Television Line Of Duty (BBC TV Series)

Agent Red

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The thing that frustrates me about Jed Mercurio’s writing is that he seems to throw out a million storylines and then just pick one to be “the answer” and the rest are all cut off with either no resolution or one that feels rushed and overly neat.

Why, for example, did they they spend so long building up this relationship between Jo and Kate this season only for them to barely interact in the last episode and it never really be explained?

Similarly there has been a lot of focus over the years on building up Hastings being suspicious. I never suspected he would be, but it’s a bit weird they tied it all up with one quick conversation and then just said “yeah I believe him” and no more was said.

I don’t mind that the finales aren’t big bang or the message about the banality of corruption, but it’s frustrating how so many things are just cut off and the conclusion leaves the impression of having been randomly chosen from a list of possible options.
 

Hughes35

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Absolutely dreadful episode. I genuinely checked how long was left when they got in the cringe lift scene, as I thought "It must be a double length episode and a big twist is coming".... But no, that was it done.

It made no sense, was poorly written, poorly acted, didn't answer most of the questions, no suspense. How such a consistently good show can end with that dross is amazing. If S1 E1 had been so poor, the show would never have been commissioned.

The only semi interesting bit was with the van hijack. Even that was done pretty poorly as it didn't really explain how it was done. How did AC-12 take control of the van so quickly before the bad guys got there? Also, how did they then get the driver to take the same route to the bad guys. Just felt completely rushed to me.

Having the idiot as "H" makes no sense....... "I'm just an idiot that brought the entire thing together"..... Ah yes, because morons are well known for their skills of organising deeply complex crime, keeping undercover, living double lives, money laundering, not making slip ups and keeping under the radar.

So many ways they could have gone and they picked the most boring and unbelievable option.
 

Solius

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Absolutely dreadful episode. I genuinely checked how long was left when they got in the cringe lift scene, as I thought "It must be a double length episode and a big twist is coming".... But no, that was it done.

It made no sense, was poorly written, poorly acted, didn't answer most of the questions, no suspense. How such a consistently good show can end with that dross is amazing. If S1 E1 had been so poor, the show would never have been commissioned.

The only semi interesting bit was with the van hijack. Even that was done pretty poorly as it didn't really explain how it was done. How did AC-12 take control of the van so quickly before the bad guys got there? Also, how did they then get the driver to take the same route to the bad guys. Just felt completely rushed to me.

Having the idiot as "H" makes no sense....... "I'm just an idiot that brought the entire thing together"..... Ah yes, because morons are well known for their skills of organising deeply complex crime, keeping undercover, living double lives, money laundering, not making slip ups and keeping under the radar.

So many ways they could have gone and they picked the most boring and unbelievable option.
This bit is the only part that actually had some kind of basis in reality. It is often way less complex than you'd expect from the outside and often the police have to get quite lucky.
 

Pexbo

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Absolutely dreadful episode. I genuinely checked how long was left when they got in the cringe lift scene, as I thought "It must be a double length episode and a big twist is coming".... But no, that was it done.

It made no sense, was poorly written, poorly acted, didn't answer most of the questions, no suspense. How such a consistently good show can end with that dross is amazing. If S1 E1 had been so poor, the show would never have been commissioned.

The only semi interesting bit was with the van hijack. Even that was done pretty poorly as it didn't really explain how it was done. How did AC-12 take control of the van so quickly before the bad guys got there? Also, how did they then get the driver to take the same route to the bad guys. Just felt completely rushed to me.

Having the idiot as "H" makes no sense....... "I'm just an idiot that brought the entire thing together"..... Ah yes, because morons are well known for their skills of organising deeply complex crime, keeping undercover, living double lives, money laundering, not making slip ups and keeping under the radar.

So many ways they could have gone and they picked the most boring and unbelievable option.
I thought the whole point was that he wasn’t H but another pawn in the system of institutional corruption? He got cocky in the interview because he thought that he had a get out of jail free card and that was trumped by Hastings.

We know he wasn’t the top guy because he pissed his pants when the other guy was strangled in his cell.

He was just doing what everyone else before him had done, either say “no comment” or take the fall knowing they would be protected.
 

Hughes35

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This bit is the only part that actually had some kind of basis in reality. It is often way less complex than you'd expect from the outside and often the police have to get quite lucky.
Usually I'd agree, but I didn't think it fitted in this situation. Fake evidence being created to blackmail people with, decades of training young people in crime and then getting them jobs on the force etc. It's not your average idiot coasting in a career.

