User reviews

I typically jump at watching most all Brit crime shows, especially with a great cast of actors. Sadly, this plot was at best confusing and at worst not believable for the most part. I often enjoy mystery pot boilers, but this is not on that level. I hate to blame this mess on anyone in particular except for the writer.

It is difficult to stay invested in a story that includes inane plot lines, unbelievable twists, and no reason to believe that this would end in any way other than "black ops control everything," even without any rhyme or reason. If you want to watch an escapist mystery with no need to worry about the plot, this is for you!

Even her turn in "Alma's not Normal" is excellent.

I have a feeling today's writers are stuck in the SAME tropes. This one uses at least 3 of them. The bratty kid, but wait, there are two in this one. The dementia riddled horrible father, who, surprisingly seems to have clarity at the right times, and of course, the bad bedfellow.

This was a, let's throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Unfortunately, this turns into 6 episodes of non-sense, with the typical 'baddie' guy and his voice, deciphering from his first scene, that he is not just a passing character whom information needs to garnered and forgotten about. Why can't these writers pick anyone of the real life stories that are so hard to believe these days, and build on this?

Siobhan is Liz. She is entrusted with a family in the witness protection and as zero spoilers will tell you, this goes tits up. Liz's sister is seen for a scene and then dunzo...Her superiors are awful humans, those of which can not be modeled on anyone remotely passable (and yet, there are 3!!), all awful. This is doing the laundry watching...hardly engaging.

Another great British police story with a brilliant Siobhan Finneran as always. She has really turned into one of my favourite actresses. The story line keeps you engaged throughout the episodes and without too many plotholes as well. I watched it over a couple of days and never felt bored at any point of time. It's really amazing how these Britt's can come up with one exiting series after another in this specific. If you liked Happy Valley and some of the other similar police stories you will definitely also enjoy this one. Without revealing the story I can say that the plot and the ending also was well crafted indeed. Highly recommended!!

I am writing this after series 1. I assume there won't be a second. This was a good series until the finale.

Maybe it was the strong cast that had kept me engaged (a lot of familiar B-listers but none of them really top billing) but the story just seemed to fall apart at the end. Maybe 6 episodes was too much for the writers.

I love Siobhan Finneran but this probably goes to show that she is a great support actress rather than a leading lady (even in Rita and Sue and Bob too see came second each time. The one time she came first there was an unsatisfactory outcome and the same goes for this show).

To have Siobhan, Katherine Kelly and Catherine Tyldesley in the first episode won me over but why they got as big a actress as Catherine Tyldesley for such a small role is beyond me (I guess she had a ship to catch) and she and Katherine Kelly are similar in looks and acting style.

I loved David Hayman as the cantankerous father, reluctantly having to give up on his independence as his health wanes and the way he acts with his daughter who dutifully followed him into the force is brilliantly written.

For a story made mainly in Liverpool, it did seem to have very few scousers but some great northern actors seeing the story through to a poor and convoluted conclusion.

As usual, as the plot thickens, the supposedly capable characters start doing stupid things to make it last longer?

I would say that the beginning episodes are the best, the last ones revolve around stupidity by characters. (Like why are they no using prepaid phones, not removing the sim cards, not saving information to an outside cloud,) and the list goes on...

Some good acting by supporting characters, main actor is not even in good enough shape to run without having a stunt double. Much better than American shows. More complex, more interesting. I would recommend if you ignore the logic flaws.

The majority of scenes in this program are small conversations in empty locations, often filmed with one or two cameras, it all goes to the theory that this program was made on a shoestring budget.

The lead character while played by an experienced and familiar actress, is miscast, she's too old, again suggesting cost cutting.

The story is good but dragged out, the script jumps in spots and the story becomes intriguing but they then drag the mystery out across one or two episodes, which does create dull spots where it's a lot of people just driving around or repeating a point, to again add content for no big cost.

I'm sure a protective custody unit has more than 5 or 6 members working out barren looking room, saving on sets was a priority here.

So okay, but would have been great with a bigger budget and a more believable lead.

