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

i did read somewhere that they were partly improvised.

xp lol

they'd only put something like that in if an AC12 participant was going to turn the tables on a fellow AC12 participant by not doing what they had planned

they shd totally do this and probably now will

back on S5. i find it fascinating from a writing pov. mercurio has said somewhere that after S1/S2 renewal i think he had a sense of the full six season arc.

but the Dot morse code kind of makes a mockery of that as it feels like v heavy handed retcon.

but assuming it’s the case it’s interesting to wonder what brought about the S5 change of template. one of the great things about TLoD is how engaging and intelligent the adversaries are. Corbett is v good (to take ledge’s point) but the whole template was broken. How much was S5 plot already mapped but delivered from a different perspective (OCG/embedded cop) because Mercurio felt the need to break the template?

Apart from that fucking awful Bodyguard thing he did at the same time he’s an incredible writer. not sure if we mentioned it itt but his novel Ascent, about a Russian fighter pilot, is genuinely excellent, experimental and full of dramatic psychological insight. (as recommended by James Morrison elsewhere). and it’s interesting seeing him apply this ability for psychological drama to what he does in TLoD.

so what i’m saying is that i assume he knows what he’s doing which makes what i consider to be the failure of S5 and the disconnect between claimed long term planning and dot retconning more interesting.

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

― mark s, Tuesday, 7 May 2019 10:46 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

there it is.

there is a thing in this show of your comprehension just barely hanging on for dear life. it’s WORK to watch one of these things and it’s deliberate - set up like one of those greatest ninja obstacle courses, except instead of foam paddles knocking you into the drink it’s squadrons of acronyms swarming your eyes and carefully established relationships upended retroactively.

Going to lower the tone of this thread by pointing out the vibes between Jo and Kate, and entirely here for the show to go there tbh, though it’ll probably end in tears.

oh god yes.

hard to put a price on discovering the truth about oneself

I assumed something had *already"* happened that they weren't talking about

Solidarity to all on board this ship tbh. Glad it isn’t just me and Tracer.

I wondered if Kate was going to go there in the line of duty but that might be kind of a regressive route to take

I see this is a normie enough theory to be featured on Gogglebox and the Daily Express, so going to call it The Line from now on.

The old Notorious/Mission Impossible 2 plotline

resurrecting my theories why H had to rid himself of the porn computer by combining elements of my (reason iv upthread) and gyac's (riposte-reason vii upthread): much of the plot so far is misdirection from from the sooncome plotpoint viz that many of the characters post (under pseuds) on the same beloved message board and the mere outer crimes on screen are all veil-of-maya manifestations of beef and feuds and hook-ups happening on the board and its various spin-off FB chats, slacks, etc

Thing that is bugging me is that if they searched the kelly character's flat, why didn't they bring up the 30 different locks on her door when they interviewed her?

they probably all have a million locks on their doors too why because police are loco

"do we quiz her abt the bedroom?"
"absolutely not, whomst among us"

https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PRI_188578440.jpg

They hadn't searched her flat at that point, they charged her first and only looked at the other officers' houses when she blurted out they were all involved. Agree that it stood out hard in ep1 as a PLOT POINT.

I'm assuming that the first thing they did on recovering all those burners and checking the logs was to match times of calls/texts with when they know for sure their mole was in that AC-12 briefing room in ep1 therefore it can't have been her that used them.

I'm not sure exactly why everyone is assuming Ryan is bent just because he picked up Davidson, he might just have been given that as a job.

Arnott dropped enough hints at Corbett's widow's house ("big TV", full sky package) that she has unexplained income she could well be the OCG link and there will be an attempt to make Steve bent - possibly using his painkiller addiction (which has been laid on with a trowel) as leverage.

Ryan is bent because he is who he is and him having the pickup job reflects on her as much as him, probably more so cos we know he’s a bad one.

yes ryan lee is a long-time evolving character so we have plenty (of little hints) to go on

i mean in twist-and-turn-about LoD usual-tropes-and-conditions i guess he cd now be revealed as not-bent-after-all just like stephen graham in s5, the longest game of all

but i hope not obviously

That's what I think, is that it's all just coincidence based on the fact he was a bad 'un as a kid and the writer is putting him in convenient places as GOTCHA misdirection.

It's not like he doesn't have form e.g. Denton in S2/3 and (more or less) Huntley in S4.

This trope (named actress leading lady wrongly under suspicion) is probably what's led to what seems to be the dominant twitter theory - that the woman in the picture with Davidson is Corbett's birth mother and she's deliberately infiltrating the OCG to bring it down and avenge his death. This can come with or without a slice of "she is Hastings' daughter" after the implied affair he had with Corbett's birth mother.

