plot.

This series is well worth four hours of your time.

I made the mistake of reading some bad reviews and almost didn't watch this. It's way better than average and how anyone can give it only one star is beyond me. It was produced by Jed Mercurio the creator of Line of Duty so it was a cut above. The plot is unusual in that it involves finance and the hiding of illicit profits. It is well written, well acted, well directed and has great pace. What's not to like? Morven Christie, Peter Mullen and Derek Riddell are good as always and it's great to see Steven Mackintosh on our screens again. DC Kahn played by Prasanna Puwanarajah is an interesting conflicted character. Well worth a watch. My only quibble was Lexie being in tears the whole time.

Excellent crime drama from ITV set in Edinburgh. Lexi Noble, played by Morven Christie, loses her husband in a street stabbing by a group of young thugs. It turns out he was the accountant for a major crime lord, Cal Morris, played by Peter Mullen ably assisted by Malky Roberts played by Steven Mackintosh and was completely ripping him off. Lexi is unaware of this until she is approached by Cal who is demanding to know where his money is. Under threat of harm to her two kids she is forced to use her own accountancy skills to track the money through a web of fake companies and foreign bank accounts. It was well acted and a very entertaining ride. ITV have produced plenty of rubbish recently but this was definitely a good offering. Highly recommended.