LINE OF DUTY: cop-on-cop action TV procedural that demands analysis

not actually new but I only just binge-scovered it on netflix (overlooked ftb boring name i guess): caught up w/s1/2 since sunday, started s3 late yesterday, will get to s4 in next couple days no doubt

the anti-corruption ppl try to reign in the corrupt ppl, except who is which? and who will win? lots of things to enjoy, some things that bug me

SPOILERY NOTES FOLLOW, tracer i need yr input here
a: neil morrissey has (a) turned into cary grant kinda, and (b) shd give up comedy, he's good at serious sleazy drama!
b: it is great at shock developments (on sun i told myself "just one more ep b4 bed" and hence confronted self w/a home invasion and a throat-cutting)
c: it seems happy to bump off characters you assume will be around for a while
d: a couple of the are-they-aren't-they villains have been a bit swervy as plausible character types (i'm thinking dryden mainly)
e: lol they shd make a dexter-style tec series round denton, she solves crimes FROM PRISON on the days she's let out or something -- anyway she was terrific to spend time with, as a "who/what exactly is she?" kind of an invention you invest a lot of sympathy in and then omg
f: i'm hearing a bit of jumps-the-shark talk abt the most recent developments (hence girding my challopsy loins for the argts)
g: at heart it's *very* ACAB (even the good ones are arseholes, and treachery institutionally determined)

neil morrissey has (a) turned into cary grant kinda

https://onceuponascreen.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/33.gif?w=798

gonna need a bit more unpacking of that one

looks strangely like him now, has evolved unexpected silverback gravitas, real name archibald leach

(it doesn't really work obv, since cary g was all abt the comedy even in serious roles, and neil is -- it turns out -- only tolerable when he isn't being one bit comical)

(but he does look like cg all of a sudden) (possibly bcz acting with a stick reveals his previously less-evident tallness)

i've been meaning to get around to watching this show for a while and i think this frankly startling news is the gonna be the tipping point

is recommend, esp. in 5-hrs-at-a-time splurges :)

i've heard nothing but good things, but i think i might have spoiled a bit of it a while back by catching what appeared to be the unexpected death of a major character while i was channel-hopping :(

no doubt this thread will not help much with that issue :|

i'm out, back asap

is recommend, esp. in 5-hrs-at-a-time splurges :)

Yep, watched the last series back-to-back on a flight and it was excellent - though i am not sure i entirely got what Denton was up to in the grand scheme of things.

The finale was audaciously silly in a way that worked surprisingly well.

sticking w/denton as a dexter-esque "the darkest villain is the best cop" invention

"maverick you say? hold my beer"

i'm hearing a bit of jumps-the-shark talk abt the most recent developments

Not so far!

I think the show has vaccinated itself against shark-jumping by being very silly indeed and almost always getting away with it. There's an amazing moment in the season three finale involving a text message that's Adam-West-Batman-level preposterous - you'll know it when you see it - but the way it plays out is quite fun and exciting.

When Doctor Who and other BBC shows go blockbuster, I tend to eyeroll - but this show seems unique its ability to be "gritty realistic" and also totally daft at the same time - the momentum always keeps you from questioning the story. It's almost Ian Fleming-like.

End of the last season seemed to be pretty shark jumping for various character interpersonal and behaviour reasons. But I'm lookiing at the new one anyway.

But the guy from forensics may be getting himself a little type cast.
& hope that Tandie's in throughout the season.

it has some of the best queasily confrontational hostile interviewing i think i've ever watched -- where you really aren't sure who you want to root for, when both sides are quite compromised and also quite unpleasant ppl (or have anyway recently behaved unpleasantly)

and this seems to happen in nearly every episode! as if the somewhat ludicrous turns the story often takes are devised purely to engineer these confrontations (i mean, i kind of assume they are)

a couple of those involved are a bit too mask-like too often maybe

good work too with police computer systems: all horrible 90s design and typefaces, the opposite of CSI nonsense

DENTON

When do we get to talk about the ending of S4E1? That was preposterous (in a good way, like most of the rest of it, esp that text message moment mentioned upthread. Happy Valley it ain't).

Lindsay Denton is/was a fascinating character though. As are/were Nige and Dot and Dryden. I still love the bit at the end of S1 where someone was chopping Arnott's finger off in a vice and he was trying to arrest them for assaulting a police officer as they were doing it.

i am still watching S3! (ep3 right now)

OMG the "truth and reconciliation" face off!!!

the guy who plays matthew "dot" cottan is probably my least favourite main actor

arnott increasingly reminds me lookwise of someone i know really well -- tho obviously not very like him in temperament

WAIT WHAAAAAAAAT?????

(i have just reached the operation yewtree reveal)

hastings is terrific

Yeah, I love Hastings.

The Dale Roach/Rochdale "ha, doesn't he look like Cyril Smith", "oh, look, here's Jimmy Savile" bit was HI DERE LET US HIT YOU WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER

BEST SLEDGEHAMMER EVER :D

sadly followed now by a v sad sledgehammer :(

one of the little things i like is ppl being interviewed constantly complaining abt the aggressive and hurtful tone being used

My favourite moments are when Fleming stands on the AC-12 balcony, and a SUSPICIOUS GLARE-OFF erupts between Kate and whoever's leaving the building.

Aside from that - the ending to the season four premiere suggests the new season will just be an extended game of exquisite corpse

*MARK MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS NEXT BIT*

I dunno, it might be fun to subvert the "hi, we have a new lead actor, OH LOOK THEY'RE DEAD" trope.

*CARRY ON NOT LOOKING MARK*

I assumed they were deliberately leading you into thinking they'd pulled the same trick as last time, until the very last second. I guess we'll find out next week...

ok lol i have just completed series 3

thinking of meetings where i'd have liked to have sent that text

*MARK MAY OR MAY NOT ASSUME WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SERIES 4 HERE*

Series 1-3 all killed off leading actors who were meant to have prominent roles really early on - Gina McKee in S1 (to be fair, she lasted until episode 2), that lass from Call the Midwife that went out the window in S2, then Daniel Mays in S3. It's totally a thing, so much so that we were taking bets as to who was going to bite it by the end.

In fact, did they not off Will Mellor quite early on last year as well?

yes i had spotted this trend and am unlikely to be totally startled by its early resumption in s4

mutton-chops guy playing bowls has needed arresting since he was bob in RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO (1987)

He was a nice bloke in Happy Valley though iirc.

Although we've been cheated out of a good Neil Morrissey death scene

Personally I fear for Hastings this year

His replacement will be Zombie Denton, the best copper in history

I think I mentioned elsewhere how last year there were loads of folk on Twitter going "OMG IT WAS A TRUE STORY" just because they did they "Nige retired on a full pension, Kate was given a medal of honour" type summary over the credits, people took that to be what actually happened to real people rather than a lazy plot device.

btw, since Kate went full-on action hero and got herself a medal at a big showy ceremony, how come she still gets to go undercover as a mystery secondee called Kate and no-one ever still knows who she is?

i liked the end summaries in the earlier series: they were p much "wrong person is jailed, corrupt cops still at large and in charge, everything is fucked and getting worse"

ok i am up to speed lol

i worry a bit abt banging my own head like that on my kitchen top

e1 s4 was not on the whole a good episode

it's been a big year for kitchentop headbang deaths (see also search party)

i'm pretty sure that, unless you bull charge your kitchen top from fifty feet away, you're unlikely to injure yourself more than a mild boink

i enjoyed the first episode of the news season, btw

although yes it does seem like the show is resting on its tropes for the first time

i am not going to stop watching

neil morrissey very much not cary grant in one important respect: not handsome

come on they're basically twins

http://yeoldecybershoppe.com/malahide/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Boon_In-It-for-the-Monet-008.jpg

HERE BE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED LAST NIGHT YET

Trope subverted! (though still managed to kill off a potentially major character, just not the one we were expecting)

Thandie was fair compos mentis for someone who had just survived a fairly major bump to the head though, eh?

I can't believe that every inch of that evidence room isn't covered by CCTV

Yeah, that was kind of ridiculous. Also can't believe Steve's being considered for promotion after all the fuck-ups in the Denton case, let alone the fact he never spotted Dot being shifty for three years.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:0

I am basically doing that "my mouth is opening and closing and no sound is coming out" thing.

so has thandie newton been covering for her husband all along?

at this point i feel like literally any character could suddenly reach up scoobydoo-style and pull off a rubber mask to reveal they're wearing a balaclava beneath it

I don't know. I assume there's some twist still to come about what happened at Ifield's flat - Mr Thandie was clearly there as well, but not quite sure how that all ties in with the murder. But fuck that, I just need someone to tell me that Steve's going to have Roz's powers of recovery from thumping one's head off a hard surface and bleeding out all over the place. I'm not even convinced it was Mr Thandie that did that there at the end - he was scared and cowering, then Steve was attacked by a strong and confident assailant. Wearing different clothes.

maybe it's neil morrissey

Huntley(Mr) was desperately trying to phone someone called Jimmy Lakewell as Steve was approaching(and was shown hovering over his phone number earlier in the episode in a way that suggested THIS PERSON'S NAME WILL DEFINITELY BE PRETTY FUCKING SIGNIFICANT). I'm guessing that was him.

But he gave Lakewell's name to Steve when Steve was on his way to the office. You wouldn't do that if you were sending him to kill him, would you?

impressed at his response time also, if it is him

It's got to be someone who was already in the building. Anyone record it and get a note of who was based on the third floor, where Steve's lift was intercepted on his way up to the fifth floor?

it's on iplayer

Yeah, I might go and have another look. It's definitely not Mr Huntley, even in full-on panic mode he wouldn't be daft enough to kill the copper investigating his wife right outside his own office.

"Vacant for refurbishment". So basically less likely to be disturbed at it then. Hmmmm. I'd make a shite detective.

the firm huntley works for is called WEBBER AND BARCLAY

we don't get much of a look at the other firms -- certainly not enough to suggest they're clues (unlike jimmy lakewell): the floor above is called MCALEER BROS CONSTRUCTION, but it's semi-obscured when we see it plainest, and the one above that says VACANT FOR DEVELOPMENT, the one above that is a bank but i couldn't read its name

why was huntley quizzing roz abt where she was the night she was with ifield if he was with her?

x-post

No, it was a bit of a long shot. But clearly this incarnation of Balaclava Man was already in the building. I'm 100% convinced it wasn't Huntley.

i'm sticking by my scoobydoo theory: it is someone in a rubber mask, with a balaclava over the top of thE mask AND ANOTHER ONE BENEATH IT

WE HAVEN'T SEEN MUCH OF DENTON IN THIS SERIES

^^^OVER-EXCITED

My money's on the ghost of Dot.

YIKES

I had a feeling something bad was gonna happen after they showed Fleming and Arnott having a nice curry together

It's like when a character randomly calls their partner to say "I love you", you know they're a gonner

Under the balaclava is a monkey, then Patrick McGoohan, then Denton

t's like when a character randomly calls their partner to say "I love you", you know they're a gonner

― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, April 9, 2017 11:20 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep. Also when they out-of-nowhere introduced that new member of AC12, something in my brain went "Uh-oh." That was a dead giveaway that someone else was not going to be on the team much longer.

My husband seems to always walk into the room during the last five minutes of Line of Duty, no matter when I'm watching it, so he basically thinks it's the most exciting programme in the world.

Especially last night, when Steve went over the bannisters.
Me: Holy fucking shitballs.
Husband: His leg is not meant to be that shape, I'm guessing.

People in fictional Line of Duty Land be good at recovering from serious head trauma.

That interview scene with Huntley and Hastings was great though. I basically love all those bits.

(also boo to lovely Maneet being somehow in on the wrong side. But jeez, Roz Huntley is a piece of work, isn't she?)

Part of what was so great about last night's episode was how it laid the groundwork for Maneet not being on AC12's side: all that stuff that Huntley says about Adrian Dunbar is kind of true. He does treat women differently to men (by sleeping with some of them, for example). Maybe Maneet hasn't been treated so well since she got pregnant?

"he's got fractured legs, pelvis, back, skull"

*in bed an unbruised arnott has a small plaster on his forehead*

think i'd a be a piece of work if nick huntley were my husband tbr

"we had feelings for each other, we spent the night together" lol

Not particularly a fan of either Huntley, tbh - Roz's casual domestic violence and verbal intimidation towards him was quite unpleasant. Does she really love him as she said to Hilton, or did she just say that so she wouldn't have to get naked and show her icky arm?

I think it was Neil from the Office wot done it. Though Kevin Gill is also now a suspect (in our house at least) because he was a very unpleasant man in EastEnders. But the guy who plays Nick is both bad guys and good guys in stuff, so dunno if my "it's the actor you most expect to be doing it did it" theory will hold up, especially because they generally get killed off with alarming regularity.

assistant chief constable hilton: can't decide if he's implausible or just super-annoying

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7hXF2bXwAAhClv.jpg

"superintendant, your tone is oppressive"
"she's an sio 20 yrs on the squad, if she can't take it god help us all"

important exchange, will write up shortly, when ep is over

"masons are the mafia of the mediocre" !!!

the topic i was going to write up has now very much entered the building

i have decided balacalavaman is hilton bcz i hate him

I don't think Huntley spurned him because she loves her husband. I think she did it so that AC12 would have as little dirt as possible on her. Also because (apart from the killing and whatnot), she's basically a total pro. She does everything by the book and she got held back when she had her family. Which is why she resents the crap out of her family, and why she was willing to frame an innocent man - because this is her chance to get to the top of the heap she should have got to ten years ago.

