Line of Duty Series 2 Episode 1 Review

Line of Duty Series 2 Episode 1 Review

*This review contains spoilers*

Well...holy shit.

Sometimes I really think I’m going to have to start watching TV shows as they appear on TV, rather than all in one go when they come out on DVD, just so I can enjoy the cliffhangers with the rest of the country. And by the gods, this has to be one of the most out of the blue and shocking endings to an episode I’ve ever seen on British television.

I heard the hype for this when it was first on. Well, Series 2, anyway. I didn’t even know there had been a Series 1, but I heard rave reviews about the first episode, and just never got the time to catch up with it. I heard rave review all the way through, in fact, and so I’m finally finding the odd hour here and there to try and get it watched. The same thing happened with Broadchurch, hearing wonderful things and then wishing I’d been there at the start when I finally saw it. Though I love having multiple series to watch straight after another, I still love the excitement that courses through my veins when I have to speculate for a week on what I’ve just seen. It’s fair to say that I’m feeling that right from the off with Line of Duty.

DI Lindsay Denton is contacted by DS Jayne Akers for backup when a key witness is compromised. When the convoy she arranges is attacked, all three police officers (bar Denton) are killed, and the witness taken to Intensive Care in hospital. Suspicion from internal Police investigators falls on Denton, with DS Steve Arnott and DC Georgia Trotman joining Supt Ted Hastings in questioning her. Their colleague Kate Fleming refuses to join the investigation because she trained with Akers. Denton protests her innocence, though she is assured that she is being interviewed as a witness, not a suspect. When Fleming follows Denton to a payphone one afternoon, she learns that the number Denton dialled was the hospital where the witness is being treated. After Denton heads to see her mother at a local care home, Fleming informs Arnott and Trotman, who run to investigate. When they reach the witness, an assassin is injecting the witness with something lethal. Arnott is knocked out, and Trotman is thrown out of a window.

I started this review by saying holy shit, and I’m going to repeat it again, in capitals, with full stops.

HOLY. SHIT.

I can’t emphasise enough just how much of a holy shit moment the end of this episode is. Seeing Trotman thrown out of the window like that is completely out of the blue and shockingly brutal, and my jaw took a while to come back up from the ground. Clearly, Line of Duty is another show that isn’t afraid to dispense with characters to further the story. The initial deaths of the police officers at the beginning of the episode, which kicks off the entire story is also difficult to watch.

At the heart of all this is DI Lindsay Denton, played brilliantly by Keeley Hawes. I’ve already been back and forth several times from believing her innocent to believing her innocent. There are any number of explanations we could offer for her shady actions (she takes off her neck brace because she doesn’t want her mum to see it and worry; she was calling the hospital  because she’s pregnant and wants to check on some test results), but it isn’t looking good for her. Especially after she showed her brutal side in attacking her neighbour (though to be fair, with the possible PTSD, worries about finances and having to listen to crap music blaring through the walls in the early hours, she’s not the only one who would snap). Then there are the moments to undoubtedly put the viewer on her side, the main of course being where she has her head flushed down the toilet by some of her colleagues. I found that scene a little hard to swallow if I’m perfectly honest, and I was convinced it was a dream sequence for a while, but we all react to grief differently, so...

I’m sure that I’d benefit from seeing Series 1 to learn a bit more about Fleming and Arnott, but already I like the way that Arnott seems genuinely open minded yet cynical, and Fleming is biased because she knew Akers and wants to see justice for her friend. The other characters have plenty to peak my interest, such as Hastings strained relationship with his wife and Deputy Chief Constable Dryden, who gives the impression that he wants swift justice which could see Denton unfairly implicated. Jessica Raines as Trotman was particularly excellent, and it’s a shame that we won’t see more of her.

Just like Broadchurch, this has got me hooked right from the beginning. If I wasn’t half asleep at the keyboard now then I’d be watching episode 2 right away. I know the series is going to twist back and forth, and to be honest I’ll be shocked if it turns out Denton is guilty (call it gut instinct), but I know I’m going to thoroughly enjoy finding out.