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

I am actually glad Davidson got a nice cottage with a golden retriever out of it all, so I guess it wasn't all bad

got hooked up with josephine karlsson from spiral too

bit confused as to why davidson was given witness protection in the end. who was out to get her? pilkington and thurwell were dead, and she thought fairbank was the main guy? she didn't really know what buckells was up to (or did she?)

I was literally planning to get an AC-12 mug for my other half but apparently no-one makes mugs out of AC12?

I did enjoy the fact that after all the times they specify that evidence was found "in a lawful search", right at the end they have to say Arnott found the £50k "in an unlawful search"!

the search of the attic didn't meet their usual lofty standards

groan

I thought season five and the bodyguard were both terrible but, um, quite enjoyed this one and especially the last two episodes

Although the file at the end should’ve included the mayor, Adam, Glory and David Borenaz

I don't know, I thought it was fine for what it was. Obviously the whole fourth man thing was rubbish to begin with, as was the idea of identifying anyone based on one of the most common misspellings around, but taking those things on board, Kelly McDonald got out, Terry Boyle got out, Kate and Steve didn't shag each other, and Ted wasn't bent. I'm happy enough with the end result.

Genuinely, I've seen people on Twitter complaining because the final episode didn't give them the ray of hope they needed at the end of a terrible year. I think people were expecting Aaron Sorkin's Line of Duty.

“Disappointing” is trending on Twitter. (It’s a 99.9% match.) I actually liked the ending, but maybe I’m just perverse like that.

I sort of agree, it was mainly not that bad, just the pacing and dialogue made it feel a bit flat. And muddled. The focus on H (by fans and by Mercurio) has annoyed me slightly as it's not really where the show's strong points are.
The idea that only two bits of paper in the whole force had a misspelling of 'definitely' isn't very realistic - a lot was hanging on quite a weak link there.

Series 6: episode 7 was a welcome improvement after 6:5-6. In fact I was thrilled throughout.

It does seem to leave space for a series 7 with Carmichael and without Ted.

Outstanding programme, greatest British TV drama I've ever seen overall, but problems in 6:5-6 were troubling. 6:7 largely rose above that.

dismal episode and i think the last two series have been fairly feeble compared to the high of S2. but as i say, i liked that thesis.

I've never seen this show tbh and the fact that entire seasons of it are being written off itt means I doubt I will ever watch it.

We finally got a big interview reversal - loved it. The looks of pure hatred from the trio as Buckells sniggered at them could have melted glass. So to see them trap him at the end was delicious - and kind of easy - so I guess it proves the point about Buckells being thick as shit.

I have to think the country estate belongs to the redhead and Jo does actually have a shitty maisonette somewhere in Troon. In any case it’s another life of lies for oor Jo. Maybe she whispers the truth to the dog.

I liked how Kate and Steve realised how much they liked each other. It didn’t seem romantic to me - just a good recognition of a friendship that’s been tested and survives.

Oh and - that’s all very well Ted but what about the 50K eh??

Suspect the end would have had more kick for me if I hadn't seen series 1 and 4 so long ago that I had no memory that Buckells was even a returning character.

Thought it was Holte End Holdings cos Buckells was a Villa fan?

I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed Buckells’ incompetence and self-serving, and I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, so having him be H, and dismiss the idea of H at the same time, I felt was a good move. Especially in the era of Boris and Trump. The enemy isn’t Machiavelli; it’s bumbling greed with zero morals, that will take advantage of ANY situation to line its nest.

That said, HOLY FUCKING SHIT the dialogue, characterisation, and exposition this season has been terrible, alright mate. Abysmal, mate. Yes mate. Just fucking cringe after cringe after cringe.

Would love to see a season eight powered by Anna MM but only if Mercurio isn’t involved.

It would have been short-term satisfying to have a big Scooby Doo evil villain unmasking. “It was this evil copper we never saw before all along! Or even “It was the chief constable all along!” But I think it’s way more realistic and long term satisfying that it was just Buckells being a selfish dick with no morals.

Would love to know how much Nesbit got paid.

i have never watched line of duty but my friend helen used to work in the props department and once wrote her ex boyfriend's name on a tag for one of the bodies in the morgue

— claire biddles (@msclairebiddles) May 2, 2021

That’s beautiful.

I thought the resolution was pretty great. To be honest it's been openly flagged through the whole series - the withdrawal of surveillance from the flat, the new fake witness framing Terry Boyle, Pilkington moving to the Hill, closing the investigation on the 'race claim' case - that's been pretty much ignored by everyone who thought they were playing by TV 'everything bigger than the last time' rules rather than real life rules, where sometimes shit is just mundane.

To a degree though, who can blame them when Mercurio does rely on cop show tropes a lot of the time; range rovers screeching round the streets, unseen switch out fakery, infodumps based on analysis done off camera, that digital recorder noise to raise tension, looking moodily in different directions in a glass fronted lift. The worst dialogue in this ep though was clearly the bar scene at the end. "Nice one mate" says Steve when he gets handed a pint. "Nice one mate" says Kate because Mercurio has thought fuck it, there's only 10 minutes to go.