Could easily be Hilton. That bugger will do anything to stop Stone Cold Steve Arnott.

ok so this is no longer going to strike readers as percipient after that hastings-huntley confrontation but what i was going to suggest was that this series is a kind of counter-prime-suspect (or possibly playing with this idea)

a) throughout s4, there's been a LOT of girl-on-girl exchange of glances re (actual instances of) sexism, inc.hastings's "darling" but also just a general sideye-the-masons-and-the-mcps exasperation
b) i think the series is taking the line -- maybe for reasons of good drama, maybe for more "old fashioned" reasons -- that Political Correctness is anathema to Good Coppering etc etc
c) of the corrupt policeman to be taken down, so far TWO have been black* -- adding just this ep jamie desford (not very good at his job) and maneet (gender-loyal to huntley?) as weak reed
d) denton! (tho denton is actually the zombie jane tennison of this entire franchise: viz i think LoD's long game is subtle and playfully complex and ambiguous, rather than merely revanchist BLM-is-the-real-racism)
e) hastings! he may be a sticky old paisleyite old-skool bastard but he is a good copper and an honest man, therefore sticky old paisleyite old-skool bastardry = good coppering
f) hilton! the weak liberal is the worst sexist perve of all (also clearly balaclavaman, since there are no villains in this franchise who are not actually policemen or onside-woth-policemen)
g) kate is the xander

*drama-wise this is excellent news, of course, it gives black actors access to complex, meaty memorable roles

(rewatched the original prime suspect a week or three back: "you're being bing-bonged all over the station" is still the standout u-go-girl moment of exasperated female solidarity in that groundbreaking series, "mafia of mediocrity" is a perfect description of nearly all jane tennison's (male) senior officers BUT ALSO HER TOTAL WEAK-REED HUSBAND WHICH WHY DID SHE EVER MARRY THIS DISLOYAL LUMP????)

^^anyway the makers of LoD s4 were also imo rewatching prime suspect a lot, to look for stuff they could repurpose and play with 20 years later

I also think Huntley spurned Hilton because icky arm would be a bit tricky to hide when naked.

also surely bcz ICKY HILTON NAKED* (plus she knew she would have to kill him unobserved which might be tricky right now)

*she may be a piece of work but she has standards (even if low-bar nick h suggests otherwise)

I wonder was Maneet turned towards helping Hilton & Huntley discredit AC-12 because she feels guilty about helping Dot last year (also surely that's the mother of all charges to bring up against AC-12 when trying to discredit them rather than "Ted's a bit of a dinosaur"?)

that will an excellent turning of tables in s5

hastings: so what do you have to say to that, evil copper of s5?
ecos5: er um oh uh
hastings: so i put it to you that YOU are the evil one here
ecos5: ALL COPPERS ARE BASTARDS, had you thought of that?
hastings: er um oh uh
ecos5: hence AC-12 is WORST OF ALL, so i put it to you that YOU are the evil one here ted so-called hastings

xpost - lol great point re: dot

Also, yes, Neil from The Office is a good call - he's pretty much the perfect dramatically satisfying "hidden in plain sight" candidate - and he's the only other one who knew about arnott's visit last week. Maybe his office is above th husbands - they're both lawyers? That would explain how quickly he turned up.

Anyway this ep was a bit of a rehash of earlier "Denton turns the tables" scenes but very well done. What's letting the side down this season are Hilton and the husband (both pretty crap actors)

Not sure the shows is taking a "political correctness is an anethema to good coppering" line, if only because Hastings and Arnott's screwups generally make things worse for their cases.

i refer m'lud to the "oppressive" exchange

but i agree we can't yet tell if it's taking this line or pretending to flirt with it to set up a future table-turning (feel that arnott has been tossed down one of the more slithery snakes this series; hastings still hanging on in there)

firms in the building (as established last week)

top was some bank (couldn't read name)
below that VACANT FOR DEVELOPMENT (floor nick h's office is now on)
below that MCALEER BROS CONSTRUCTION
below that WEBBER AND BARCLAY (nick h works for them) (but maybe jimmy lakewell also does, tho why wd he then run out into the street)

(floors anyone's guess tbh, but this is what was displayed as arnott read it)

Have to assume from past precedent that somebody is already working with or against somebody in a way that we aren't privy to - e.g. Hastings leaking info via Maneet (why? dunno), Hilton working to back at Roz for manipulating him, etc etc

Have a feeling she may get away with it in the end - mostly just for a bit of variety in the context of previous series. We will definitely get a flashback to Tim Ifield's flat at some point, it will be interesting to see who else might have turned up to help out (Jodie? Jimmy Lakewell?).

http://i4.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article8934666.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Neil-Morrissey.jpg

One option, perhaps, that Huntley got the right person to begin with, and all this palaver has been pointless.

Only Neil Morrissey knows.

I've never seen S1. Is there anything from it I need to know to make sense of S4? e.g. the detective that was brought in to take over who recognised Kate from before - is he from S1?

don't think so, no: if the dot cottan story is going to be rehashed in rhuntley's war on ac12 then it begins in s1 (but doesn't have much play, beyond hints he's a wrong un)

model for LoD's wtf-omg moments was set in s1, but in a sense nothing you didn't see again in s2/s3

I watched S2 first, without knowing for sure that Dot was a baddie, and it worked pretty well.

Yeah, the guy who was brought in who recognised Kate was in S1, he took over an from someone being investigated by AC-12 then too. Don't know that it's overarching so much as it was just a nod to the past and explained how he knew who Kate was.

Though perhaps he's the key to ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.

I laugh every time someone says "DI Buckles". It's such a perfect stupid name.

yes i think they just wanted to box off the "surely someone will recognise kate" idea so that it was a known (and foolish) quantity who did: lampshade hanging basically

if buckles is balaclavaman i will eat neil morrissey's cane

Hilton was in S1 too iirc

yes he has been a continuum of annoying quasi-liberal uselessness (but i don't think you learn anything abt him that you haven't found out in s4 alone

"listen ironside"

lakewell continues to be a needless dick, generally a sign you'll go down hard in the moral universe of the procedural

ok lol LoD DOES NOT DISAPPOINT

ok -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- there has been some stuff in this ep which goes back to s1 (baseball bats and the killing of jackie laverty)

indie-girl w/crush on roz is a menace imho

hmm...not a huge fan of a return to the evil police conspiracy theme, though there's no evidence yet that it is has anything to do with anything ("in both cases the criminals wore balaclavas and disposed of body parts in freezers - can't be a coincidence!")

and if Jamie can't make the connection to go "btw I gave my password to Maneet the other day" he's probably in the wrong job

hmm...not a huge fan of a return to the evil police conspiracy theme, though there's no evidence yet that it is has anything to do with anything ("in both cases the criminals wore balaclavas and disposed of body parts in freezers - can't be a coincidence!")

― Choco Blavatsky (seandalai), Sunday, April 23, 2017 10:33 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd say there's not a snowball's chance in hell those references wouldn't have come up again unless they had some major significance. The fact Hilton is seemingly trying to get AC12 shut down so they can't investigate his connection to Dot and whatever involvement he had with the Laverty case is surely significance enough.

Like it or not, the wider corruption storyline has been the backbone of the previous three series and it's not likely to go away at this point. It's always been about the bigger picture, with individual cases just a small part of it.

Jamie is bit of a weird character, so bizarrely incompetent it did make wonder if there was something else behind it. Or was that whole plot thread just there to turn the screws on Hastings even further?

re jamie see part (c) of my counter-prime-suspect reading further up

i hope it's a smart and interesting version of this rather than crappy anti-PC edginess :|

Admiring Roz's ability to measure out the correct number of pills while chugging that bottle like a freshman's first jagermesister shot

Always find it oddly disconcerting that, as far as I can tell, nobody in this series has ever said 'London' or 'Metropolitan Police'. Is it set in some parallel universe?

I don't think the name of the town is ever mentioned

If Hastings turns out to be corrupt I'm going to be absolutely gutted

p sure it's not set in hastings

:D

rewatching: faintly hoping everything is not resolved next ep, and that s5 features beloved characters good and bad variously returning wheelchair bound, one armed, metal claw for hands, peg leg, eyepatch and so on

I like the sound of that

Always find it oddly disconcerting that, as far as I can tell, nobody in this series has ever said 'London' or 'Metropolitan Police'. Is it set in some parallel universe?

isn't set somewhere nameless in the east midlands?

isn't it, rather

Aren't the force called Central Police or Midlandshire Police or something?

WIKIPEDIA SEZ that there are various on-set clues -- maps and such -- that it's birmingham (and series one was filmed there; since then it;s mostly been filmed in belfast)

nearly no one involved speaks in birmingham tho (the accent mix seems designed to be a metropolitcan mix, which is maybe why london seems a good first approx)

hastings speaks in norn irn obv

I think the city is located somewhere along the Belfast-Birmingham corridor

Reminds me of how US and Canadian shows are shot in Toronto but it's never "Toronto"

Kate was undercover as an officer FROM the midlands, so it can't be there

It was from one of the Midlands constabularies, would make sense if it was a neighbouring force. That would also mean that the crime she was supposedly investigating occurred reasonably nearby and not at the other end of the country.

The lad that RH is trying to frame - the closest we have to an authentic working class local - what sort of accent would you say he had?

Talking of accents, when I started watching (S2) I was puzzled by Steve Arnott's accent which seemed to float around a bit, kind of southern-and-yet-not. I wondered if he was from some kind of intermediate zone where the south meets the midlands like Peterborough or Northampton (disclaimer - I don't what the accent is in either of those places) so I looked him up on Wikipedia and found out that the character is supposed to be from London (as has been made clear repeatedly in the series since then) but the actor is Scottish. Why do they do that? There doesn't seem to be any need for the character to come from London, so why not just make him Scottish? It's not as if he does a terrible job of it (probably a lot more plausible than if I tried to pass myself off as a Scottish detective*) but it doesn't sound quite right and keeps distracting me.

*I might try this today and see how it goes

It's a very Leyton/Essex-y accent. I keep think he's trying to do David Beckham.

The lad that Roz is trying to frame is played by a Scottish actor as well, observant comedy fans may recognise him as Methadone Mick from the last series of Still Game.

Undercover Kate was meant to be seconded from East Midlands iirc.

Just starting this from s1 so not reading the thread but it's kind of odd so far - decent enough tho

Undercover Kate sounds like a character in Pigeon Street.

s2 is a rollercoaster!!

I've only seen S1 & S2 so far. I assume reading this thread would be a bad idea until I can get up to date? Really want to see what folks have said about S2, which I have a few niggling questions about.

You can ask away for now without scrolling up, I guess, but I'd stay off this thread after 9pm tonight if I were you.

ditto! I have questions about s2.

pointed out to a group of friends that, as noted, steve arnott looks bewilderingly like our mutual friend E -- got three YES HE TOTALLY DOES and (of course) on NOT AT ALL

I think I'm sadly best to play it safe until I can catch up - ignoring all this until then!

"the wee witch"

.the twist that there wasn't really a twist was I guess a twist

lol omigod

The person who was being interviewed arrested a second person during the interview! How much of a twist do people want?

Also, I really wanted the last update to be "Steve and Kate are still not getting it on, for some reason."

Ha ok I meant with Tim Ifield's death, it was exactly as we had been led to believe. I was sure we'd revisit the "missing footage" from after Roz woke up at the end of the first episode. The "it's a conspiracy" stuff was just a retread of the last season.

Not saying I don't enjoy the show! The plot just gets a bit looser every season imo.

the AC-12 interview room is always where the important stuff happens, the real wtf turns in the plot

it has some of the best queasily confrontational hostile interviewing i think i've ever watched -- where you really aren't sure who you want to root for, when both sides are quite compromised and also quite unpleasant ppl (or have anyway recently behaved unpleasantly)

and this seems to happen in nearly every episode! as if the somewhat ludicrous turns the story often takes are devised purely to engineer these confrontations (i mean, i kind of assume they are)

^^^this definitely holds up

Weeeeee that was fun.

Favourite moment might just have been Hastings on his own in his office giving a little smile & nod at the good work of his team.

I do feel this series was a little bit of a step down from series 2 & 3, but I was still completely hooked right through.

My hunch that didn't pan out was that crushing indie-girl Jodie would turn out to be deep-cover AC working to entrap Huntly, because I couldn't/didn't want to believe she was that much of a 'menace' as mark puts it upthread - I guess she was just that much of a menace!

"Suspect produces evidence during own interview" is a weird old device in this.

"Wee witch" brought all the roffles. And, aye, was hoping for a Steve & Kate update when they went into the lift. Lifts were quite the plot device all through, really. That, and fucking billions of folks whose name started with Her.

