Thus review is full of spoilers.
Drama was a disgrace basically and the more I think about the moral mess of this programme the more I despair. Was it trying to be a Liverpudlian version of breaking Bad combined with the Wire without guns? Well it did not work and Liverpudlians should protest. Ultimately , this was risible and a real let down. At one early point, gave it benefit of doubt, and would have given this five star for performances from Martin Freeman and the actors playing Marco, Davey, Casey and Carl, all of whom acted their guts out, (but none of the others) and three star for grippability, but this just makes the drama a complete stinker - ie great ideas with a failure of execution at every stage; piling error upon error in terms of believability, made it weak, weak, weak. The whole experience was even worse in retrospect. I would give minus one star for the inability to make good ideas work. That is what writers rooms and show runners are for surely? What a let down. Gallagher the prison drug boss with a smart doctor sister? C'mon? . Let off being killed in prison for the lost drugs due to a police seizure form ? Really? Same pathological killer/doctor sister accepting that same form? Really? The story ran out of steam after two episodes. Threadbare characters with major roles. And cliches too numerous to mention all but burglar grandpa was one. Cameo dying mother another- seemingly culpable for raising Chris with monster father and in denial, let off the hook. No meaty backstory developed for Chris's mental crises. Weird copper jealous of him ruined career again, a good idea that became comical and over the top implausible. Wife betrayed with same copper? Just totally not believable. Certainly if she had, Chris had every reason to dump the stupid woman. She had no oomph as a character. A real drag. The line about counsellor failings which could have major resonance for so many institutions and corporations who pay lip service with minmum badly delivered time limited/ talk therapies that just don't do it, was so weakly dealt with it did not make its point and was again cliched and unbelievable . As to Carl's wife. Why would he owe her? For goodness sake. It was a moral mess . As to letting so much cocaine out on the street as an act of generosity? Then there was the vacuous late entrance of implausible 'skipper' boss who did nothing but accepted Chris's excuses, (as if) and added insult to the audiences' injury; plus cliche burglar grandfather and on and on. It did not need to be like that. An overly enthusiastic five star from Lucy Mangan in the Guardian after just one episode, misled the viewing public. There was little in the story devices that was executed anywhere near well enough - and the abusive relationship of the lead rookie cop was so unbelievable and badly portrayed it actually devalued rather than highlighted the horror of persistent domestic abuse. Rookie cop herself was a very weak character too. Actress tried her best I suppose with a bad hand. This drama in smarter hands could have been a contender. That somehow makes this effort even worse. Where were the script editors?
