Controversial - LOD

[iminthegarden]

Anyone else finding this series of Line of Duty utterly dull?

Aside from a few exciting scenes it's been one long stream of boring, long drawn out interviews. I know my attention span isn't great these days but it's really really slow, maybe covid restrictions has placed limitations on filming?

I don't think this series is too bad.

2,3 and 5 are my best though. Didn't think 1 or 4 were bad, just didn't capture my attention as much. Series 4 was better in the last couple of episodes and just took a while to warm up.

I love Carmichael's character. There are weird people like her out there, so I don't see her as a caricature, but agree too many Tedisms in this series. Think Ted must be croaking it this series!

I won't be sorry if this is the end of it. Just wind it up now. I am getting a bit of a 'Who shot JR' vibe off the whole hype and over investment and I just can't be arsed. It also seems to have slipped into lazy parody, ooh, Hastings, he's just said sucking on diesel, ooh, now he's said Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey. It feels a bit heretical to say this, but a relief.

Nope. Still love it. If I’m honest, Series 5 was the one that didn’t grab me as much. But there have been some great set pieces in this series - Ryan / Terry in the reservoir, the shoot out with Steve & Jimmy Lakeland in the van, Jo Davidson’s interview - and both Ryan & Carmichael have been a joy of a nightmare. Given the restrictions, it’s a miracle they’ve managed to finish it at all.
And I love Craig Parkinson’s podcasts about it - which add a whole dimension for me.
But each to his own 🙂

I’m loving it. I don’t need the big set piece gun battles, exciting though they are.
I find the interviews compelling and intelligently written, and it’s often where we see the finest acting, from the guest actors particularly.

Having said that, I bow to no one in my admiration for Lennie James and his season was the most compelling. To watch him unravelling, yet keep trying to get his life back on an even keel was incredible. A masterclass from him.

Compared to everything else on TV, I still think Line of Duty is appointment viewing and I will be glued to the screen on Sunday.

I don't go in for the set pieces either and also found the Roz Huntley storyline a bit weird in places. Having said that, and having watched most series a number of times, she (TN) managed to pull off a thoroughly dislikeable character pretty well.

For me, the slow unravelling of the characters is the best bit, especially when under the pressure in the glass box. Brilliant acting from LJ, MB and CP in particular.

I don't want another series - 6 is quite enough - I wouldn't like to see the programme turn into a parody of itself. It's way, way superior (IMHO) to anything else that's been on the box in recent years and can't really be bettered. Hats off to JM for giving us such a treat, especially in lockdown. It's really brought the nation together. I'll miss it terribly once it's over.

I'm just a bit worried that series 6 was written before social media turned it into a Tedisms circus and that Jed didn't tie up the loose ends as he had a series 7 in mind. Now, we are into parody territory and unless it finishes satisfactorily tonight I won't be happy! The 'H' business surely can't span another series?

I'm still watching, although I don't really care who H is!

Hardly revolutionary that there might be some corrupt/corruptable people in/connected to the force & that one might be (h)igh up.

It started with that very premise with Osborne wanting to cover up the bungled raid.

That didn't mean at that time that he was being coerced by an OCG, just covering when the buck stopped with him.

I think that having Cottan as the caddy was great & the ending of series one-wow!

2&3-LD was a fabulous character.

Series 4-meh! Didn't care about the TN character enough/at all.

Same with John Corbett-& that for me all revolved too much around H

I agree with you @diddl about Osborne. It was an arse-covering exercise, that's all, which also enabled Steve to join AC12. I think it should have stayed that way. We know he's (Osborne) is bent so what else is there to know?

For me, LOD wS never about shock reveals of massive bentness with OCGs pulling strings. It was the subtlety of the endemic and quite possibly institutionalised bentness and how coppers can be corruptible, even the good ones.

I'm desperate for tonight but I don't want to see a silly ending.

it has absolutely gone downhill since series 3. But for IME the first three series were some of the best telly ever, and the subsequent series have still been better than most recent crime dramas. And it is one of the rare programmes that will bring the 14yo out of her room in the evening to sit and watch alongside Dh and me, and for that alone it gets a gold star.

@PeterPomegranate

I’m enjoying it still. I didn’t like the series with Thandiwe Newton - I thought the business with the chain saw and manky arm was too horror movie ish. But I think this series and series 5 have been worth watching. The Lindsay Denton and Dot Cottan days were the highlight for me though.

I agree. That was the worst series. Man thinks woman accidentally died, decides to chop her up with chainsaw. Woman is not dead and accidentally kills man, decides to bury his body but chops his fingers off first. Nonsense.