Getting a little bit annoyed by all the loose ends at this point, tbh. I wouldn't expect Mercurio to reveal his whole hand just yet, but I hoped we might get a little more. Hilton's demise was particularly frustrating as it's yet another key player in the conspiracy taken out before they can reveal anything. Isn't it like the third time that's happened now?

Hastings turning out to be "H"(as they were blatantly hinting) would be a hell of a twist, but I'm not sure I quite believe it. That would probably be a step too far even for this show.

real-H making a serious attempt at framing Hastings (better than Hilton's attempt whatever his motive was) could be a good basis for a season

That Hargreaves dude is clearly a potential H for next season.

I think my favourite bit might have been the whole tension around Steve trying to talk Jamie down with all the guns pointed at them then it just petering out with Jamie handing over his gun and being led away. After Kate's gun-toting heroics at the same point last season, having the tension ramp up then completely dissipate was a great contrast.

Just noticed my phone autocorrect made "H" into "Her". Has any TV cop show done a thing where autocorrect fucks stuff up and leads to wrongful arrest/conviction? It *must* be a thing.

My phone autocorrected "running late" to "vaginitis" earlier this week.

Exciting finale but too many loose ends. WHO BLEW UP THE TARDIS? Also:

Why did Tim Ifeld put on a balaclava anyway?
Why did Balaclava Man turn up at the police station at the end? Seems... shortsighted.

Also, am I right in assuming that BM was not actually a SEX PEST, but was just collecting bodies for future blackmails?

Why did Tim Ifeld put on a balaclava anyway?

I think the idea was that it would help to distract any investigation into Roz's death, away from him and towards the ongoing BM investigation, while also helping to get the man who was being framed out of prison.

Also, am I right in assuming that BM was not actually a SEX PEST, but was just collecting bodies for future blackmails?
I think so, but they dealt with this so quickly I didn't really follow

Why did Balaclava Man turn up at the police station at the end? Seems... shortsighted
No idea what was going on there.

Why did Balaclava Man turn up at the police station at the end? Seems... shortsighted.

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, May 1, 2017 1:16 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dispatched by the mob, presumably on Hilton's behest, to take out Jimmy Lakewell before he blabs. As Arnott said, Jamie would presumably have met the same fate had he got out. Sending one guy against a whole squad of armed police does seem a little silly, especially they've established that the gang uses multiple balaclava mens to do it's work.

I did wonder if Huntley was lying about being the only person responsible for Ifield's death, but then Jamie wasn't interested in removing her at all was he? Lakewell was the object of the extraction, so I guess she was telling the truth about that part?

Series 5 had better explain Maneet's role in the whole thing. And Ted can't be the big bad H because giant plot holes all over the place if he is, plus he's Ted and he just can't be.

If Ted is the big bad, doesn't that mean the interactions between him and Hilton make no sense whatsoever?

It would be like when (redacted) turned out to be Gossip Girl.

1: Hastings is not big H but we will spend a large part of s5 thinking he is
2: The interview when he turns things around will be a humdinger (hoping for 4 separate turnings of tables therein, from all four participants, with the lawyer at one point saying "Can I be a police officer now?" and immediately attempting to arrest the other three… )
3: I assume Maneet was pressured by balaclavamens -- she was weeping last time she left the station (lift action!) which surely means she is a right un
4: Jamie D was not a well integrated character, I feel he should have plucked from that final face-off upwards on a very obvious cel, shouting "To The Extreme", and then the legends at credits time would read "Jamie Desford died on the way back to his home planet"
(5: this allows me to propose my secret theory, that some of the balaclavamens are aliens and that is their actual face)
6: it is a bold and a perverse cop show that leads a series of very nasty sexmurders left unsolved at close: truly it is (as proposed) the anti-prime suspect
7: i like how very few of the villains are not cops
8: pegleg and eyepatch or gtfo
9: ifield not knowing huntley was alive remains a colossal plot hole -- so much so they had to have hastings gloriously lampshade-hang for it: "do you mean to tell me…" -- so, as we yes oddlly did not see the "missing footage" it NOT IMPOSSIBLE there is still a plot twist buried here (aliens)

i love this show enormously: it has never not been silly (and also a very dry, rather dark comedy)

I read this Guardian article about why LoD wouldn't get away with this stuff if it were a series of books rather than a television programme, and I thought it was mainly nitpicking, except for the bit about how everyone seems far more concerned with corruption than the abduction and murder of young women. I know corruption is AC-12's business, but in a book you might've got a broader picture, and those women might be a bit more than a footnote.

Or, as Mark says.

I do like the Mercurio approach of "well, you have to give me another series now, don't you?"

Also, definitely is Birmingham, since Roz hid her evidence in The Chase, which is a bit outside Birmingham

That Guardian article is totally nitpicky nonsense - like there's *never* been a crime novel with loose ends or plot holes or silly/unrealistic police work?!

Good finale mostly - like someone mentioned, it was probably the worst season since the first but remains insanely enjoyable. I felt bad for Thandie Newton - she's been excellent but seemed forced to run through DENTON's entire S3 character arc in the last ten minutes of the finale.

Was pleased by One Shot Ted's moment of action, though.

The rationale for Roz covering up Ifield's death was super weak. You could barely imagine a more textbook claim for self defence. She would also not have been convicted of manslaughter at the end, just perverting the course of justice.

If Ted is the big bad, doesn't that mean the interactions between him and Hilton make no sense whatsoever?

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 1 May 2017 09:41 (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The only way to save it would be that Hilton was trying to find out who was blackmailing him and Hastings has a natural talent for fake indignation.

a few things:

1) Ted's half smile of half admiration at Roz not disposing of evidence immediately after the crime because training manual was great/slightly odd.
2) in the interview where Roz came out fists wheeling and shit slinging, i didn't really feel this exposed/played a "good coppering" v "political correctness" line in the show. more another resourceful embattled good-corrupt target doing anything to throw up chaff, each showing their power to construct narratives that change everything in the all important interview room.
3) The opening episodes with the is-she, isn't-she dead stuff almost put me off watching any more (S2 is a clear favourite of mine and even S3 felt like a bit of a step down)
4) Roz was a titan
5) Hilton seemed more creepy, silly and feeble than corrupt. am i right in saying he probably didn't *deliberately* promote Dot and then allow him to go into the van with Tommy in S1 and then let Tommy go bcos terrorism and therefore has only been corrupted since? or is that off?
6) need to watch again but really didn't get "the balaclava men are legion" and why all the sex attacks? all a bit nasty without any sort of indication of motive - just looked like the necessary crime to get the show going.
7) Yes Jamie totally unintegrated. i still can't quite work out whether he was supposed to be in Hilton's pocket from the moment he came in (looked shifty when Steve went to get his back broken) or whether getting given short shrift by AC12 sent him there. If so bloody quick to put his life and career on the line.

also

i'm still fretting about the frozen remains of jackie laverty in the down's syndrome guy's fridge never being found from S1 (or did that get resolved in S1 when i was dozing?)

yes i feel s4 backed off from making anti-PC a cap-T topic and left it at the level of opportunistic weapon in Roz's smart copper's office-infighting arsenal, a weapon increasingly set aside as the waters rose around her

i'm interested how much of the full cross-series arc was even known to mercurio at the end of s1: some, perhaps, but maybe not down to the level of hilton's motivation?

like you, i get the impression: none. rather than the these days frequent and tiresome angling for another on-demand series by leaving threads hanging, I think Mercurio likes the sense of disappointment and an unassailable, almost indefinable controlling figures and structures that his endings convey. also has the advantage of leaving people/producers/commissioners wanting more of course! rather like the final episodes of the each wire series, they were all about the retractions and disappointments that come after seemingly unassailable victory.

good effort sprinkling a load of H surnames around tho.

seems crazy to me that all that 100% incriminationg evidence was bagged up and buried in one giant time capsule with no attempt made to destroy it, especially after going to such lengths to conceal the other bits and pieces

i'm interested how much of the full cross-series arc was even known to mercurio at the end of s1: some, perhaps, but maybe not down to the level of hilton's motivation?

I watched an 8-minute BBC video clip yesterday (think I came across it on twitter) of an interview with Mercurio, Vicky McClure, the Arnott actor (speaking with his real accent) and the police expert who helped out. I'm pretty sure Mercurio said words to the effect that the first series was written as a one-off and it's only since then that he's been trying to get a story arc for beyond one series at a time.

makes sense. i guess you just don't know how it's going to pan out before the first series. 2/3 clearly linked.

...which is why setting Ted up as a potential big bad seems like a risky strategy - if it wasn't part of Mercurio's long game, it will seem like a dreadful cheat.

Or, of course, it could just get handwaved away early next season (no pun intended Thandie) which is probably the best option

i started watching this b/c ~sinkah~ and it took me until superdetective's entrance in the first episode to realize i had already watched it. i thought the elder anticorruption cop, who i was sure i recognized, was just like the zelig of uk police procedurals or whatever!

its ability to be "gritty realistic" and also totally daft at the same time

uh yeah the latter kinda jumps out when they're like 'we need that paperwork' in the first scene and dude is filling out forms on the trunk of his car

Still not read this thread, but I just finished S3 right now and am coming here to say, for want of a better word... wowzers! Utterly over the top and preposterous, but that was some finish. "Urgent exit required".

just finished watching this and i have one important thing i would like to point out....

that i have the right to be questioned by an officer at least one rank superior!!!

lol

On which note, I finally got round to looking up police rankings to try and get a proper handle on all the DS, DI, Superintendent etc business.

I was curious to see that the highest ranking officer we've encountered that I can recall is DCC Dryden in S2, with Hilton's ACC ranking in S4 being one step below that. I always though Ted Hastings was higher up the ranks, and that nasty old Fairbanks was too, but they're both a step or two or more below that level.

I wonder if we'll ever meet the Chief Constable, who is apparently top of the chain if my brief reading is correct?

And whose name almost certainly begins with H, right?

There's a lot of H's about in S4... Hasting, Hilton, Huntley! Also the hard-man murder squad guy Lester Hargreaves from previous series. I'm beginning to think it might be significant...

I don't think we've ever had even a mention of the Chief Constable though, who would be the head of police for the whole area, two steps above Hilton in S4. Just my own curiosity, not based on any suspicions in the show. I have my own of those, but they fall within the confines of characters we have already met.

Finished S4 last night. It has not helped with my questions from previous the series one little bit! There are so many loose threads and overall S4 was rather weak, but I still utterly love this show and I hope Mercurio can pull off S5 & S6 well.

This is not my original observation, but reading comments on a review of the finale, one eagle-eyed viewer spotted something very interesting...

Danny Waldren's hit list from S3, which featured Fairbanks, Tommy Hunter and the two Murphys, also features a couple of names that appear in the line-up of faces we see on the boards in the final scenes at AC-12 in S4, specifically on the board relating to identifying the potential "H"...

To quote.. "One is Paul Haleton (from Danny Waldren's list) ...... who on Sunday was named and pictured as Det Ch Insp Paul Haleton. The other is Supt Susan Hyde-Albert (pictured on the board). On DW's list is Roger Hyde-Albert .... surely a relation with a name like that ....? Two key names for series five?"

Are we completely ruling out H from Steps?

studiously avoiding thread but i just finished E1 and omg they don't play

And we all got one of these! 😀 pic.twitter.com/fNjhDEmDEh

— Vicky McClure (@Vicky_McClure) May 24, 2017

just finished watching this and i have one important thing i would like to point out....

that i have the right to be questioned by an officer at least one rank superior!!!

― tpp, Saturday, 20 May 2017 06:28 (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

maneet says "that's it.. i'm finished". hilton (or whoever hilton was answering to) must have had something on her. blackmail of some kind. either fabricated or not.

speaking of what maneet was up to it's surely extra evil to make it look like it was jamie breaching security when you're then going to turn around and get him to do the dirty work of delivering lakewell up to the executioner! talk about treating people disposably. who's the REAl racist eh?

omg why didn't I watch this series when it was on? Just binged s3 and s4. <3 it so.

s4 though I don't get why they got a balaclava man to attack Arnott when he was about to question Husband Huntley about his knowledge of where Roz Huntley was on the night of Ifield's murder? Ultimately no-one in The Conspiracy would've cared much about that murder other than to keep the spotlight off Roz, and it's not like getting rid of one officer would've stopped that line of enquiry as they all knew about it.

IT SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE AT THE TIME OKAY

Anyone else watching Bodyguard? Excellent first episode, the opening sequence was some of the tensest TV I've ever seen.

Is that the scene where Keeley sings "I Will Always Love You"?

ep 1 was great, bit meh about ep 2 but gonna keep watching

Agree about the tension at the start of episode one (not often our household is both glued to the screen in total silence), but it's tailed off somewhat since then.

OK we got some more tension

Just caught up with the last episode and wow. Great twist at the end re the villain.

Are you meaning Line of Duty Series 4? I realise I can't recall the finale of that properly.

I want to rewatch the whole four series of Line of Duty before the fifth comes around next year, so all the wee details are fresh in my mind, ready for potential clues/red herrings/connecting of the dots. Hoping Jed Mercurio doesn't pull a Bodyguard on us though after all this build up.