Really hope they do a 7th series to give an ending it deserves.
 

Inigo Montoya

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The thing that frustrates me about Jed Mercurio’s writing is that he seems to throw out a million storylines and then just pick one to be “the answer” and the rest are all cut off with either no resolution or one that feels rushed and overly neat.

Why, for example, did they they spend so long building up this relationship between Jo and Kate this season only for them to barely interact in the last episode and it never really be explained?

Similarly there has been a lot of focus over the years on building up Hastings being suspicious. I never suspected he would be, but it’s a bit weird they tied it all up with one quick conversation and then just said “yeah I believe him” and no more was said.

I don’t mind that the finales aren’t big bang or the message about the banality of corruption, but it’s frustrating how so many things are just cut off and the conclusion leaves the impression of having been randomly chosen from a list of possible options.
There was one absolutely stupid one in a previous season where Ted got rid of his laptop and the explanation he gave was that he was looking at online porn and was ashamed by it. FFS!
 

Hughes35

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I thought the whole point was that he wasn’t H but another pawn in the system of institutional corruption? He got cocky in the interview because he thought that he had a get out of jail free card and that was trumped by Hastings.

We know he wasn’t the top guy because he pissed his pants when the other guy was strangled in his cell.

He was just doing what everyone else before him had done, either say “no comment” or take the fall knowing they would be protected.
I did think this as well, but then I thought if that was the case it was really weird that they all swanned off as though the job was done.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Usually I'd agree, but I didn't think it fitted in this situation. Fake evidence being created to blackmail people with, decades of training young people in crime and then getting them jobs on the force etc. It's not your average idiot coasting in a career.

Really hope they do a 7th series to give an ending it deserves.
A dragon carrying Ted off into the distance...
 

Solius

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There was one absolutely stupid one in a previous season where Ted got rid of his laptop and the explanation he gave was that he was looking at online porn and was ashamed by it. FFS!
Jed Mercurio and Red herrings, match made in heaven.
 

Agent Red

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Jed Mercurio and Red herrings, match made in heaven.
It’s really frustrating. He does a sort of “aha, it was in front of you all along!” Smug type delivery but it doesn’t feel satisfying because there are so many other options he put in front of us where he could have said the same thing, and there are still a lot of unexplained loose ends. It’s not like proper top writing in Prime Suspect or something where everything slowly unravels to a logical conclusion.

I had pretty low expectations given how silly the end of Bodyguard was but it’s a shame as the buildup is great viewing and the early series were a much higher quality.

I generally think it was well acted, with a few exceptions, but hard to do much with such a dodgy script and direction.
 

Solius

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The acting could literally slide from good to parody in the same scene. Bizarre show it became in the end.
 

Hughes35

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It’s really frustrating. He does a sort of “aha, it was in front of you all along!” Smug type delivery but it doesn’t feel satisfying because there are so many other options he put in front of us where he could have said the same thing, and there are still a lot of unexplained loose ends. It’s not like proper top writing in Prime Suspect or something where everything slowly unravels to a logical conclusion.

I had pretty low expectations given how silly the end of Bodyguard was but it’s a shame as the buildup is great viewing and the early series were a much higher quality.

I generally think it was well acted, with a few exceptions, but hard to do much with such a dodgy script and direction.
I found the scripting of Steve and Kates convo with Lomax in the meeting room so badly written.

They kept speaking to each other like robots, when it's just 3 of them in the room in quite an informal setting. Real people don't talk like that.
 

Solius

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Every episode has something like this:

SCENE: Kate is in a pub with two beers. Steve arrives. Kate is in regular clothes but Steve is still in full waistcoat for some reason.

Steve: "Mate". *nods*

Kate: "Alright mate"

Steve: "Yeah..."

Kate: "What's up mate?"

Steve: *sigh* *proceeds to explain the probably confidential case out in the open in full detail. Full names of every suspect and explanations of previous scenes*

Kate: "Shit mate that's rough. My hands are tied."

Steve: "Please mate".

Kate: "I'll see what I can do."

Steve: "Thanks mate"

Kate: "Cya mate"
 
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Massive Spanner

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Every episode has something like this:

SCENE: Kate is in a pub with two beers. Steve arrives. Kate is in regular clothes but Steve is still in full waistcoat for some reason.

Steve: "Mate". *nods*

Kate: "Alright mate"

Steve: "Yeah..."

Kate: "What's up mate?"