How do people take this show who've navigated Professional Standards/ Office of Crime and Police Commissioner/ IOPC? Line of Duty is like an alternative reality, really - corruption within the police service is not processed in anything like the fashion of an AC12.

What's the story with the show's writer(s)? Are they ex-police? Have they done any research whatsoever? The stories are like a child's fantasy. Hysteria surrounds this show but it feels like it exists to placate a public half aware of corruption without actually furnishing any accurate and empowering information. The public are practically invisible in the show. All the relating is focused on police officers.

There are about five layers of supposed oversight in real life, and every single one exists fundamentally and deliberately to protect corrupt actions and the statements of each layer (mostly staffed by people with very severe literacy/ reasoning issues and poor research/ verification skills), which anyone who's engaged with the procedures knows beyond doubt.

There's a show to be made about police corruption wrecking lives - of the public that funds it all - so why do we have this show instead? It's about as realistic as Doctor Who. 70s Doctor Who as well.

Jed Mercurio - the sole writer - is a respected TV writer with several dramas to his name. If you read any interviews of his you will see they have several police advisors - active and retired - working on the show. It's a drama - about police investigating police. The public is not the focus.

There is a very good documentary series currently running on the BBC about real life police corruption, if reality is what you are after. It's called "Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty".

Bent individual coppers are the least of the problem in the context of systemic corruption, the top-down agenda of working against the public's interests.

Police advisers will not lead any sense of truth to a program like this - they are the least objective source imaginable.

My post pertains to this thread's specific theme in that a lot of why this show will have beocme wearing is that when viewed against the backdrop ofClapham and Bristol this year it's a massive stretch of any morally alert person's patience. English TV drama seldom gets beyond the small time, moving between panto and very mediocre propaganda with its content and being remarkably shallow psychologically and in terms of how what characterisation there is is rendered. Some people at a table looking a bit testy really doesn't take much craft or thought. Jed is the Andrew Marr of drama, fortune having fallen in his lap because of the untaxing nature of what he's capable of saying.

Those of us that have been victimised by the police, already having survived the behaviour of criminals, find ourselves isolated, unsuported. We are bound to resent seeing those around us prefering this warped version of what has marked our lives deeply.

Series 4 was weak, as was series 5. This one is a bit better, but not on a par with the first few series. Too convoluted, too many throwbacks to earlier series and while LoD has always been quite a demanding programme, in that you have to be on your toes, with this series you almost need to be constantly consulting your LoD handbook.

I think part of the problem is the lack of a compelling new character, like Tony Gates or Lindsay Denton. Jo Davidson is dull, not helped by Kelly MacDonald's one-note acting.

Jed Mercurio was a doctor and was in RAF before becoming a writer

I'm still enjoying it

"I think part of the problem is the lack of a compelling new character, like Tony Gates or Lindsay Denton. Jo Davidson is dull, not helped by Kelly MacDonald's one-note acting."

I agree.

With LD it was the is she/isn't she corrupt & also a great character well portrayed.

S1 for me was great-totally different to anything I'd see.

Tony Gates, Dot Cottan, Nige Morton-fabulous characters!

There’s been one good episode, the rest was slow but last weeks was abject shite. It was totally pointless.

Kelly Macdonald has been done over with her character.

Last weeks shenanigans with Kate leaving with jo was confusing and pointless and seemed to be just for the sake of a bit of drama that a credible plot twist. I couldn’t figure out Kate’s motivation for doing a runner at all
I loved seasons 1- 4 though.
I liked the references to Jimmy savile and Cyril smith in earlier seasons but feel the parallels to Stephen Lawrence and maybe Jill dando in the Gail vella shooting clumsy.
Anyway will be tuned in tonight. Hope it’s good!

I'm watching but literally scrolling through Mumsnet

Oh god yes, soooo bored /confused. And I cannot be the only person who didn't see the very obvious misspelling of definitely tf for my smartphone 🤦‍♀️.

@midsomermurderess at "who shot JR" . Iconic reference 👏.

I’ve always thought it is dreadful and that the acting is wooden and diabolical. I simply do not see the appeal.

Well I thought that was brilliant. Buckells as unlikely 4 tb man, Jo off he hook, a nice outcome for Terry, Fairbank as likely father of Jo but anable/unable to confirm, and Ted confessing his possibe culpability for Corbett's death to Carmichael.

The 9n,y bits I’ve enjoyed have been the interviews. The rest if this series was shit and the ending well down to my expectations, though I did have some hope they’d pull something good together. I nearly stopped watching after episode 2 but got suckered in because it had been good before. What a waste of time.