No sorry, I was referring to the finale of Bodyguard. I revived this thread to talk about Bodyguard as well as LoD since it didn't seem worth its own thread.

I'm also considering a re-watch of all of LoD before s5 starts...

I'm hoping to have time for the same. I think there's a few details in 1-4 that I missed from a single viewing.

I'm doing just that - just finished season 2.

i did this. S2 is my favourite. but generally over the entire arc the writing is amazing - sustained complexity. ok if the causal incidents sometimes feel a bit weird (S4), the games of three way cat and mouse, and individual motivations are incredibly well handled. JM’s use of the administrative framework, process and language of policing is great - it increases tension (the amazing interview scenes), can often be incorporated as a plot device - using the rule book to your own ends, and has a great aesthetic feeling.

the way things are resolved through the unraveling of the most imperceptible of threads. the claustrophobia and desperation of the mouse, making ever narrower and risky evasions. all great.

which is what makes the total wackness of the bodyguard a bit surprising.

and of course hastings is all time. “No? I’ll give you no.”

I've never seen S1! so it's a bit spoiled obv but I reckon I probably should.

agree S2 is just tremendous.

By the way, everyone should read Jed Mercurio's novel ASCENT, which is genuinely great

2 eps in and totally sucked in again!
I remembered the first ep being quite weird in tone, stilted dialogue, not quite sure what they were going for, and it still feels like that.

Ep 3 and they've just dropped the zinger catchphrase for the first time
'i'm entitled to be interviewed by an officer at least one rank superior'

stray observations so far from halfway through s1 (mainly things I don't remember catching the first time round):
*SPOILERS* if you haven't seen any of it *SPOILERS*

- 'Humourous'(?) or satyrical mentions of 'health and safety' paperwork, must do that impact assessment before chasing the bad guy etc - from the off, making it seem tongue in cheek but then also seemingly played perfectly seriously? I think we just settle in to this being a daft series though, right?
- 'There's no-one blacker than me' says Hastings, referring to his victimisation as a Catholic police officer in NI - is this supposed to show his lack of PC or is it a bit off?
- I don't really understand how AC12 are trying to catch Gates out with the 'laddering' - surely a bit of data analysis about the cases taken/not taken would be more illuminating than going round trying to get colleagues to say 'yeah he's doing laddering'? What evidence are they after? If the system/metrics/targets incentivise this while allowing it then surely it's the system that's wrong?
- It's a bit uneven with what Arnott looks into/doesn't e.g. I would've thought it's quite a big deal that Laverty ran over her accountant yet they're more interested in the money laundering (presumably bc of links to big drug guys but still). He takes ages to even search for 'Laverty' on the database. Also getting really hung up on that whole 'I'll find the whisky glass' thing where any sane Gates would've smashed it into a million pieces?
- We don't know it at the time but Dot is lying about telling AC12 that Gates took them off surveillance early, indicating that Gates is far more corrupt than he actually is (facilitating the double murder). Or you're meant to think Dot's just spineless. Whereas on second viewing we realise why he's doing it.

That little kid who viciously shouts BASTARD at everyone is lol

Watching S2 again: Lindsay Denton – the character and the performance – is so great. What I really like about it on a second viewing is the way the normal hidden functioning of dramatic irony in television and film is completely under attack by Denton. Taking Kate Fleming's ill-fated undercover mini-op. In order to show the inner dramatic workings of Fleming's presence, the direction and performance will pick up on all sorts of mannerisms and behaviour by Fleming, which is invisible to the people around her. Even within LoD, this is already made more complicated by Fleming's unconvincing undercover persona – that grating matiness, that doesn't sit very well on top of her somewhat glassy even hardboiled manner, makes even her targets wary of her.

But of course right from the get go Lindsay Denton isn't having a bit of it. Her watery eyes see everything the viewer does. It's an assault on the devices of the crime drama convention, similar in its own way to her amazing front foot attack on AC12 by getting incriminating records on all the investigating officers. Watching her fight using all the tricks available against institutional and criminal conspiracy and AC12 is like watching her fight the writer - I know what you've got planned for me but I'm going to use every trick in the book and quite a few outside it to try and prevent it happening. Quite brilliant.

kinder – had a couple of thoughts on your points:

• I don't think it's humorous or satirical. There's a constant tension between regulations as 1) unnecessarily preventative of action 2) needing to be adhered to 3) vehicles for retribution 4) vehicles for criminal exploitation. If i'm identifying the bits you're talking about it - this is about a not highly motivated PC wanting to take the easy route to avoid pursuing justice. it may also be a comment the consequence of that meaning the regs can be a barrier to justice because it encourages people to avoid it (a converse point is made about crime targets generally, and the encouragement of laddering). However, her partner is seen to want to pursue justice regardless of the paperwork, or, when it's convenient to use 'risk assessment' as a reason not to pursue someone.
• Going back to S1, Hastings seemed to me to be a wobbly in how he was drawn. Hadn't found his feet yet as a character. That said he's pretty complicated, and his experience of institutional prejudice within the police, as giving him a free pass around the accusation of othering and prejudice elsewhere is not necessarily outside character. So I don't think it's 'lack of PC' or a bit off. All that said, again, Bodyguard threw me slightly. The terrorism angle in S1 of LoD is important, but it's clear that it's being used as a thing to be exploited. In Bodyguard it felt like JM was half in love with the politics and HO style of the institutions he's portraying. It means I do always have a slight suspicious of 'elf and safety gone mad' and 'PC' in his writing, but wherever you look in LoD, it's an angle someone's got, it's part of the structure in which people are operating and which they're exploiting.
• I think 'the system is wrong' point on laddering is made fairly early. LoD is all about systemic exploitation - who wins at the system wins the game. I don't really know about the data analysis? I just trust JM here, partly as a writer - you need an excuse to make things happen – and partly as an expert observer of police process – you need someone to say definitively 'they did this, and they asked us to do select these specific cases for additional charges under a system we called 'stick or twist'.
• my recollection is Arnott doesn't know about the accountant. He delays going into Laverty because it's a hit and run, and it seems such a minor crime. Hastings as in the battle suggests this is suspicious but Arnott shoulder-shrugs it by saying he's picked it up to reduce suspicion on the laddering charge. Didn't see a hole here, but admit I may just not have seen it.

You're spot on with those tensions, which is basically what the whole show is about. Even if not intentional, there are several instances in the first couple of episodes ('that's a 6-page form rather than a 1-page one', etc) where in any other show that'd be a punchline. I think it's also supposed to be highlighting the unprofessional/uncaring nature of that particular officer, though (she later patronises that victim with Down's Syndrome).
The fact the first 'yellow notice' against Gates (the free breakfast) was brought by the muggers was also part of this (criminals as well as cops knowing the system) - I liked it.

I'd forgotten quite how little Hastings actually appears in S1! I mentioned 'PC' because he brings it up when he asks Arnott if he's got a girlfriend (something like 'oh sorry, I'm not being PC' to indicate he realises he could have a boyfriend). Anyone white posting on here about how they're 'black' because they've been on the receiving end of prejudice etc would get piled on. Although obviously it made sense in context (discussion about how it doesn't look good to be going after the only black officer). Just stuck out a bit to me, that's all.

Arnott does find out about the hit & run victim being the accountant but it's quite sketchy what he looks into and when. Don't think it's particularly a plot hole, just I find Arnott a slightly weird character to 'get' and thought he'd be more dogged, particularly as he chanced on finding out about Gates & Laverty being together. I think the actor isn't too great (sorry DS Arnott) in S1, I was never massively clear on when he was being audacious within the authority of his job or totally overstepping the mark because he plays everything with the same pissed-off aggression (even when he tells that waitress 'sorry I can't do this, you're a witness').

These are just nitpicky things though or stuff I hadn't remembered. Looking forward to S2. (Agree re the 'grating matiness' of Fleming, we have a joke here that she's always 'Hi! Nice to meet you. Girls need to stick together, so tell me all your secrets!'

It's also a credit to JM how he manages to get devastating tension out of a huge cliche - the number 6/9 on the door at the start of s1.

I might be wrong re the hit & run guy, I'm re-reading the Guardian recaps and they mention Steve charges Jackie with manslaughter.

Bodyguard/Line of Duty skit on Comic Relief yesterday. Not very good (obviously) but worth it for this Hastings side-eye:

https://media.giphy.com/media/d7p9JFMi7IuHn7vljx/giphy.gif

Have we had this yet
http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/so-weve-all-just-accepted-that-his-actual-name-is-jed-mercurio-have-we.php

If Hastings turns out to be a baddie I will be inconsolable.

I bloody love this program

*SPOILERS AGAIN* I'm on ep5 of s2 and can't wait to watch the last one tonight. even having watched it before I can't remember the outcome! one particular weird assumption being made so far which iirc is a total red herring - thinking the body is the missing girl when steps have been taken to hide her identity. I'm still unclear/ can't remember how the two crimes are initially linked (mis per and ambush) other than due to Denton picking that one missing girl to concentrate on?

when Prasad makes his dying declaration he admits they did the 'ambush' but could it be argued (if he needs a defence ever) that he was referring to the ambush on Denton's prison vehicle?

Some mentions that S5 might have a date... Sun 31st March, 9pm.

Am still creeped out by the “I had to CLEAN her BRAINS off the pavement” line in S2

I love the **spy intrigue** in this & bodyguard but the violence & tension are prob my least favourite parts of the show (even though they are clearly key parts of what makes this show great and not too cosy)

Am still creeped out by the “I had to CLEAN her BRAINS off the pavement” line in S2

I love the **spy intrigue** in this & bodyguard but the violence & tension are prob my least favourite parts of the show (even though they are clearly key parts of what makes this show great and not too cosy)

(Sorry)

the other bold thing about s2 is how much hinges on the very first sequence of events (phone call, exchange between Denton and Jayne Akers) which is shown right from the off, even as the titles are still rolling iirc

Sunday 31st March confirmed.

If Hastings turns out to be a baddie I will be inconsolable

You're getting way ahead of yerself there, fella

Am still creeped out by the “I had to CLEAN her BRAINS off the pavement” line in S2

I love the **spy intrigue** in this & bodyguard but the violence & tension are prob my least favourite parts of the show (even though they are clearly key parts of what makes this show great and not too cosy)

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, March 18, 2019 10:49 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The level of brutality in S2 is quite something isn't it, the prison scenes in particular are almost unbearable to watch (and it cleverly achieves the desired effect putting us on Denton's side before the extent of her duplicity is revealed).

I'm sticking to my theory that Hastings isn't necessarily involved in the big conspiracy but probably has some skeletons he wouldn't want unearthed by any investigation.

less than two weeks away! excellent.
Yes funny that a show that's had a shooting, throat slitting, almost-finger-chopping, actual finger chopping, car set on fire, throwing someone from a window, hand scalding, dead girl blowtorching, plus numerous abh - in the first two series so far - is mainly known for police officers quoting regs in internal interviews.

Less than two weeks = better get my re-watching skates on (have just watched s3e1).

Only on S1 of re-watch so won't finish in time but as it's only on weekly will probably just hold off the new ones for a couple of weeks.

S3 ep 4 (I think) - does Steve admit (to Kate) to planting the money in Denton's house? Huge if so?

that is, I know she took the money at the time, but Steve says something like 'we needed something a jury could see'. he could be talking about his 'fake reveal' of the cash that he already admitted to but that wouldn't make much sense.

remind me again why Kate and Steve meet in a secret tunnel only to go to work at the same office the next day?

*S5 spoilers, kind of*

If there's anything binge-watching 4 series has taught me, it's to never jump to conclusions unless they've been spelled out, so I saw the 'mistaken id' thing coming from a long way off - LoD usually doesn't drag it out that long when it's doing something like that purely to mislead the viewers.

Glad we jumped straight in with the Maneet stuff. (Nooo!)

No Offence had a (potentially) similar storyline with a UCO gone silent iirc

I’ve never seen Line of Duty.
This is what I think it’s about pic.twitter.com/MF4QSN0TNu

— joe heenan (@joeheenan) March 29, 2019

- 'There's no-one blacker than me' says Hastings, referring to his victimisation as a Catholic police officer in NI - is this supposed to show his lack of PC or is it a bit off?

I did laugh when he said “I didn’t come up the Lagan jnba bubble you know”, he’s so ridiculous.

Think I knew Maneet was doomed as soon as I saw her on screen, this show does not like a loose end.

Saw this, good spot if true but don’t think the dates match up?!

that’s Ryan from series 1 omg #LineofDuty pic.twitter.com/qzJDn8V76z

— jacey (@jaceyowen) March 31, 2019

Yeah other ppl are saying that's Ryan, also Arnott's tinder woman on his phone is his irl wife.

I hope that's enough of the deliberate misdirection - I'd forgotten that bit with Ted on the phone outside his travel tavern too.

I like how small character moments (e.g. Maneet showing off the video of her kid) are now an inevitable portent of doom.

“I need a drink of water” followed by the world’s feeblest chase was pretty lol (intentionally, I think)

Apart from that, I thought this was a refreshingly low-key and non-baroque opener compared to the last season.