Steve: *sigh* *proceeds to explain the probably confidential case out in the open in full detail. Full names of every suspect and explanations of previous scenes*

Kate: "Shit mate that's rough. My hands are tied."

Steve: "Please mate".

Kate: "I'll see what I can do."

Steve: "Thanks mate"

Kate: "Cya mate"
:lol:

The pub scene in the episode was so bad. As was Kate's therapy scene. Like we're supposed to believe these two are incredibly close because they've said "mate" to each other all the time despite having zero chemistry throughout. It was so cringey.
 

Agent Red

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Every episode has something like this:

SCENE: Kate is in a pub with two beers. Steve arrives. Kate is in regular clothes but Steve is still in full waistcoat for some reason.

Steve: "Mate". *nods*

Kate: "Alright mate"

Steve: "Yeah..."

Kate: "What's up mate?"

Steve: *sigh* *proceeds to explain the probably confidential case out in the open in full detail. Full names of every suspect and explanations of previous scenes*

Kate: "Shit mate that's rough. My hands are tied."

Steve: "Please mate".

Kate: "I'll see what I can do."

Steve: "Thanks mate"

Kate: "Cya mate"
spot on :lol:

I think it’s a shame they didn’t follow through on the development of Kate’s character that they started this season. She clearly was pretty close to Jo, but they just cut that off and then had a clumsy montage scene of her talking to the occupational health guy as the “conclusion”.

Instead we get more focus on yet another of Steve’s inappropriate relationships
 

esmufc07

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Every episode has something like this:

SCENE: Kate is in a pub with two beers. Steve arrives. Kate is in regular clothes but Steve is still in full waistcoat for some reason.

Steve: "Mate". *nods*

Kate: "Alright mate"

Steve: "Yeah..."

Kate: "What's up mate?"

Steve: *sigh* *proceeds to explain the probably confidential case out in the open in full detail. Full names of every suspect and explanations of previous scenes*

Kate: "Shit mate that's rough. My hands are tied."

Steve: "Please mate".

Kate: "I'll see what I can do."

Steve: "Thanks mate"

Kate: "Cya mate"
Spot on mate
 

SparkedIntoLife

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Yeah agreed with the consensus. It was proper turd. In fact, most of the way through the show I genuinely wondered whether they were gonna break out into a parody.

There's been some really dramatic moments throughout the show and some of the guest actors have been very good. I can't get behind the main cast though. Poor acting, weak characters (besides maybe Hastings). Given the way the mystery has all unfolded, my brain has painted the whole show as a bit crap.

Regarding H, it felt like they were trying to go for this type of thing but failed to do it anywhere near as well as The Mentalist did it -
 

12OunceEpilogue

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I've just watched it. I didn't mind the overarching idea that while you're looking for a ruthless criminal mastermind you miss a greedy idiot promoted above his station, and that this is probably more true of real life institutions than you'd think, but it was definately (!!!) a let down. All the alarm bells we'd previously identified of a programme being puffed up by hype and strung out past its more fitting, more satisfying conclusion all came home to roost in a final episode and an ending that I'm pretty sure will have pleased very few viewers.

I didn't see anything as bad in this series as the morse code stuff, not to mention Ted throwing out his laptop because he had a wank, in terms of head-bangingly awful plot points but it was nowhere near the best stuff of series 1, 2 and 3. I'd say it was a decent collection of episodes in which they did well to weave in some stuff from the previous series' (Ryan was very good, the horrific idea of Tommy Hunter being both your uncle and your dad, Neil Godwin was ok) and told a pretty good story in of itself but in terms of winding on the big mystery it only confirmed what many fans had been thinking; Mercurio was in over his head stretching this out over more series than was necessary once it caught the public's imagination.
 
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arnie_ni

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I've just watched it. I didn't mind the overarching idea that while you're looking for a ruthless criminal mastermind you miss a greedy idiot promoted above his station, and that this is probably more true of real life institutions than you'd think, but it was definately (!!!) a let down. All the alarm bells we'd previously identified of a programme being puffed up by hype and strung out past its more fitting, more satisfying conclusion all came home to roost in a final episode and an ending that I'm pretty sure will have pleased very few viewers.