I have no idea who these supposed critics of the show are watching. The acting is stellar, the plot, albeit familiar in some ways is in my opinion excellent. Let people watch the show and think for themselves what they want. It's like when someone says that this restaurant serves delicious food, you go there,.....and it's horrible. What matters is what viewers like, hence another season. You really don't have to stomach the show, just change the channel. I'm sure there is another cheesy reality show on. If they can keep season after season of those stupid shows they can easily give this another stint.

Siobhan Finneran plays the lead role in this intense thriller/crime series. As always, she is a fantastic actress now as a police officer in the witness protection department. She carries the entire series, and all events that happen in the series involve her. Read as little as possible before you watch this. The series is incredibly exciting, has many unexpected events and along the way something happens that takes the plot to a completely different place. The series' exciting script/plot means that at least I was on pins and needles and followed all the episodes intently. I also want to add that the plot of the series is also at times demanding to watch, as the main character really gets into big problems/challenges along the way. The series also requires you to follow along closely, as the gallery of characters here is both composed and complete. But believe me, it's worth it! British crime at its best.

Different take on police procedural with focus on witness protection. The actions starts right away and doesn't stop. Engaging with plot with surprises, twists and turns. Anyone who compares this series with the usual police procedural didn't watch this series. My review is complete enough but it says here that I am required to use over 400 characters and I have to use over 200 more characters but I really don't have anything to add. I've written reviews before without such requirements with no problem. It seems ridiculous to pad a review to get to some random number of characters before it is acceptable. Now I have.

You think the writers would pen a police drama that is somewhat close to the truth.

The current story show inept police n the primary actor being a complete self centred liar. I'm hoping the ending can only show the person is sent to prison for perverting the course of justice n for not disclosing she had an affair.

As mentioned the only exciting will be her getting caught out

Get close to reality the add the drama. This is not how true police investigations are conducted not even close.

There some great britbox programs specifically police dramas this is not one of them I guess that's why it's on STAN 😂😂

There is A LOT of forced family conflict and obviously manufactured drama. They're making mountains out of mole hills every chance they get, whether it stems from the afflictions of old age, or the wobbliness of effective parenting while oh-so-heavily employed.

It also stoops to include repeatedly judgy woman-on-woman suspicion and hate. It has quite thickly painted misogyny slopped about, too, and never, ever does it get verbally addressed in any direct manner. Therefore, it's not even a point of conflict, but more of an annoyingly overused emotional ploy, like a jump-scare that makes you more angry and aggravated than fearful.

The weakest part isn't the acting, but a lack of sufficient (or coherent) motivators for a series of questionable as well as criminal behaviors/attitudes.

The casting is yet another of the problems with this series, as it features unrealistic proportions in gender and race in law enforcement/legal services, as well as at least one case of mismatched age/looks in unfathomable flirting/hookup scenes.

It also leans heavily into 'uncooperative' witnesses, into a serial sneaky runaway who's not even teenaged, and too many scenes driving around from location to location. It has approx 8,000 examples of a woman apologizing for answering her mobile phone - which doesn't ring unless in the presence of interviewees/interrogations/emotional conflicts. It really is insane how many times an episode the lead is charged with saying she's sorry.

This wasn't an easy watch.

In the last couple of year, I've seen some of the other newer british police series. Like Happy Valley, Blue Lights, and Responder And this one, for me, were below par.

I even felt 6 episodes was a bit much to get through at times.

Sure the plot was actually a bit new and intriguing. And I appreciated that. However the protagonist just made some silly decisions through out. Just for the heck of it.

I would have liked to see more involvement from the other police-cast. To maybe twist it into more of its own thing.

I just felt it had too much of the same old police cliché stuff. And I realise that it's hard not to have some, but I just thought with the way this was heading in the first couple episodes. That this would take an alternative turn and maybe think a bit more outside the box.

No castmember did particularly bad, but no one did anything above the ordinary in my opinion.

I think Finneran fit the original role in the series well, but not really what it evolved into.

Maybe the best acting, was from some of the extra's.

Camerawork, sound and such wasn't alright.

And I'm sure some will find this quick series a good watch.

I really like the actress who is the lead character but I felt she didnt quite fill the role satisfactorily.

In fact none of the characters were that great and because of that I didn't really get interested in what happened to them.

The story line was ok but did go on a bit. I ended up just listening to it while answering emails as you really didnt have to concentrate on it.

I've watched up to episode four and I'm not sure if I'll watch the other two, might do if I'm really bored.