Am I the only one who thought it was highly implausible that Steve could go undercover in his own department with just that beard for disguise

I know that's how television credits work, but it does seem a bit rich that Stephen Graham gets credited ahead of everyone in AC-12 on this. He's not the star!

am I mad or does Maneet have two young kids? she brought a baby in in series 2 or 3 when she came in late to help out. then was pregnant and going off on mat leave in s4.

I'm not wrong there
https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/line-of-duty/64362/line-of-duty-a-salute-to-pc-maneet-bindra

Graham's big line, "there's only one thing worse than a BENT copper – that's a bent copper who pretends she ISN'T" - does this... make sense? There's a lot of negatives trapped in that sentence.

I didn't really get that either. What was the thing they pulled out of the phone? Some kind of recording device?

A location tracker or something?

i think phones can be located via cellphone masts without use of a tracking device so a recording device would make more sense

I assumed tracker but who knows.
How would Steven Graham's character even know about ac12? (If he was a legit criminal I mean). There's more to this...

My one grumble about this ep, and a lot of them actually, is that they could do with a bit more room to breathe. Loads to cram in, which is exciting, but how about making it a 7 or 8 episode run?
I suppose they have to skip over a lot if stuff to leave us questioning what's going on (eg was Maneet acting on ac12 orders to make things right?)

xp yeah but something under the radar like this isn’t going through the official channels

How would Steven Graham's character even know about ac12? (If he was a legit criminal I mean). There's more to this...

because we've just established that he himself is a UCO?

I don't agree about needing "room to breathe" - part of the show's appeal (for me) is it's pithy intensity and disinterest in the character's personal lives (while somehow remaining super ANGSTY) even if it's at the occasional cost of plot legibility.

I like how "oh, Kate's back with her family" gets a lip service and then it's done. And based on how badly The Bodyguard handled it, Mercurio is probably better leaving that alone.

(It reminds me of Grant Morrison's "skip the boring bits, try and keep up" style of comics writing in the mid-00s)

am I mad or does Maneet have two young kids

Maneet showed Kate a video of her two kids, which was pretty much when we figured she was earmarked to be the first big casualty of the series (not counting the ambush victims, because we don't really know them)

Xxp I think I do agree with you; it's something I've always loved about LoD. My head was spinning last night trying to keep up with everything but in retrospect that's probably because I had a stinking cold so my brain was v foggy.

xp i thought that was to show us how much time had passed! but lots of comments online re her being mum to a baby

She went on maternity leave during the last season, and I don't think we're too far on from that timewise.

And she had a baby before that, because she showed up with a baby in tow in season 3 (which I've just watched again quite recently)

timewise we're 1 x beard farther on unless it's glued on

yeeeaah they said the name of the show!

There are too many crossovers with No Offence throughout this (Mayor Hassan being the latest) and I just remembered the baddies in the last series of NO even had the surname 'Caddy' - it's too confusing for my poor addled mind
unless it's the No Duty universe I guess

They've said it before - Tony Gates asked that they consider his suicide to be killed in the line of duty before he stepped into the road. Sure it was mentioned in regards to Lindsay Denton as well.

My new mental theory is that somehow Mrs Hastings is H, or connected. I'm assuming Gill is somehow involved too.

It's totally not Ted. The "it's Ted" pointers are far too ham-fisted.

Worried for Kate though, now that she has rediscovered her home life. Outside bet on Sam being for it next though to fuck Steve up.

yeah I know, they say in every series, I've just been waiting for it

the 'it's Ted' bits are getting ridic

they're doing too much based on manipulating the viewers in this series so far. like how as soon as we know who the real undercover ocg person is, the dynamic between him and the woman totally changes.

Jane (another Jane!) Cafferty was basically Lindsay Denton in ep1 but they cleared her almost immediately based on nothing

Given that Ted wouldn't be kipping in a Travelodge surrounded by red bills if he was the big chief kingpin of all Belfast-inflected Midland crime ever, it's totally not him. But I'm quite enjoying all the "omg, it's Ted" hysteria on Twitter from people who have totally missed four seasons of misdirection.

I thought the misdirection in previous serieses was more even-handed though... that's why it annoys me, although it is kind of fun
poor old Maneet though.

Could Cafferty have been told to implicate Hastings in order to redirect attention away from the real "H"? It's very convenient that she would give away the head guy's identity so easily, considering it would probably mean her days are numbered.

I'm worried for Steve, he's so desperate to crack the case he's getting in way over his head, keeping secrets. I'm not convinced Corbett can be trusted, he was just a little too keen to reach out to Arnott for someone who's supposed to be deeply entrenched in an OCG.

this line of posting is oppressive

I thought that the image Cafferty was pointing at was Dot. There was one shot that gave a half decent view, I'm sure someone will have a good freeze-frame of it.

Corbett seemed to be manipulating Steve, but I'm not sure to what end(s).

So who would people be most upset to find out is a crook - Hastings, Kate or Steve?

Hastings for me by some distance. And something bad is obviously going to happen to Kate after those scenes of her happy family life

hold on there fella

series started with a stolen shipment of heroin aka 'Harry'
the shadowy mastermind behind the whole conspiracy is 'H'
the uncover cop gone rogue (or has he?) is one DS Corbett

gentlemen i do believe i may have untangled this whole web of intrigue

omg

weapons cache turns out to be a bunch of water pistols

confusion still lingers:
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BP98CW/harry-corbett-sooty-sweep-the-sooty-show-1968-BP98CW.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/96/a7/da/96a7dadb30553322c965358e3c2f1e66.jpg

Can anybody enhance the image to reveal what sinister IMs Ted is receiving in his bachelor pad?

https://i.imgur.com/vgUe5rV.png

When they ask her who blackmailed her, why does Jane just shrug "A woman, mixed race" instead of saying "it was her I told you about last episode, her what spared me life in the hijack of ED-209"?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D3wc-puU4AADAoJ.jpg

ha ha.

Gonna get medieval on some bent coppers' asses, fella

so are we pretty sure the, uh, UCO has turned vigilante, luring bent or quasi-bent coppers into his net, to the extent of practically being a serial killer?

that's basically the plot of carry on screaming, so yes

James Morrison - could you please do one of those with Ted watching Steptoe And Son in honour of NickB's brilliant observation?

https://i.ibb.co/v1tKKYt/ted2.jpg

This is so catchy I can't stop watching it.

🎵 COPPERS. COPPERS. BENT. COPPERS. REG 15. 🎵 #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/S5sT2UJjlI

— BBC One (@BBCOne) April 9, 2019

Mother of god

the cruise

Amazing, thanks James Morrison! I think that's NickB's theory confirmed.

i'm sticking by my scoobydoo theory: it is someone in a rubber mask, with a balaclava over the top of thE mask AND ANOTHER ONE BENEATH IT

― mark s, Sunday, April 9, 2017 11:17 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what's on Ted's computer? Theories please

Also who's this guy

Who is this guy?! #LineOfDuty 🧐🤔 pic.twitter.com/ZmVUAU8Ynr

— Lauren (@laurenproffitt_) April 14, 2019

what's on Ted's computer? Theories please

When he was packaging the computer in bubble wrap, I was thinking "he's concealing the evidence!!!!"

And then: "you know that seems like a sensible way to wrap up a computer if you don't have a bag"

i: he is addicted to on-line poker hence his having no money and his wife left him
ii: he is addicted to fortnite
iii: some computer sex thing i don't want to think abt probably involving balaclavas and furries
iv: he is ilx's frederick b
v: he watches gamer youtubes
vi: he records gamer youtubes

What’s so bad that he’d need to conceal the shape of his laptop from detection and that he’d need to get the whole thing destroyed?

iv

:D

if it's a gambling addiction* then the destruction is bcz he needs to go cold turkey and the concealment is bcz it's NAGL to be seen destroying a computer in the context of his job and this story (hence AGL in the context of the shuwrunners who keep zooming in on his not-actually-guilty guilty looks)

*or anyway something depserate quick-buck related

You forgot vii: evidence of his other life as a Mr Blobby fetish site operator

But surely he needs a laptop anyway? I could 100% buy gambling problem but he’s got a phone and he’s presumably passing bookies all the time. Concealment I agree with you, but it struck me as off and it’s ptobablt going to play out tragically.

xp no shame to that, fella

I thought Hargreaves was Hastings at first when Kate took his balaclava off

And let me tell you fellas I was mighty relieved to see him walking around in the next scene

i mean i've read this a dozen times now -- including here i think -- but the over-egging of hastings' coming doom, the blizzard of possibly false hints that he's a wrong un too, has kind of become a black box they can get anything out of and we won't be surprised (which means we'll be a bit disappointed either way)

hurrah re the cop-on-cop interview where they basically just accused him, teased him with the idea they thought he was innocent, then broke him -- w/o him even getting a say so (let alone his representative pushing back at all).

"let's undermine our usual tropes!"
"in a clever way?"
"no!"

the bit of evidence they were missing there was checking whether or not there was any oil on the car tyres

have to say their paperwork is always superbly in order in the powerpoint displays

Bent cop oil man could surely say he,d touched his car tires while crouching in hiding

the powerpoint is always at the right aspect ratio on the monitors and everything

Have we skidded off the road into implausibility here? Why did anybody take the bold scouse upstart seriously when he demanded that H attend the robbery in person? Why did poor Les go and elaborately collect all the hidden trackers instead of just phoning the crew about them?

Does Hastings tell each of his teams "yer my best team" when they're alone together?

(a) yes
(b) plot reasons
(c) see (b)
(d) see (a)

Thank you.

Does anyone else have the fantasy that when Hastings gets caught and he's sat the other side of the big table, his line is "I've always conducted myself to the letter of the law, son. The letter..... and that letter is H!"

It's another convenient bit of writing that, when Dot is shot and he has to dyingly declare the name of the big baddie, that name is just a single letter long

When he was packaging the computer in bubble wrap, I was thinking "he's concealing the evidence!!!!"

And then: "you know that seems like a sensible way to wrap up a computer if you don't have a bag"

― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:36 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Heh, I've actually done that with my tablet before I had a proper cover for it - stuck it in a padded envelope when I was carrying it around.

xp iirc he just died before he could spell out any other letters

The OCG members have been calling him H.

*dying* *faint*
"it was h — "
*fainter still, listeners leans in"
"— to the izzle"
*dies*

It's true that everything is initialed now, making it easy for dying coppers to maximize their last breaths.

*DS John Corbett grabs mic*
from the AFOs to the DCC
you haven't heard a declaration till you heard it from me
i'm the UCO in the OCG
i'm the CHIS with the biz in the CID
now i'll tell you H's real identity
*dies*

I've started watching Bodies but not sure my nerves can take it

definately
argh

was really looking forward to a Corbett interview scene too

good ep

any variation of Hastings = Corbett's Dad / Hastings killed Corbett's Dad would be a stupid twist imo
If McQueen is undercover police then she's way further over the line than Corbett was so that's kind of interesting

yeah I'll be disappointed if that's the case

why did they need JC's fingerprints to get his birth cert? I think I missed something there?

something about all the normal ways of looking things up being scrubbed when he went undercover I think?

blimey that was grim :(

xp oh yeah maybe. perhaps they couldn't 100% confirm his identity without it

what was John's actual plan at the end there, that was worth blowing his cover and everything else for? I mean not knowing what Lisa had planned obv

That was predictable that Corbett was gonna get done, right? Was also looking forward to the interview...

This is good but it feels a bit like they’ve plotted themselves in a corner. For the ending to work we need a) an plausibly innocent solution for what ted’s been doing, and b) an equally surprising solution to who H is, and both seem unlikely.

in conclusion, that's actually just how jed mercurio spells definitely

Ooft! A grim finish indeed.

I've got a couple of (probably daft) questions:

If Ted is indeed H or somehow involved with the OCG then why would he need Steve to tell him where the meeting between H and the OCG will be? Surely he'd already know?

Why did the OCG bother with the fake rape at the end to get Corbett out of the room? Did they know that he wouldn't be able to put up with that and step in?

1) To break Arnott and teach him who's boss, I guess? Unless of course Ted isn't H
2) They knew Corbett was a rat already, so I guess they were just "keeping their enemy closer" until Corbett tipped his hand. But also, plot reasons

Possible theory: Lisa is undercover and Ted is her "off book" handler. The computer never connected to "H" but to Hastings. Corbett hates Ted because of Belfast plat coincidences. Peartree/Corbett was blowing Lisa's cover, which is why Ted wanted him removed.

yes to all^^^ this

everyone else is also undercover, no one who isn't a cop has been on our screens even momentarily for this whole series

(the little kids? also cops)

Even YOU'RE a cop. Don't deny it, fella.

I like Chuck_Tatum's idea re. Lisa and Ted too. I wonder if Ted could potentially have personal connections to Corbett's Northern Irish past and even the death of his parents.

One thing I'm really missing in this series are the interviews, as we haven't had a decent one yet. Do you think we'll get an epic table-turning interview of Hastings as H suspect?

that epic scene (feat.table being turned)

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

┬──┬ ¯\_(ツ)

(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

┻━┻ ︵ ¯\(ツ)/¯ ︵ ┻━┻

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

https://media0.giphy.com/media/10ztGG3iIbJQ5O/giphy.gif

Chuck, that's a highly plausible Fake H theory! It accounts for why Hastings is so Hapless, and why he was telephoning Lisa in ep 1.