I didn't see anything as bad in this series as the morse code stuff, not to mention Ted throwing out his laptop because he had a wank, in terms of head-bangingly awful plot points but it was nowhere near the best stuff of series 1, 2 and 3. I'd say it was a decent collection of episodes in which they did well to weave in some stuff from the previous series' (Ryan was very good, the horrific idea of Tommy Hunter being both your uncle and your dad, Neil Godwin was ok) and told a pretty good story in of itself but in terms of winding on the big mystery it only confirmed what many fans had been thinking; Mercurio was in over his head stretching this out over more series than was necessary once it caught the public's imagination.
This always happens.

It's like the have the story all set out ready to go for say 5 seasons, it then gets that big they have to extend it a few more and in doing so they completely lose their way and change how they had initially planned to end it.
 

Roane

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Strange episode. There were times it flicked one scene to another and I felt I had missed something.

Overall really disappointed. I get some people's rationale but for me I want to be entertained too and basically wasn't.

It had a Wonder Woman 84 feel to it. Bad acting, build up to something that wasn't all that (the golden armour) and just a speech at the end.

Jed had said in around March that he was pushing for another series, so maybe that was the aim?
 

Wibble

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I didn't think it was as bad as most in here seem to think. My main complaint is that it was too rushed and another episode would have allowed the van switch to become a bigger element of this episode.

I liked Buckles being the only man standing and enriching himself by just carrying on putting other relatively minor players in touch with each other.

The prison scene could be a sign of Buckles not enjoying seeing a murder close up. It could also means that he wasn't H - who is either dead, still out there or never existed.

I think the ending was designed to be a tolerable end in case series 7 never sees the light of day even if I think series 7 is inevitable.
 

acnumber9

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Any revelation on ‘H’ was always going to be underwhelming. It had to be an established character and the only one they ever developed was Dot and he’s dead. The whole conspiracy shit should’ve died with him. It worked fine as standalone seasons and could’ve continued to do so.
 

Pexbo

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Any revelation on ‘H’ was always going to be underwhelming. It had to be an established character and the only one they ever developed was Dot and he’s dead. The whole conspiracy shit should’ve died with him. It worked fine as standalone seasons and could’ve continued to do so.
Hmmm, sounds like you’re trying to throw us off scent AC-9
 

hobbers

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Ruminate on the fact that every time one of those intelligent but over-a-barrel bent police detectives were on their laptops taking orders, it was fecking Buckles on the other end of those messages.

Fecking awful.
 

Agent Red

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I didn't think it was as bad as most in here seem to think. My main complaint is that it was too rushed and another episode would have allowed the van switch to become a bigger element of this episode.

I liked Buckles being the only man standing and enriching himself by just carrying on putting other relatively minor players in touch with each other.

The prison scene could be a sign of Buckles not enjoying seeing a murder close up. It could also means that he wasn't H - who is either dead, still out there or never existed.

I think the ending was designed to be a tolerable end in case series 7 never sees the light of day even if I think series 7 is inevitable.
Agree the rushed feel was my major issue with it. I didn’t have a huge problem with the message he was trying to get across, though I thought it wasn’t that well executed, but the way he just cuts off character development or longstanding red herring storylines he’s built up puts me off.

The Jo/Kate relationship, Hastings suspicions and Steve’s addiction in this season alone all either cut off with no further mention or wrapped up incredibly quickly. That and the increasingly clumsy scripting to get some “fan favourite” lines in means it never really gets into the top level character development a better show would.
 

Parma Dewol

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Bit late to the Line of Duty party, but we just started watching this show.

Finished Seasons 1 and 2, but sadly struggling to see what all the hype was about. Does it get any better or is it safe to admit defeat and move on to something else?
 

Volumiza

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Bit late to the Line of Duty party, but we just started watching this show.

Finished Seasons 1 and 2, but sadly struggling to see what all the hype was about. Does it get any better or is it safe to admit defeat and move on to something else?
No, I thought it was tripe after s2. One of the least believable shows ever.
 

AgentSmith

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Bit late to the Line of Duty party, but we just started watching this show.

Finished Seasons 1 and 2, but sadly struggling to see what all the hype was about. Does it get any better or is it safe to admit defeat and move on to something else?
Season 2 and 3 are the best seasons so if you’re not a fan by now it probably won’t get any better in terms of your enjoyment.
 

Parma Dewol

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No, I thought it was tripe after s2. One of the least believable shows ever.
Season 2 and 3 are the best seasons so if you’re not a fan by now it probably won’t get any better in terms of your enjoyment.
Thanks, I'll call it a day on this. Really struggled with the first two seasons as there wasn't a single character I actually liked. Maybe I needed to watch it when it was all the rage in the media.