georgeritmeester

As this and other shows/movies illustrate, trying to solve crimes provides way more drama and tension than good guys and bad guys shooting machine guns at each other. And the actors are believable as experienced police detectives, unlike with so many American shows where the alleged FBI experts, street-savvy cops or whatever look like they just gave up a modeling job yesterday to join the FBI/police force/etc. And the personal issues the two main detectives are dealing with seem real rather than contrived, as is so often the case with Hollywood-type crime dramas. Scott and Bailey has one thing in common with Perry Mason. In Perry Mason, once Perry confronts the real killer in court, the killer always caves and confesses. It would be interesting to see an episode where Perry still has to prove it to a jury's satisfaction in a new trial. In Scott and Bailey, they always solve the crime just at the end of the episode, but never have to prove it in court. The show always ends without a trial for the actual perpetrator. This is not a huge problem as the viewer can be confident the available evidence will be sufficient for a conviction. However, some episodes end without any understanding of the motive behind the killing. Perhaps the motive is revealed but not always readily apparent? This isn't necessarily a negative. Many episodes are so complex one can certainly enjoy a second viewing, unlike with paint by the numbers Hollywood crime dramas. However, things do proceed at a brisk pace. I find that I often have to read an episode summary to clearly understand the entire episode. But this probably has as much to do with the British accents as anything else. I often can't make out what was said (thus often missing key points) and wouldn't mind having sub-titles for this show.

I gave it a 3 because it's very well made with excellent production values. However, it's such a godawful load of crap that I can't even be bothered giving an example, except to say that it quickly devolves from outlandish claims about the origins of various geological formations to going on and on about the Bible.