Line of Duty Thread 9, no spoilers! Watch along as we find out (?) wtf is going on!

[TedisnotH]

Reporting in, fellas. Let's fill up Thread 8 first though, ok?

@IdrisElbow

The Homeland finale still holds top spot for a series ending.

I think series 1 of Homeland is my favourite ever tv show. I wish they'd have gone with the other ending and ended it there. I really enjoyed watching all the other seasons, except the stupid Venezuelan one, but pulling the pin at the end of series 1 would have been perfection.

@Mammyloveswine

Didn't Ted misspell definitely last series?!

Yes he definitely (no pun intended) did. Quite a lot of people do Tbf. But again this was glossed over.

Carmichael didn't know they were bringing Buckells in as they kept the info to themselves to stop any possible leak and disruption to the prison transfer. Which is why she wasn't in the interview.

Ted misspelt definitely on purpose in series 5 as he was pretending to be H.

@GlassBoxSpectacular

And.... when dot was actually dying, no-one was filming him, so where did that footage come from?

To quote the best thing I ever read on MN ever: a wizard did it, then ran away

Lol. I'm worried I'm being a complete tv snob, but I'm wondering if there is a correlation between having watched this every week from the start (with the Guardian's episode by episode BTL comments) and having seen and been disappointed by all the daft bits in real time

Vs

Binge watching this in lockdown and skimming over the silly bits and now being disappointed.

Happy to see lots of people saying they have watched it for 9 years, but series 3 onwards for me have had such silly things that whilst I'm gripped and love it, my expectations have never been out of this world, so I enjoyed it last night.

I was so disappointed with that ending and the whole series in general, to be honest.

Line of Duty is my all time favourite programme. For me, series 1-3 are excellent; the plot twists, dialogue, outstanding acting. Series 4 didn’t do it for me, and I feel the same with 5 and 6.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that series 1-3 were written by Jed Mercurio and the following series by someone else. This series in particular has been a let down, there didn’t seem to be the same depth to the main characters, and certain sub-storylines put in for no apparent reason.

As much as I love it, I think it should end now, and not make another series.

Homeland series 1 was excellent so edge of your seat

Still feeling disappointed this morning. Looking at reviews most are similar in that the episode was flat apart

Well it leads the way foe another series I shall watch it but I think series three it peaked when it was good it was absolutely excellent

@PrincessScarlett

Ted misspelt definitely on purpose in series 5 as he was pretending to be H.

Yes, that's right. It looked like a gotcha moment but he said something to Steve along the lines of "I do read the files, son".

Everything was pointing to Hastings being H

He kept mentioning “erroneously known as H” as obviously H could be Hastings

The way he acted was shifty too, but I guess Jed wanted us all to think it could be him, without it actually being him? Didn’t he also spell @definitely” wrong in earlier seasons?

To me the way Carmichael just backed off was disappointing

I was fully expecting a showdown between Carmichael (surprising being a goody) and Hastings

So I got that all wrong

Haven’t we already been through this?

Body cams from the crews that turned up.

The morse code shit was totally bolted on bollocks though.

I think series 5 and some of series 6 (because I did think some of this series was excellent) really highlight differences between top-notch writing and directing and something that is diverting enough to watch in the middle of a pandemic.
Look at US series like breaking bad, the Wire, ER, Homeland - Line of Duty comes nowhere near any of those in terms of writing or acting.

Well the journey was definitely (or should that be definately?) better than the destination since the outcome was so pedestrian in the end. The most depressing thing of all is that after keeping us all on the edge of our seats with a bit of escapism the ending was too depressingly plausible bringing us back to real life with a bump.
Buckells was basically in it for the money and used his shambolic, hapless incompetence as a front - the set of golf clubs in his car boot when they found the missing files should have been the biggest clue to his guilt. The chief constable and other police bigwigs rather than being explicitly involved were complicit by being happy to quietly sweep things under the carpet rather than shake public confidence in the institution as a whole. The odious Patricia Carmichael their obedient lapdog, not motivated by doing any real detecting, but prepared to toe the line and follow an agenda if it meant she would be promoted (who hasn't worked for someone like that at some point?). I don't understand the speculation about a 7th series - Ted Hastings is LOD. AC12 is nothing without him.

@Ulysses

I thought it was made clear that it was Fairbanks who Tommy told her was her dad.

It was certainly implied and fits. I actually like that not everything is neatly boxed off. No Agatha Christie-style denouement is far more realistic.

I think it’s been well set up for series 7....

Well the journey was definitely (or should that be definately?) better than the destination since the outcome was so pedestrian in the end. The most depressing thing of all is that after keeping us all on the edge of our seats with a bit of escapism the ending was too depressingly plausible bringing us back to real life with a bump.
Buckells was basically in it for the money and used his shambolic, hapless incompetence as a front - the set of golf clubs in his car boot when they found the missing files should have been the biggest clue to his guilt. The chief constable and other police bigwigs rather than being explicitly involved were complicit by being happy to quietly sweep things under the carpet rather than shake public confidence in the institution as a whole. The odious Patricia Carmichael their obedient lapdog, not motivated by doing any real detecting, but prepared to toe the line and follow an agenda if it meant she would be promoted (who hasn't worked for someone like that at some point?). I don't understand the speculation about a 7th series - Ted Hastings is LOD. AC12 is nothing without him.

This. With bells on.

Absolute load of lazy shite, it felt rushed and incomplete and designed to wring out another series

Really poor acting performances from Hastings and Buckells too. Neither were remotely believable

Such a huge let down after the incredible episode last week and a waste of the (previously) mesmerising talent in the show

@lubeybooby

Absolute load of lazy shite, it felt rushed and incomplete and designed to wring out another series

Really poor acting performances from Hastings and Buckells too. Neither were remotely believable

Such a huge let down after the incredible episode last week and a waste of the (previously) mesmerising talent in the show

I agree, the acting seemed off too, was it me?

Definately left it wide open for another series tho. With Carmichael in charge which I think it needs, the 3 musketeers are far too comfortable working together. And she will be a good guy, not obviously good, but the H and kate and steve are all a bit bent anyway. C. wants to expose the corruption but knows they need to be whiter than white to do it. Reckon something in Cs past will be influencing her....

Still disappointed this morning. I actually wondered if a 90 minute finale had been written and shot but was edited/watered down at the last minute to leave the door open for a series 7?

Seemed odd to have only 60 mins for the biggest episode ever - the final reveal when other seasons have had 90 min endings. Also both Martin C and Vicky M had said it would be 90 mins!

Is Carmichael a likeable character though? I’m not so sure the way AMM has played her is enough to carry a series. We will have to see.

Well what a disappointment.

I wish the last shot was someone closing a laptop and destroying it. Carmichael, Osborne, anyone really 🤣

I think series 8 is on its way, Fairbanks is faking, Osborn is going to be brought down, Carmichael is up to her neck in it.

Still disappointed this morning. I actually wondered if a 90 minute finale had been written and shot but was edited/watered down at the last minute to leave the door open for a series 7?

Instead of a 90-minute episode 6, we got an extra episode. So what would have been a 90-min finale became 2 x 1hr episodes.

I don’t understand how anyone could ever have thought Hastings could be ‘H’. He was told repeatedly to drop the investigation into ‘H’ from seniors, forced to retire because of it etc. If he was ‘H’ it would have been so easy for him to just pull the plug on the investigation instead of being like a dog with a bone wouldn’t it??