Why would it be such a secret though? Because anyone might be bent, even the Best Team?

why would he need Steve to tell him where the meeting between H and the OCG will be?
That held up: H needed to know what Corbett had told Steve, which might have been anything. And then when he knew, it gave him an excuse to surveil the meet.

Why did the OCG bother with the fake rape at the end
I guess it let Corbett incriminate himself in front of the whole OCG so there wouldn't be any doubters, that's one thing.

no one who isn't a cop has been on our screens
Moreover, everything we've seen anyone do is because they're being blackmailed into doing it, with a frozen condom dangled over their head.

https://pkdickbooks.com/LargeCovers/foreign/finland/flow%20my%20tears%20the%20policeman%20said%20WSOY%201993.jpg

F
A
N

Mainlined 3 seasons in a fortnight.

Steve Arnott sounds like every other word he says is something he’s only ever seen written down before.

But other than that, love it.

Steve is doing an extended David Beckham impression, I think

Jesus Christ everyone, don't watch Bodies. I mean it's really good but I can't watch about 50% of it as it's surgery scenes or complications with baby deliveries. also Keith Allen.

just started on that myself. grim af

sick Dido burn in ep4

Martin Compston's Scottish isn't he, that's why Steve has that odd mutant cockney accent.

Bodies is superb but a very, very tough watch.

Anyone gone back to Cardiac Arrest? I absolutely loved that at the time, but haven't seen more than the first couple of episodes since.

Only read the Bodies novel, but it was similarly grim and great.

Steve as David Beckham makes so much sense to me now.

Anyway, we're 4 eps into S4. I have no idea how it's going to end apart from Thandie Newton's arm falling off. You don't have that many lingering shots of someone's disgusting, rotting wrist if it's not gonna fall off.

It goes District 9

first 5 mins of bodies s02e01.... jesus this show just does not let up

ha, just watched that myself. stupidly sat down to watch it with my dinner. it's actually worse than an intense horror movie for me.

i cannot do surgery excess, so thanks for the tip off as was tempted to try out Bodies.

in rewatching LoD s1 news: lol there are so many ppl in it who aren't cops, like whole streets full of them*

*i mean obviously they are in fact undercover

Even when their secret assignments never bring them into direct contact with criminals, those teeming "background" undercover officers have it rough. There was that one for instance, I forget which episode it's in, whose cover job is as an installer of kitchen flooring, and he gets terribly injured in the lino duty.

mick signals is H

https://i.imgur.com/Bjxbj6j.png

LoD s1 rewatch note: when the scottish guy starts calling gates "you bent bastard" (the one on the other end of the phone to gates, whose face and name i no longer recall) his accent momentarily reminded me of mike myers as fatbastard in austin powers, and now i can't unsee fatbastard as the overarching criminal mastermind

That would be a disappointing plot twist, imo

lol i just noticed that buckles spells his name buckells, which is somehow even stupider

LoD s2 rewatch note: DENTON

(having a v bad time so far)

I remember the second season being gr8 but having a very weird and indeterminate ending

it's weird how much i've forgotten abt the story!

I remember it being v good. Is it?

There are lot of plot ellipses in Mercurio’s work and I’m never sure whether they’re deliberate or not, or if he’s just allowing himself future leeway to retcon

it packs a lot in! i'm still only a little way into ep2 so i can't tell if it's good but it's exciting :)

also lol denton is now handing out the v bad times

omg keeley hawes is also mom durrell in the durrells

she's in literally everything
s2 is brilliant, but yes we re-watched it not remembering what ended up happening.

just bothered searching for a Bodies thread and there is a vv old one but perhaps I should take the Bodytalk there
is anyone else scared about the NHS after watching the new BBC drama 'Bodies'?

i'm just a bit startled that she's the main character in something i watched recently and enjoyed and didn't put two and two together -- good acting and different hair i guess

Also she’s in the suede video for Saturday night!

she's in literally everything

so true

re-enjoying what a total horndog arnott is in s2 lol

I have the same bed linen as Arnott

1: weird that we didn't see corbett's body imo
2: is hastings like *way* overacting clueless over-blindsidedness? (i.e. dunbar signalling "something is going on" by pushing his character some way out of character?)
3: lol at the interviewing lady not liking ppl shouting
4:apologies to steve arnott for posting abt him being a horndog just upthread and putting him off his game

kind of wanted another 'urgent exit required' bloodbath

nothing as yet has happened with that STEVE ARNOTT envelope Corbett was carrying, has it?

ep directed by sue (=susan) tully = michelle off of eastenders and suzanne off of grange hill btw

1: weird that we didn't see corbett's body imo
2: is hastings like *way* overacting clueless over-blindsidedness? (i.e. dunbar signalling "something is going on" by pushing his character some way out of character?)
3: lol at the interviewing lady not liking ppl shouting
4:apologies to steve arnott for posting abt him being a horndog just upthread and putting him off his game

one way or another i think hastings will go down. they can’t repeat the arnott great escape of last season and didn’t Mercurio say he always had a six season arc in mind?

Will we find out whether Hastings is really H? And will Steve be able to get a boner? Tune in next week

we saw bits of jackie's body in the downs syndrome lad's freezer in an earlier ep (harking back to an ep in s2 which i just happened to have rewatched so remember quite clearly) so its reappearance didn't surprise me much, except it seems like it's a selight of hand somehow. are they setting up that corbett isn't dead? it somehow feels like they're doing that -- we don't see his body, they said something "like material relating to his body" (not that but they very much didn't just say his body) and the stench of decay from dead jackie drove everyone inc.the camera away an actual picture also?

they're making much too much of hastings being H for hastings to be H :(

i mean i don;t see how corbett can't be dead given we saw him bleed out but

chekhov's frozen legs

Not sure why they suddenly brought Laverty in from the cold. Unless it's to do with a connection with the OCG (some theories that Lisa is Laverty & Gates' secret child, which is a bit far-fetched...)

this is sweet

Loved being re-united with @tomi_may for this series - lot of love for this man! Longest serving OCG member!😉 It’s been a pleasure 👌 and what a way to go out! Thank you for absolutely everything! #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/5qpeq2DGyW

— Gregory Piper (@gregorypiper98) April 28, 2019

do we know what the exams he passed are? (sergeant's exam?)

didn't think much of it but lots of speculation that it's a police exam

jackie laverty vs jane cafferty

a thing that happens in life a lot but almost never on-screen is ppl with the same or very similar names (except as a central flagged-up plot point): i remember my film-school sister getting v excited abt brookside when it had two characters called jackie and jacqui

I kept getting Dryden and Denton confused.
There was also JamieNotJames and Jimmy Lakewell

last one I promise

Think your child has been recruited by the OCG? Here's our guide to help you understand which abbreviations to keep a watchful eye on... 👀 #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/c2HUXDpXSS

— Social Media Gurus (@SMMS_Guru) April 28, 2019

I am more concerned about Dunbar’s sudden bad acting that Ted’s guilt tbh

If next season is the last season, the gaffer has to be out of the picture, it’s standard Gandalf disappears in the third act whatnot

There’s no way he’s H tho

Also I’ve missed Kate and her hopeless undercover sitcom scenes this season

AM-M was very broad in this ep, almost like a Comic Relief skit, but I thought it kind of worked

Agreed, what are they playing at with the "remains relating to an IC1 male"? We glimpsed remains wearing a bloody brown leather jacket, not the stylish hoodie ensemble Corbett was last seen in.

didn't think much of it but lots of speculation that it's a police exam

xps: IC1 male whose dna matches Corbett though, iirc?

someone has spotted that Ryan Pilkington's social worker was a Jane Hargreaves (the third Jane/Jayne along with Cafferty and Aykers!) - unknown if related to Lester.

as I see it there are a few possible reasons for Ted's weird behaviour/attitude:
- genuinely going off the rails/ going maverick due to pressures of the job, wife moving on, wife getting tortured, feelings of betrayal /guilt re Maneet
- acting out some kind of masterplan to draw out the real H/ crack the case etc
- Adrian Dunbar doesn't know which way this is actually going to go so having a bit of fun/ not knowing best way to approach the character

We glimpsed remains wearing a bloody brown leather jacket, not the stylish hoodie ensemble Corbett was last seen in.

I think it just looks brown because of all the blood.

I like how the AC-3 people are alternate-reality versions of AC-12. I like that Brandyce even has the regulation haircut.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lineofduty/images/6/6e/Michelle_Brandyce.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20190428223028

someone on another thread said it's like when Father Ted, Jack and Dougal go to one of the other islands :)

Yes!

It's a bit weird that anyone would leave £50k lying around in a hotel room tbh. Wouldn't you put it in the safe or take it work or hide it in your car or something? You'd only leave it on the side if you half wanted someone to come along and find it. Or was the non-concealment of it supposed to help his defence?

tbh even assuming dunbar did suddenly forget how to act (or was badly directed by michelle of eastenders) i can't make head or tail of ted this last ep

https://comb.io/0OdbLn.gif

(i actually didn't think it was a very good ep)

Yeah, Ted in prison should be a wrenching NOOOOOOOOO kind of moment, and instead it's really just "well, I guess it kinda depends on whatever the plot turns out to be".

The mystery box plotting removes agency from the characters. It's like an RPG railroading kind of thing.

I think it just looks brown because of all the blood.

I've reviewed the evidence item and you are correct.

bubble wrap laptop = mystery box

someone on another thread said it's like when Father Ted, Jack and Dougal go to one of the other islands

Yes! I thought of that bit in Shaun of the Dead where "our" gang run into an alternative gang of Tamsin Greig and others escaping a different way, but Father Ted works too.

Strong debut for Anna Maxwell Martin almost distracted from the general dreadfulness of the rest of the episode.

s2 rewatch notes: the fall of dryden is good stuff

do actual real coppers outside this programme really always know the exact number of every single law and reg -- i say in fact no

s3 rewatch notes: when denton's trial ends and she is free to go (sentence already served) and speaks to the press on the court steps and all dot's burner phones light up and start buzzing angrily

I remember liking that moment too. An oblique glimpse at the powers above Dot.

Caught up to the current episode last night. Been quite a three weeks blasting through it all in quick succession, but it’s meant we’ve been able to spot a lot of connections that I suspect you’d miss if you’d watched in real time.

Feel a bit bereft that there’s a few days to wait now.

Last episode was kind of anti-climactic after s5e4, but I guess it just needed to position things for the finale.

rewatched the three eps culminating in "urgent exit required" w/my sister last night -- just fizzing with cheeky turn-it-upside-down energy and surprise reversals, contrast w/sunday's ep (hastings in slammer not steve) is stupefying

sister's considered conclusion (re story) is that ted's brane is broken in his desperate plight: this isn't ploys it's mental collapse and flailing -- i guess we'll see

jed's brane also broken in *his* desperate plight (= maintaining thrills via black box plus resolving everything he's set up, possibly NOT by long-arc planning?) in conclusion during ted's next AC-whatever interview he either resorts to a time-travel reset or arya suddenly appears and stabs someone

crimey-wimey

the actual best bit in this entire sequence of series is dot cottan in his blue suit and tall man's long shoes just running and running and running

oh oh also also: ryan (see above re police exam) is The Caddy for the next generation

i would say this, but the "Obsessed With Line Of Duty" podcast is v v good. Lolly Adefope and Brett Goldstein

I can't remember, but Dot is definitely dead, right?

Main disappointment this season in how small and crap the OCG seem to be. It's like when the Cylons turned out to be a bunch of moaning handsome people with office politics.

Generally agree there is a certain SWAGGER that is missing this season.

swagger directly proportionate to Lindsay Denton screen time iirc

dot shot dead on-screen final ep that series – dying declaration taken by kate – but WHO KNOWS

In essence, the last episode, and doubtless the next one, are the loud flappings of Jed's long feet.

and we are kate absurdly running on foot after a speeding car that keeps turning new corners so it never actually recedes and escapes but instead keeps passing near us down a different street

they totally pulled the punch on the pre-interview buzzer in this ep is my big complaint

The upcoming feature-length episode opens with a 60-minute beeeeeeeeeeee

a thing i've noticed in the rewatch without working out what's going on is that everyone is contantly saying "well done" and "good work" to everyone else -- possibly mainly when it turns out not to be good work at all? or else not in good faith? not sure

nice one mate

Main disappointment this season in how small and crap the OCG seem to be. It's like when the Cylons turned out to be a bunch of moaning handsome people with office politics.

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, May 1, 2019 12:50 PM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes this is bugging me a bit as well. Where's the well-organised shadowy network that makes bent coppers like Dot and Hilton shit themselves with fear at the mere mention? There must be more to it than just five or six goons in a print shop, I hope there's some big reveal coming but I fear I may be disappointed.

TBH the series has always been at it's best when it's essentially a Columbo-like battle of wits between AC-12 and some specific devious individual - Gates, Denton, Huntley. This series has lacked that specific focus, and although the murder of Corbett was a great shock ending it also served to completely deflate the tension built up to that point.