I thought the porn computer was Hastings trying to cover up something else (ie he's fucked financially in ways we don't quite understand yet and whatever was on the computer reflected very badly on him)? His conversations with his ex-wife definitely revealed some kind of dodgy property investment/perilous financial state IIRC.

Kelly's absent mother definitely central to whatever is going on here though.

matt dc, ladies and gentlemen!!

It is possible to think too much about this show, it’s truly not this smart. Badly burned by Bodyguard on this too.

Wb MDC!

The perceived narrative was that Hastings' finance was fucked through something to do with foreign property and his ex-wife was bringing it to a head as part of a final settlement so he had to deal with it.

He gets approached by someone who turns out to be bent (was he Federation?) who offers him a way out through an internal scheme which will give him money and other officers are in (one of which is the guy that gets shot at the heist of the police depot is supposed to be H). Hastings uses a laptop while staying at the travel lodge while estranged, he claims for dodgy porn but cut into OCG messages to Corbett's gang. Hastings ends up with money - it moves in and out of the bag in the travel lodge - and gives half of it away (to Corbett's widow? Is that the "life insurance money" that lets her hold on to the house?) and uses what's left to pay off his wife/sort his financial problems.

There are a few misdirections possibly in play:

Laptop was just used for porn
H is a rolling persona in the OCG
OCG plants in the police will pay for fall guys when the identity of the current H might get found
Hastings is Corbett's father hence his feeling of obligation to the family
Corbett's wife is OCG related and Hastings pays her to buy her silence

it is possible to think too much about this show but it is not advisable

also aldo's list of misdirections doesn't include the blobby fetish site option so 🚮

I did say "dodgy porn" and I don't see Hastings as Hentai/tentacle so PAWG/BBW/feeder or Gonzo were my first guesses.

all i care abt is bent coppers… and VORE

The biggest problem I have with the show is that - and no offence meant to Martin Compston who I'm sure is a nice guy irl (unless he's a complete dick obviously, which is probably just as likely) - Steve Arnott is some kind of hypothetical ideal for heterosexual man which makes every woman he meets want to jump into bed with him and absolutely irresistible.

I did not get that from the character at all. Are we watching the same show?

Steve is just one of those people who inexplicably has game/is one of life’s shaggers, we all know people like that.

Real-life Martin Compston has a fairly hot Scottish accent IMO

Personally I find him his performance as Arnott (twerpy, shaggable, capable of being moth smart and stupid) more believable than the farcical situations Mercurio puts him into

otm

xpost x2

"moth smart" is a good phrase and also otm of steve arnott

He's shagged someone in every series, even when it's crossing a line for both e.g. Denton, and in this series so far he's got the woman from the department he's trying to transfer into asking him out after just a sip of coffee and Corbett's widow giving him the "come back inside and Shah me in my dead husband's bed" eyes after a couple of cups of tea. Based on only 120 minutes of screened TV that seems to fit my model pretty well.

Ok but how many coppers do you know, he’s cop hot, not real person hot.

Real-life Martin Compston has a fairly hot Scottish accent IMO

I'll trust you to have more coppers as friends than me then (and the sexual orientation to judge other than objectively) so take your word for it.

Never regret engaging with you, Aldo!

as noted upthread he looks very very VERY UNCANNILY like someone i know in real life :0

now happily married, this person is (a) not a cop, (b) less irritable than SA, (c) moth smart yet also culturally well informed & amusing abt it and (d) ten yrs ago was VERY MUCH mr sex

It’s been interesting watching Line of Duty against Between The Lines, which is being repeated on BBC4 — all BBC shows about police internal affairs must include the word “line” — and features Neil Pearson as an equally unlikely mr sex

He's shagged someone in every series, even when it's crossing a line for both e.g. Denton, and in this series so far he's got the woman from the department he's trying to transfer into asking him out after just a sip of coffee and Corbett's widow giving him the "come back inside and Shah me in my dead husband's bed" eyes after a couple of cups of tea. Based on only 120 minutes of screened TV that seems to fit my model pretty well.

― Well *I* know who he is (aldo), Wednesday, March 31, 2021 7:17 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is his ex-gf. who if i remember correctly might be a bit dodgy?

inverclyde denizens might be plesantly surprised to find their accent described as "fairly hot"

favourite thing about steve arnott: the waistcoats

xp it’s true, have a major soft spot for ye north of the border

this is his ex-gf

Because superstar Steve is so hot even meeting him again makes her fall for him all over again.

im hardly a lothario and certainly no steve arnott (i couldn't pull off the waitscoats) but bumping into a newly single ex-girlfriend and them asking you out for a drink is something that has happened to me