Line of Duty - what am I missing

[FreshJalapenos]

So many friends have nagged me to watch Line of Duty for ages, say it’s the best thing ever, and I finally cosied down this last week to watch it.

Finished season one

…Am I missing something?

It COULD be that I’m peri-menopausal and a bit tired and stressed lately, but I found it SO HARD to follow.

To clarify, I am an intelligent woman with a senior role in a scientific field. I also love a police drama so not new to a lot of terminology. I’ve never struggled to keep up with anything before

But I just did not know WTF was going on 🤣 it was SO fast paced I kept having to constantly rewind it to understand what was happening. I felt like I needed to start a spreadsheet of all the random stories - many of which are unresolved at the end of season one - and characters that kept popping up. The verbal diarrhoea of made up police lingo (“Twist it” - I’m sorry what?!?) and overly waffly declarations of “Arnott, that operation was not your fault, Fahrenheit is a tricky business which is why I wanted you to mosey on down and piggyback the twist operation here and nail this down before another man regrets his life choices and decides that the path he chooses has to impact public safety and terrorism. ARE YOU WITH ME ARNOTT”. Not to mention the overly complicated briefings “The murders at Greek Lane show a consistent finger stabbing aggression with what we’ve seen before - it’s a bluff operation, they have books that have words in and until we find a trace of the victim’s cousins dogs DNA, and visit the dodgy hairdresser, we’ll never crack this case.”

Then the twist at the end - well I think it was a twist, why can’t they just spell it out?! Im still confused.

The only courses of action is to:

1. rewatch season 1 and try to figure out what’s happening
2. Give up on it

Is it just me? I was hoping it would be as addictive as Happy Valley but it’s just added to my ever burdening mental load of figuring out WTF is going on 🤣

How is mentioning the brain fog of perimenopause/ menopause TMI? Jeez is this the 1950s or something? Do we have to whisper ‘it’s THE CHANGE OF LIFE’ quietly if we want to refer to it? And what the hell is ‘empathy mining’?

OP tell your teenage daughter to allow you a bit of peace and give LoD your full attention. Keeley Hawes is absolutely brilliant in it.

They don’t have to comply in the real world either.

And you you could, if you wanna look like a weirdo

Well you’re comparing apples with oranges. But you knew that. It’s no more inappropriate talking about Menopause than it is talking about having a migraine. Unless you’re living so much in the dark ages that you think anything <gasp> lady related is inappropriate

My sex life is of no relevance to my work, but my perimenopause symptoms may be.

Those of us who aren’t self centered or insanely squeamish, and are actual grown ups, don’t mind at all.

Are you ok?

You keep comparing menopause with things that are nothing like menopause. I’d be alarmed if I was doing that.

If you don’t like to hear it at the very least accept it’s a very odd “you” problem and nobody has to care if you don’t like hearing about it.

But yeah, sounds like you just want to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Never mind anyone else.

🤣🤣oh I’m sooooo sorry I don’t centre a random stat bee on MN with a weird phobia of women talking about women’s issues. Should have got my crystal ball out.

How do you navigate your day being so thin skinned?!

This will shock the faint hearted of this thread - but DD is going through puberty <gasp> and periods <double gasp, vaginas!> with all the rather terrifying mood swings while I have the menopause mood swings, so it can be very fun in our house 🤣

If you're going to persevere you might actually want to rewatch S1. If I remember correctly, there are threads in 1 that will carry right through all the rest of the series.

Agreed, I went back and rewatched series 1-6 last year and there were so many linked subplots and details in S1 that you miss the first time but make more sense once you know more from watching subsequent seasons.

Also agree with a PP about how "basic" S1 seems compared to the rest - you can tell it had a lower budget and there's a lot of weird shaky dodgy camerawork!

Lennie James is a freaking gorgeous man and could sit reading the telephone directory (shows age) for all I care. 🥰

My Mum raved about LOD back when it was hiding on BBC2. I tried it and gave up on episode 1. Went back to it again later and was hooked.
I think I’ve probably watched 1-6 at least 6-7 times now and can’t wait for 7.

For me it’s the best British drama I’ve ever watched.

I loved it for the characters. Some characters I hated and by the end of their arc I loved them. Also, the theme tune: line-of-duuu-tee-line-of-duu-tee. Also, who doesn't want to catch bent coppers?

😂😂😂
@FreshJalapenos I hear you!! Enjoyed your description of it too.

If it's any consolation I never really liked it either. But I could follow War and Peace (the book that is 😜) ? Also loved Happy Valley.

The Caddy's identity is clearly revealed in series 1 (poss 2) which made the whole build up thing a bit odd.

Try it again if you think you will enjoy it @FreshJalapenos , the Jaqui (is she called Jaqui, the one he was having affair with) is a bit of a running theme.

It is brilliant, but what was supposed to be the final series was an absolute load of tosh, so... 🤣

Definitely rewatch when you've got no distractions. I loved it from series one as I love stuff like this that really grabs my attention, but when I watched with DH he needed a little help during S1 with keeping up with what going on. After that he got into it and enjoyed it more as it went on. We loved series 1-4 but found 5 absolutely terrible even though others were raving about it.

Like most of these long running police type dramas… whoever you think is a baddie they turn out to be a goodie. Whoever you think is a goodie, they turn out to be the baddie.
There… saved you the bother of watching all the other series!

I think you might want to avoid forums predominantly populated by women if you don’t want to hear any mention of menopause.

I thought I'd clicked on the wrong thread 🤣

I'd blame my age and brain fog, but apparently I went through the menopause whilst on Mirena so no periods in spite of every health professional telling me I was too young, I'd be peri...

Well let me tell you what happened... I had a camera inserted into my lady womb, through my lady cervix that showed that my lady ovaries were defunct!! All done! Been there, done that with no knowledge!

Although, I did have to watch series 2 twice just so I completely understood the Carly Kirk thing and whatnot. I wonder if Keeley Hawes has been through the menopause.

You are so wrong. Your loss though.

Or, just so that there are no spoilers...

You are so right. Your gain!!

I wouldn't say it was clearly revealed. It was clearly revealed when I just rewatched it, but the first time round you aren't to know what's a real clue and what's misdirection.

I’ve watched them all. tell me what I missed!

Season 1 is good but season 2 is better and season 3 is awesome.

Then it starts to go downhill.

I was a bit confused at times but still - stick with it @FreshJalapenos!

REWATCH OP. Season 2 and 3 are so so good. I still think about Lindsey Denton on the regular.

So do I - she’s such a legend.

For me the best series is S2, followed closely by S3. 1 and 4 good in their own different ways, 5 and 6 were lacking.

If you don't enjoy S2 then you should give up as it isn't for you. Mark Bonnar and Keeley Hawes are absolutely brilliant.

How does it go again?

Season 1, Tony Gates
2, Danny Waldron
3, Lindsey Denton
4 Roz Huntley
5 John Corbett
6 The Scottish woman who's name escapes me

Is that right?