This is clearly just one tiny cell of the OCG, no?

Well, I hope so. Bit of a cop-out(ha) if that turns out not to be the case.

Yeah, I assume this is just one of a number of arms of the OCG.

The OCG is a venerable organization with an elaborate, well-established culture that must have been built up organically over time by far more people than the print shop goons:

- wearing balaclavas
- unregistered pay-as-you-go phones in envelopes
- slitting throats
- blackmailing coppers
- hijacking convoys
- tykes on bikes
- remains in freezers
- concealed stacks of £50s in envelopes
- leaving corpses on that one pier

A proud tradition!

Yeah, I assume this is just one of a number of arms of the OCG.

ha, this reminds me of my own surprise as a young child to discover there were other police ac units in the world beyond my garden fence and not just ac12. yea, both have manifold tentacles that reach unseen throughout the shadowy places of this land. but have you noticed that the structure of the ocg is actually the mirror image of the police ac teams? they work in a mysterious balance, and change in one is reflected by change in the other - death paid for with death, arrest matched with suspension from duty, you shut down their print shop and they raid your warehouse. the closer the police come to cracking the ocg, the more turmoil is created within their own ranks. but what unseen hand guides this? the H you are seeking is the principal of Harmony in the universe. as an initiate, hastings understands this. his anguish at the death of corbett come from the knowledge that he himself must restore the equilibrium with his own sacrifice

damn

is the yin of bent coppers not subtly balanced by the yang of rats and undercover officers? it is these invisible harmonies that the jedi mercurio seeks to reveal

mercurio retrograde

[staring off into the middle distance]

woaaah

I watched the very first episode a couple of weeks ago and wasn't especially keen, it all felt a bit too dour, too murky. Then it got to the twist at the end of the second episode and I'm on board.

b: it is great at shock developments (on sun i told myself "just one more ep b4 bed" and hence confronted self w/a home invasion and a throat-cutting)

― mark s, Wednesday, March 29, 2017 10:57 AM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

coSINE

Now I think of this as a British spin-off to John Wick, with its own magical crime universe of frozen body parts, infinite AC units, part man/part balaclava-men, etc.

Ha, that was pretty much the exact moment we went "OK, this is worth watching now, wtf is going to happen" too Matt DC.

I believe it was Newton who first postulated that for every corruption there is an equal and opposite anticorruption

Often within the same officer.

lol steve is such a sulky pup

(s4 rewatch notes)

He's more a determined little terrier, surely

a subplot in s4 is who of kate and steve is going to get promotion and when i wrote that steve was
(a) convinced it's kate and
(b) had just overheard undercover kate sucking up to thandie newton by slagging of AC12

so he had a gob on him as he drove away

(ok lol v slow on this) = the greatest crossover event in history:

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--m78oMrIr--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/wpqyegy4xmgjkbzkuiqj.png

s4 rewatch note: actually good self-deprecating joke from ian buckell: "this dick's no grass for ac12, he's a dci -- and i didn't get there by sticking my neck out, i got there by any other buggers. maybe that's why you're still a ds"

"he's got fractured legs, pelvis, back, skull"

*in bed an unbruised arnott has a small plaster on his forehead*

― mark s, Monday, April 17, 2017 11:59 AM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^back at this lol

i had somehow forgotten how nuts s4 was they pack so much in!

*slaps roof of s4* "this bad boy can fit so much fucking balaclavamen in it"

easy with that s4 mate, do you want to put a Denton it

I watched the first three seasons last week. I guess I’ll watch S4 this weekend.

Rewatched or watch watched?

more top-notch comedy from buckells, my new favourite secretly quite smart character

tokyo r yr in fr a TREAT

Watch watched!

the series has always been at it's best when it's essentially a Columbo-like battle of wits between AC-12 and some specific devious individual - Gates, Denton, Huntley. This series has lacked that specific focus, and although the murder of Corbett was a great shock ending it also served to completely deflate the tension built up to that point.

Series 3 was a messy one too, perhaps even messier than this current series, but it still had that big denton energy

also, i know it's a horrible critic's cliche to be all "even at it's worst, this is still better than 90% of everything else", but i'm still thoroughly enjoying this comparatively weak season

Season 5 suffers from conspiracies and balaclavas being the weakest parts of LoD. Anyway despite the massive spoilers in this thread, I'm here for the H=Blobby reveal and will be mightily cheesed off if they put it into next season with a stupid cliffhanger.

if they *punt* it

https://www.instagram.com/p/BueD0cynX4O/

iii: some computer sex thing i don't want to think abt probably involving balaclavas and furries

― mark s, Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:42 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DOT SAYS DOT DOT DOT DOT

When they mentioned Ted’s mother raised him Catholic because his old man left...children in mixed marriages are supposed to be raised Catholic?

I like the idea that his background would have been unclear due to his name - I knew he was Irish the first time I heard him speak!

Also do not want to think about his juggalo shame porn or whatever he was looking at.

bit of an Empire Strikes Back vibe to that last episode, everything left hanging

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/hastings/1263/

Can’t wait for next season when we find out Buckells is the 4th one

Gill Juggalo

_didn't think much of it but lots of speculation that it's a police exam_


Yeah, Ryan getting set up for some final-scene piano-backed montage putting on the uniform while Hastings goes to chokey

So wait, is Hastings bent/H or not?

it's pronounced huggalo xp

(terrific "villain revealed" scowls at the climatic point in a the interview-room-of-infinite-reversals also)

the four dots thing is rubbish
also if he's saying dot... dot... dot-dot then in morse code that's dash dash dot dot, right?

Also Carmichael smugly shows that dying declaration clip to 'prove' Hastings was H, but in it Kate says something like 'blink at the first two letters of their name' (?) ABCDEFGH - blink; H, ok - then ABCDE.... *no blink, carks it*
so the second letter definitely isn't A.

Absolutely loved the 'urgent exit required'.

Disappointed the computer was just porn as I'd been joking all along

dash dash dot dot is z

the big z

actually dot blinks on H and I one after the other
so probably meant Hilton who promoted him
or is just closing his eyes for the final time

I’m sure there’s a ZAZ or Mel Brooks gag involving an overelaborate dying confession in code. Touch of Cloth maybe?

Anyway, good season, surprisingly dismal last two episodes.

Glad that Mercurio realised the only way to win at "who is H" is not to play. Less glad that the explanation was stupid.

Solid enough episode except that it really needed the audience to waver on Ted's innocence and start to side with Carmichael. It was clear from the beginning that he was being set up, unless you're on the "he set up Gill to set him up to throw off the scent" theory.

Disappointed the computer was just porn as I'd been joking all along

Or so Hastings says, anyway. We still don't know the REAL truth. I assume.

Find the person signing off all the immunity agreements in exchange for no testimony of any actual use and you find H imo.

Are there actual shops with ‘computer disposal’ in big letters on the window? ‘Computer repair’ yes of course but disposal seems like a weird thing to advertise, almost like a admission that they can’t fix your laptop anyway, or maybe it’s a secret signal to craven smut-fiends like ted that here is a shop that will not judge you and your wanktomania. Obviously I don’t have a Dell full of steamy blobby-on-blobby action to get rid of though so I’ve never really looked. Also still puzzled as to why he bubbled wrapped it first and who the hell keeps bubble wrap in their hotel room anyway?

Other thing that troubles me is the four caddies thing is obviously a four candles reference and that corbett’s dad will turn out to be ronny

http://images.45cat.com/the-four-dots-dont-wake-up-the-kids-1959.jpg

That was a really rough failure to dig the season out of the hole it had built. As he died, Dot blinked to indicate the letter H, which in morse code is ••••, which he was also tapping with his finger, which Arnott realized from a freeze frame, in order to indicate that there were four police staff in league with organized crime: Cole, Prasad, Dot, Hilton, Fairbanks, and Gill?

Still unanswered: most things

Love these buddy interludes though.

FLEMING: Well, we didn't get much from that person we just interviewed.
ARNOTT: Could he have been lying?
FLEM: We won't know that until we figure out some real answers.
ARN: You're right, we still don't know the answer to the mystery that we're trying to solve.
FLEM: We better go find the next clue now!
ARN: Should we hurry?
FLEM: Yes, there's work to be done!
ARN: You're right, and it's urgent police work!

Hastings is totally bent.

I won't have any of that talk in here, fella

crap that the 'smoking gun' in the end was a conveniently recorded conversation between Gill and JC laying out the framing of Ted.

probably the most disappointing bit of the whole series.

hoping that in s6 they just never mention the morse code thing again.

and it's still not clear if/how the ocg had someone independently nicknamed H involved, from the start, or did Corbett start referring to an 'H' as top dog and it caught on?

I also have a problem with the idea that Ted’s debts and the fact he was interviewed over a missing woman wouldn’t be reasons for him to not get his DV clearance!

Looks like we're going to have to wait until next season to find out whether Steve's able to get an erection :(

1: we don't know i'ts porn and on the whole LoD abides by chekhov's gun -- in the absence of an earlier hotel flagging of ted's cranked hog this is a made-up red herring*
*2: unless we can er enhance his laptop screen once more
3: per google, computer disposal does exist as a trade but it's usually called something like "equipment recycling"
4: i think morse is also a red herring: with his mouth dot was beginning to spell out "hang on, it's on the tips of my fingers", with his fingers he was tapping out "dot dot, dot, dot, poor dot thou art undone" and the actual message is signalled by SEMAPHORE, which judging by dot's sprawled position is an "E". possibly for EDWARD HASTINGS…

https://storage.googleapis.com/welovesailing-117.appspot.com/images/sailing-theory/sailing-communication/semaphore-flags/sailing-semaphore-signal-flag-e-echo.png

i feel the plan of "remove huggalo via a wee witch™ of a bent copper WITH A TINY KNIFE" was never going to be the flawlessly baffling crime we've come to expect from OCG

(tho i guess there aren't as many of OCG left to criminally mastermind these things)

(in ted's cranked hog terms we DID know corbett had some stuff hidden with his wife, and the idea it was a back-up recording by him of the plan he was embedded in doesn't tbh seem a total stretch?) (it's less stupid than all the dying declaration BUT IN CODE stuff)

a thing jed is good at -- or let's say consistent at -- is treating the dramatic reveal in an interview as more of a tactical pressure point than tying up the entire story in a pretty causal ribbon: the underlying truth i guess is that the police don't really usually know what happened, they rely more on psychology and bullying and traps than FACTS and LOGIC, and that anyone in the interview-room-of-infinite-reversals who can keep their nerve is not in the bad position they seem to be, especially if they themselves can still arrest and charge someone unexpected

s6: the duty soliicitor turns to the camera, gazing out at we the viewer, and puts us all away for watching this silly nonsense through six whole seasons

q1: did ted get his actual real son killed via the OCG guy in pokey? not yet clear
q2: where is the rest of the £500,000? not yet clear
q3: what was on ted's computer? (a website on how to obtain bubblewrap if yr in a hotel)

don't think John was Ted's son? he wasn't in the RUC for long enough iirc.
what 500k? Ted had 100k, kept half and presumably gave it to John's widow

was that redhead stabber just using her own initiative to get gill or had someone somewhere given the order?

Find the person signing off all the immunity agreements in exchange for no testimony of any actual use and you find H imo.

JC was his spiritual son

was that redhead stabber just using her own initiative to get gill or had someone somewhere given the order?

Oh dear. I thought that latter half of the finale was properly terrible!

Hasting's first half interview was pretty good, especially the Northern Ireland connection and his emotional breakdown at the reveal of John's true identity, but after that it went totally off the rails.

I thought Gill's 'Urgent Exit Required' was groan-inducing but then the bathroom stabbing... I burst out laughing. Let alone the morse code nonsense... mother of god, Jed! Desperately reverse engineering yet more material from an ancient scene that simply was not there before.

Funny and somewhat disheartening to see every half-decent internet fan theory coming true too... Hastings involved with John's parents, Gill as baddie, Ryan joins police etc etc.

Sir! Steve's re-examined Jed's dying declaration and spotted something we all missed.

https://i.imgur.com/tG8K04j.jpg

really need steve to pan down to dot's (strangely long and narrow) feet at this point, i think that's where the message actually is

He was trying to indicate that the real ringleaders are officers Long and Narrow!

maybe four dots is an if.... reference

This whole season felt like a penultimate episode does in a normal season- slightly unsatisfying calm before the storm of the final episode.

I wanted to go back and check this myself, but someone already did of course... Dot's dying declaration, different the two times we've seen it - notice Kate's line "first letter" vs "first two letters".

https://streamable.com/2dofm

yeah I thought I was going mad with that
why change that when they're trying to prove it WAS Hastings but showing that it's not H-A

Did Kate just flub the line and no-one noticed?

See also: Lindsay Denton's perfectly calm turning off the main road during the ambush vs shocked crazed car driving

That is confusing. Doubtless H doctored the footage to add a misleading second letter, wouldn't be surprised if there's a video editing software suite recovered from Ted's laptop. Which will also have had incriminating blobs of someone's frozen ejaculate planted on it.