Twitter has been full of how it's ACAB based or a metaphor for Boris but fuck me, the guy unmasked as the one they've been looking for was in the first series 9 YEARS AGO. It's hard not to see this was the plan since the beginning (especially if, as stated above ^^^^^ Mercurio always had a 6-and-done strategy). Yes, there was DO YOU SEE IT WILL CONTINUE hints, but did anybody really expect otherwise given the nature of the show? That an organisation with multiple anti-corruption bodies - to the point where we can accept, as has been a series theme, that it's so expensive it needs cut back a bit and sacrificing AC-12 as the least successful - has basically one lot of bent coppers who all know each other? This actually led to the one dialogue triumph of this episode, where Osbourne's statement (as watched by Carmichael and Hastings) can also be interpreted as an admission he did interfere with Operation Lighthouse.

The thing I took away is how bad at actual policing AC-12 are. The whole build to conspiracy forced them into a cardinal mistake - that all criminals are one big group of mates who know each other and drink in the same pub. We kept on hearing OCG but as Buckells pointed out they're different small groups who might sometimes have mutual aims or benefits from working together on an incident and someone with no skin in the game has to pass the messages between them and put them together.

If it has to come back, new location, new cast is the only way to go but it's difficult to see how it can do that without treading the same ground (but I guess that's why I'm not a highly paid TV writer).

I thought Holte End Holdings too, although Kate pronounced it differently every time she said it.

I've never seen this show tbh and the fact that entire seasons of it are being written off itt means I doubt I will ever watch it.

Tom D: It's very fair not to watch, but that's a curious reason. If I tell you that I would never write off a season of it, think they are all excellent and that this is the best British TV drama I have ever seen, will you then reverse your decision?

Certainly Holte End. Very Midlands.

Who forged Kate's name on the prison van documents in this episode then?
Still not sure why Jo Davidson's decoy booky robbery was necessary, I guess to avoid the spotlight being focussed solely on Buckells' two other delay tactics. Him 'working with' Jo but her not realising it(?) is kind of curious. Jo said it was her idea to put the wrong surveillance type down to cause the break in surveillance but did Buckells realise when he signed off or was it an orchestrated playact between them?

Tom D: It's very fair not to watch, but that's a curious reason. If I tell you that I would never write off a season of it, think they are all excellent and that this is the best British TV drama I have ever seen, will you then reverse your decision?

I don't see me sitting down and ploughing through 36 hours of any TV series tbh and the fact that at least a third of it is deemed feeble and disappointing by many of its fans doesn't help. I don't believe I've ever watched any long running TV series, the idea that something goes on for season after season and you have to keep up with the latest developments is just not my thing. Also I now know the end!

That's fine then. Some of the series of LOD were the best things on TV, and some weren't quite as good, and people who thought every series should be the best things on TV or were expecting a magical ending were disappointed. If you're not that into TV I wouldn't worry about it?

No, I'm not that into that kind of TV.

the best British TV drama I have ever seen, will you then reverse your decision?

At the risk of being incredibly annoying, I think I’d assume you were caught up a little in the current LoD. hysteria.

I’ll be interested to see how it comes across in 10 years time.

For myself -- I'm not much into hysteria or broader public reactions. I currently think it's the best British TV drama I can remember seeing. But maybe I am forgetting something else that is better?

I suppose you could cite EDGE OF DARKNESS, BLACKSTUFF ... are they better? Qualitatively different I suppose. Maybe I should actually say 'the best UK TV *genre* series' or something, but that's a can of worms - EDGE OF DARKNESS was a thriller, maybe everything belongs to a genre. The best UK police procedural, certainly, though I admit that's a much smaller category.

re 10 years' time: well, series 1 is already 9 years old, so we can judge that with hindsight or distance already.

Tom D: I'm not generally into these long series either - I can't keep up with them. Have just made a few exceptions: this, MAD MEN, THE BRIDGE.

last night's ep was as comparatively bad as the Mel Gibson starring Edge Of Darkness movie. It made think of what Bart once said: I didn't think this was possible, but this both sucks and blows.

10 years on from the current LoD as public tv event hysteria will be interesting. Somethings that have this level of media/public interest stand the test of time (I’d guess I May Destroy You, Fleabag will do probably ), somethings make you wonder what you ever saw in it (eg This Life)

I never liked THIS LIFE much. Bizarre how it rose from obscurity (1995?) to become iconic in about 1997!

FLEABAG I think pretty outstanding.

But my own interest in LoD isn't much to do with public event TV. I just like it for itself.

You could say that all TV will look different over time - BLACKSTUFF for instance most of us agree is special and important, but in production values, style, film stock or whatever it looks dated now - surely that needs to be priced in. LoD will presumably suffer that fate in say 20 years, if there's still anyone around to watch.