Theres really nothing else I want to say but have to as I've not reached the required characters for me to submit this review.

This series could have been 15 mins if it cut out everything unnecessary. Nothing mattered in the end, in typical British tv show fashion (nothing ever gets tied up or answered on 90% +of the shows on Britbox).

The acting was cringe worthy in most cases, the scenarios unbelievable, but most of all, nothing mattered. If the main character would have just "stayed out of it" (i don't elaborate so i don't give spoilers, though I'm not sure anything can spoil a 1/10 show), everyone would have come out better off in the end, especially her. The end results would be identical, except lots of people would still be alive.

As this story of a Protection Unit in the UK police service, of persons under witness protection, one of my fist questions is under what sense of management and security are officers assigned to protect witness' from lethal murder not authorised to carry any sort of weapon? If that bus true in the UK police, it is a terrible revelation that makes no sense at all. The story line here gets more and more interesting as the story develops but is far from perfect or compelling. The lead actress in this series is not interesting at all, at least in this role. Yet one good feature, if true as well, is the diversity of the department. Another question is why the head of this particular department is a ghost in his own job? As a boss he is useless and clueless. There are a lot of missing pieces in this story, including how the two lovers in this story could have even remotely been attracted to each other. There is very little chemistry and no back story at all on any of the players, and this seems a consequence of mediocre writing. So the premise and basic story line are quite interesting but the implementation and continuity is lacking, with gaping holes that diminish the potential excellence of this series.

Siobhan's Character is a dullard. Wardrobe has her dressed poorly with an awkward walk. When confronted with dangerous situations she's a bit of a deer in headlights. Granted, that's the script she was given so it's her character to do very little in those situations.

While I say this when only viewing three episodes, that is halfway through the show so her character is well established as a poor decision maker. While this drama takes place in the UK, it apparently doesn't have any CCTV every other UK show utilizes. So as I advance to each new episode, I'm having more questions about her decision making skills that have me wanting to just stop watching.

This mini series, as many reviewers have written here is cold, unbelievable and messy. The entire premise is not real world in any sense and the writers have very obviously not bothered to check with any witness protection professionals. If they had, this series would have been set at the standard we have conme to expect frim British crime dramas. It not only made minimal sense, but Siobhan, who is an outstanding actor, must have loathed the lines she spoke, as reality is her forte. It has more plot holes than a swiss cheese, and the girl actor outsmarting all the so called adult professionals is ridiculous. It was a minimally interesting watch over Christmas, but certainly not what I expected. If another series is planned, they will have to up their game considerably. It is a shame it isnt much better than it is.

It's a by-the-numbers crime drama that relies on tired tropes and convoluted plotting to keep you guessing who's done it. This show has the standard ingredients: police corruption, a sprawling conspiracy, rogue police work, plus the antagonism from some characters feel simply unreal; a comical reoccurring sex memory that makes you wonder: was that guy that good, or is this middle age woman so thirsty for love? The action sequences are equally underwhelming. We're subjected to numerous fight scenes and an abundance of running, much of which features a clearly visible stunt double standing in for the middle-aged female protagonist.

I am disappointed by a couple of issues in this series. To begin with how can these professional witness protectors fail to check the girl's backpack where she has a surf tablet, not believable. Then the scene where the room in the hospital is left totally unguarded leading to yet another death. Professional witness protectors, no wonder people don't want to be witnesses.

The acting is really good, the intrigue is quite gripping and the story line is quite good however the issues I mentioned are enough to make me give the program such a low rating.

A sad reflection is that the amount of crime solving programs from all countries that involve corrupt police must be an indication that corruption within police forces worldwide is very common and very worrying.

Rarely do the Brits disappoint when it comes to crime dramas, but this one managed to do so. There is no one thing to blame, but an accumulation of irritants soon gets one to the point where the end of episode six can't come soon enough.

As far as the cast go, there's plenty of talent there, but the material they have to work with is definitely not worthy of their attention with a confused storyline relying on too many modern themes that just don't support a suspenseful drama.

Add to that the 2020's trend that assumes women run the world and men are kept in the background to run errands, and it seems the reason this piece exists is solely to show how far women have come regardless of how often they let their emotions get the better of them.

I guess I just expected something better coming out of the UK.