Which actions on Corbett's part are explained by his having made a deal with Gill?

genuine hatred of bent coppers I guess, and 'licence' to act on it, and specifying Ted.
also perhaps why the ocg called the top police contact 'h'

that streamable link is actually making me cross now. I want someone to question Jed M about it. 'document one in your folder' style.

wait does it mean H? or that there are 4 bent senior coppers? what?? this is as much of a stretch as dumbledore's "logic" for how many horcruxes there must be out there and what they likely are. just makes it up.

i will admit i yelped when they started reading gill bigs her rights. and again when the lift doors are closing on ted and kate & steve are like "just doing our job, sir" and he replies "no, you did much more than that" GET IN

xpost I'm on Jed's side for this one! I think it's a cool move to go back and secretly shift a goalpost within one of the foundational texts of the show.

this interview with JM answers a few niggles
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a27332344/line-of-duty-season-5-episode-6-explained-jed-mercurio/

xp it's total gaslighting and tampering with evidence!

it's pronounced hercurio

That interview is really interesting/maddening! It's like bad Dungeon Mastering - keeping all the backstory to a campaign in your head, so it always makes internal sense, but meanwhile your players are all "???".

Also not really helped by the Michael Winner-esque direction for some of this season.

sadly michelle of eastenders is to blame for the direction :(

i like to think of jed totally tampering with the evidence of our own earlier eyes as his bold stance against the fan-service hegemony in modern pop culture

I can't fathom how they'd be that slack at continuity in re-filming such a crucial scene, so it has to be deliberate. Was the file doctored within Line Of Duty world and this will feature in S6, or is it Jed M tampering with evidence for his own crappy storyline needs like kinder says?

Another question I have is with the 'definately' thing... we were led to believe that the content of the encrypted conversations couldn't be accessed by the police, just the 'metadata', yet during Carmichael's interview with Ted he states that he had previously studied H's responses on the OCG's encrypted chat and hence was able to reproduce the spelling error for authenticity when he took the role of H. Carmichael accepted this explanation. Did I miss something?

Carmichael accepted this explanation

i think this is overstating carmichael's response tbh, we know she wanted to pursue the case against ted but this was impatiently overruled

s6 shd feature a character like buffy's sister dawn -- who is suddenly just magically there as part of AC12 and everyone accepts them and forgets to remember that they weren't there in an earlier series and fails to realise they are THE KEY

line of doody

xp I guess she could have planned to come back to it (the "definately" thing) later, true. Still bugs me though.

yes I'm (again) confused by that. they seized Lisa's computer so had chat logs at that point, but I thought before that they hadn't.

surely a criminal psychologist or someone would've briefed ted in advance and would be able to confirm whether ted's mispelling was definately intentional or not

in conclusion, that's actually just how jed mercurio spells definitely

― mark s, Monday, April 22, 2019 12:32 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5538890/Definitely-is-most-commonly-misspelt-word.html

^^^but in the box ted shd have referred to this statistic, citing the discipline of FORENSIC ORTHOGRAPHY to explain why spelling it correctly wd actually be more suspicious

Speaking of intentional mistakes, DI Brandyce is no fool and that wasn't a pointless scene inserted to confuse the viewer: she originally indicated that the search was under the legal power of section 32, even though the correct legal power was section 18(5), as a way of sending a coded message.

If only it had been Sections 10 and 66.

would've been one in the eye for H

groan

fellas

lol just put on a cbeebies bedtime story on the iplayer and the first two are Anna Maxwell Martin and Stephen Graham

'poor old Edward, sad and all alone' says John Corbett

this season should have been told from the perspective of AC-3, we have a couple of episodes of laddering + bantz and then they start to investigate *ANOTHER ANTI-CORRUPTION SQUAD*

There's only one thing I care about...

...catching bent coppers!

Don't know where else to put this, but since it's impossible to search for: has there been any talk on these boards about the 'Blood' tv series starring Adrian Dunbar? 3/4th in and it's pretty wicked. And evil.

I watched it when it was on a few months ago. It was unpleasant.

Unpleasant, that's the word. Seeing Cat being psychologically tortured (regardless of whether it turns out to be true or not) is almost getting too much. Of course the last episode I watched was her abandoning Barry just when he needed her most and then he did... Well, you know (to avoid spoilers). I'm too far in to quit now - and the acting overall is really great - but it's bordering on unbearable.

started this series last night :D

so jealous

i’m only 3 eps in and it fairly whips along! def onboard

omg VG where ya been?

hello double glazed GLAREd windows

midway through s2
The Denton misdirect is impressive!

this show is bananas and i love it
finished s2, now rolling thru s3

lil stevie arnott gets about - i literally snorted at his “happy anniversary” flowers opening of s3 like get the fuck outta here anniversary of what lol

i love the aggro interviews so much
Dryden in s2 playing gentlemanly like querying what the definition of sexual relations and then growling “aye i shagged her”

is there a window push in s3, i hope so, quite enjoy those

Don't think so but you do get to see Keeley Hawes doing a great Denton snarl

yes! watching her rn
she is GOAT i love this character & her acting
she’s wonderfully shaded ... like there’s some nutso Annie Wilkes in there for sure but also cold logic and loneliness and strategy and she plays it amazingly well

omg u guys i just finished s4 and I need to lie the fuck down.... what a ride.
Thandie was amazing, obv.

BUT Hulu doesnt have S5 yet so I may have to go “find” it

why?

because the only thing I care about anymore is CATCHING BENT COPPERS

oh and shoutout to the makeup effects team for making a barf-tastic MRSA infection ye gods

ONE OF US
ONE OF US

warning, s5 is a bit ... mm... not up to scratch at the end.

End of S5 is, yeah. I watched it with my LoD posse, all entirely stoked for the madness, and we all just went "uh?" and drank a lot and went "uh?" some more. There's some good stuff in the rest of the series though. Anna Maxwell Martin is awes.

just learned that S5 will never be on Hulu bc AcornTV got exclusive rights to S5 - apparently it switched to BBC etc RaGH

so i will definitely be “finding” it and watching soon

S5 has some good pay-offs to really, really old plot threads, but yeah the ending was a sore disappointment. The biggest crime(no pun intended) is that it wastes what should've been one of the crowning interview scenes of the entire series.

I'm hoping S6 goes back to the usual AC12 vs Bent Bastard chess game format which is when the show is at it's best.

at least it ended better than Bodyguard, fucked up that people thought the second half of that was good

VG: If you can’t “find” it, I think Acorn offers a free trial for a week.

omg yes! you’re a genius! thank u tokyo

target acquired :D

just started watching this and finished the first series. compston's accent is hilarious to me

I know he is Scottish (and is a big Celtic fan) but you would never know it! Is it literally to set up that s3 bit that he can’t use his own accent, or did they feel his personality was more suited to generic southeast?

Arnott is 100% a Tory

how the characters from line of duty vote:
steve arnott- labour
kate fleming- lib dem
ted hastings- labour (possibly a non voter)
dot cottan- spoils his ballot
lindsay denton- green
derek hilton- tory
patricia carmichael- lib dem
nigel morton- brexit party
tony gates- tory

— harriet (@flyingpalin) December 8, 2019

i was semi-ironically complaining to my gf that compston being a goody gets made to do the southeast of england accent but the baddy in season one is fine to speak in a west of scotland accent #scotophobiainmedia

yeah the Bodyguard was tosh towards the end :(

xp. finished series 2 last night. not as good as the first series i didn't think, ending didn't quite land for me.

jeddy mercury's vendetta agains the scots continues unabated however. useless, top-brass paedo character = by all means use your scottish accent.

its more sinister lol

I am 4 eps in to S5
I cant figure out what’s weird about it but it doesnt grab me quite the way the others have. Maybe bc all the Hastings stuff is so top-line now? idk. Also I hate Arnott’s facial hair now, he looks like a cross between evil Spock & a nightclub promoter.

But Stephen Graham is fucking great.
The stuff with his wife on the phone was so good. I have loved him in pretty much everything he’s ever been in.
Sidebar: It’s crazy to me that his career was total happenstance: he didn’t even go out for Snatch, apparently he just went along w a friend to the audition.

oh and now he’s off it so thats just great
GREAT JOB SHOW >:(

ooh but I love Anna Maxwell Martin
Best interview sequence yet I reckon, loved her quiet dominance of Hastings
v fun to watch o’shouty get some pushback

steve arnott- Well Labour was alright when Blair was in but Tory ever since
kate fleming- Labour
dot cottan- Tory
lindsay denton- this is a tough one, natural LibDem but there's something about the levels of seething rage that suggests Tory
derek hilton - greasing up to RW Labour councillor type
patricia carmichael- lib dem
nigel morton - Brexit or Tory
tony gates- Labour
ted hastings - only interested in one thing, BENT COPPERS

Yes I typed that entire thing out so I could make that joke what of it?

I recently saw Superintendent Ted Hastings directing his free jazz version of The Wasteland which was not a direction I expected my life to take. He's a lot smaller than he appears on TV so the real Steve Arnott must struggle to make himself seen above medium-sized chairs.

Dont think Compston is crazy small. 5'7 or 5'8

It's Graham's actual missus and kids on the other end of the phone in those sequences.

for real?

Playing Corbett's wife and kids? No it's not.

Martin Compston's real wife is the women who contacts Steve via the dating app though.

Graham was on something recently (Graham Norton, maybe?) and he said that for the phone call his character made to his family, the director had arranged for it to be his actual family on the other end. He'd been missing his family horribly; the reaction on camera was a genuine one.

Aw!! <3

Ah, ok, I thought you'd meant playing the rest of the Corbett family on screen. That makes absolute sense, cheers.

DOT

DOT

DOT

DOT

what the dotting christ was that retrofitted nonsense jfc

you dreamed that
we all dreamed it
it will never be mentioned again

Love how they just magically notice this on a video they’ve probably watched thousands of times

we haven't got the bit where they pan out further and realise what he's saying with his feet

Four dots is Morse code for H. The entire thing was retcon wankery of the highest order.

in s6 they will re-view the clip and realise that four dots are actually four Es:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOY8ziJdLk

it was actually "fore" and the real villain is the golf course from season 1

line of duty season 3 - scotophobia report: lindsay denton's caseworker who tries to sexually exploit her: scottish

Filming of series 6 suspended.

boooooo

Le fuck

Just finished watching season 5. Great obv, but:

- 'definately' was not satisfyingly explained. I caught it early on thinking it would be a major clue to H's identity. It was first used by someone pretending to be H. (we think), then when Hastings went rogue(ish) and started chatting with H. But Charmichael's "OK Hastings so you studied H. so well you started typing like him/her/it?" Q - which could only be answered with a t/n anyway - was just... not good. (Hastings also swiftly brushed aside the forensic orthography and clearly thought it was pish)

- neither was Hastings' 'ditched my laptop bcz porn lol'. "Perfectly legal" porn is no reason to ditch a laptop ffs.

Unless it's all to be explained in season 6? Not that everything needs to be explained, mind, but the above just stood out as being handled poorly imo. But then I've not read all of the posts up here. I did read those with an 'H' in it though.

- neither was Hastings' 'ditched my laptop bcz porn lol'. "Perfectly legal" porn is no reason to ditch a laptop ffs.

Oh come on lol. Who ditches a laptop for having watched legal pornography? (he stressed it was legal, if it had been bestiality then... yeah, but it doesn't make sense as a plot point) That's a lot of laptops on the scrap!

There’s a lot of ground that’s both “legal” and incredibly embarrassing/disgusting, what have you, I’ve probably said this upthread. And especially given Ted is a Catholic man of a certain age...

He likes his steak with NO SAUCE, remember

Lol. Ok, but even then, does he not know how to erase his history or delete a file? Just struck me as a very weak resolve: ‘lets just use porn as his excuse’.

Funny, we just binged this entire show and I was thinking of bumping the thread. Pretty addictive, though S5 was definately my least favorite. the conclusion just wasn't as satisfying as other seasons. I don't think Hastings's actions will get explained in more detail. I agree they seemed pretty out-of-character for him, and likely just for the purpose of misleading viewers

Me and my Dutchness didn’t buy it. I’m willing to accept the ‘catholic shame’ angle, it’s just so random

This is back tonight at 9!

is series 5 going to spoiler series 3 and 4? (which i haven't seen yet)

wait, this is series 6?

The answer is yes anyway

yesssss
suddenly realised I remember zilch about s5, apart from some utterly retro-handwavey reimagined stuff about 4 dots that I am choosing to ignore and hoping s6 does too.
but trying to squeeze in a rewatch of the last ep or 2 of s5 to remind me...

kinder at 2:02 12 Mar 19
I'm also considering a re-watch of all of LoD before s5 starts...

Here's a spoilery recap of the series so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43qt3FrZh4s

this show is so dependably bananas

Tense! Fun! But a slightly boring first episode cliffhanger, given its previous form in that respect.

On the whole this episode wasn’t very revealing, and scenes like “I’ll throw a glass against a framed photograph to show that I’m angry” suggest that this once-great-show could still uncover new layers of dumbness, but on the whole that felt like an improvement on last season.

I guess the very obvious jokes should be left to Twitter (or not) but I did lol at “jizz handler”.