"Nice one mate" says Steve when he gets handed a pint. "Nice one mate" says Kate because Mercurio has thought fuck it, there's only 10 minutes to go.

I'm not disagreeing with the overall point that the dialogue in this programme is not good. In fact, it reminds me of Downton Abbey, where every character just says what needs to be said in order to get the exposition out and move the scene along. Apart from Ted, obviously. It's placeholder dialogue where nobody has gone back and filled in the nuance. But "nice one, mate" is Kate and Steve's shorthand. What more do they need to say?

I had a text from a friend today that said "it would be fine if we weren't in the middle of a pandemic with little else to do than hang all our hopes on the excitement of a huge nail-biting finale", and I think that sums it up to an extent. This programme has pulled off Dan Brown levels of getting you to turn the page week after week, some of which is due to the important-seeming and theme-tune free recaps at the beginning to the fantastic way the theme tune builds up in the background at the end of every episode and leaves you on a high for next week. There's no way the reality of the content could have lived up to the expectation that has built up in recent weeks.

I'm not saying it was brilliant, and I definitely think season five was shonky af, but I don't get people being let down by the ending.

I was very confused for a bit there, because I thought I remembered James Nesbitt actually having been in it, but then I realized I was mixing it up with Babylon.

I think people may be let down because over the last few series it really build up an atmosphere of highly organised, high level institutionalised corruption with extraordinary capabilities and reach. The reveal of a bumbling selfish idiot who did it for a timeshare and nice house stretches credibility (even if Mercurio does want to place big messages about incompetence and greed being the problem)

The whole focus on H made the series weaker I think, and it increasingly lost what was good about series 1 and 2. X-files conspiracy syndrome.

mark s needs to provide his post-show analysis.

I thought he was bang on with "biffa bacon lookin mfers" tbf.

The whole focus on H made the series weaker I think

Sorry, bit rambling but posting on the fly. Obviously people are going to be thinking of the flashes of craziness - people being thrown down stairs, out of windows, gun fights, ambushes etc- I think people remember those more than the document forging, tricking people (Biggalow), weaselling out of stuff, which was also central to the plot and characters.

I don't think Buckells is bumbling and clearly isn't supposed to be. In fact, just the opposite because the insinuation that he is (repeatedly) is what shocks him out of repeated No Comments. It's just the character he plays, because ignorance is the best form of denial, and even then it's not as if what he does is any more than have a less than 100% clear up rate.

I mean, it's not as if he spent a decade chasing a crime boss including working with him three times in that period before only putting the pieces together via a spelling mistake.

Buckells prison scene when Jimmy Lakewell is bothering me. Who was he playing overly nervous for except us, the viewers? If he had the laptop in his cell then it can't have been anyone OCG-related in the prison, who were the only others present.

Jimmy Lakewell is *executed* is bothering me

Maybe Buckells hadn't actually seen someone brutally murdered in front of him before? Plus he was in a cell with him, he's relying on Banks to be efficient - could've gotten out of hand.

I think Buckells in the cell was genuinely scared because he doesn’t normally actually end up in a room with these people; he just messaged them. Seeing someone get strangled literally right in front of him was probably scary af; he wasn’t actually a big mean dead eyed villain. Just a greedy, unscrupulous motherfucker who said ‘yes’ every time someone asked him to make a couple of phone calls. The dirty work was always invisible and abstract to him.

btw hello scik, nice to see you and I agree with your posts (mate)

I thought the resolution was pretty great. To be honest it's been openly flagged through the whole series - the withdrawal of surveillance from the flat, the new fake witness framing Terry Boyle, Pilkington moving to the Hill, closing the investigation on the 'race claim' case - that's been pretty much ignored by everyone who thought they were playing by TV 'everything bigger than the last time' rules rather than real life rules, where sometimes shit is just mundane.

But that Buckells version makes no sense either because then who orders the hit? He does (to stop Lakewell exposing him) and then puts himself in the cell to scare himself? The hit on Lakewell playing out as it did confirms there are other Hs in play which is fine - as the end sequences more or less confirm - but it can't work if he really is the guy putting these specific gangs together.

Also the interview confirms Buckells just views all the deaths as collateral in the pursuit of his money and he feels no attachment to them. It'd be weird if seeing someone executed in front of him shit him up to the point of doubling down on his previously held belief that they didn't matter.

afaik Lakewell wouldn't have necessarily known Buckells was involved - what was it he told Steve in the van, to look into Hargreaves?
The hit would've come from the OCG (via prison guards) - they wouldn't have needed an actual cop would they?

Right

As it turned out, it didn’t matter that Lakewell ratted out Hargreaves because the latter had lost his marbles or was very good at pretending he had. Gotta send a message though. The people sending messages were the OCG - not see-no-evil fixer Buckells.

I buy the Safe Of All The Evidences as an insurance policy for the OCG but it was a little hard to access no??