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

Am still creeped out by the “I had to CLEAN her BRAINS off the pavement” line in S2

I love the **spy intrigue** in this & bodyguard but the violence & tension are prob my least favourite parts of the show (even though they are clearly key parts of what makes this show great and not too cosy)

(Sorry)

the other bold thing about s2 is how much hinges on the very first sequence of events (phone call, exchange between Denton and Jayne Akers) which is shown right from the off, even as the titles are still rolling iirc

Sunday 31st March confirmed.

If Hastings turns out to be a baddie I will be inconsolable

You're getting way ahead of yerself there, fella

Am still creeped out by the “I had to CLEAN her BRAINS off the pavement” line in S2

I love the **spy intrigue** in this & bodyguard but the violence & tension are prob my least favourite parts of the show (even though they are clearly key parts of what makes this show great and not too cosy)

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, March 18, 2019 10:49 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The level of brutality in S2 is quite something isn't it, the prison scenes in particular are almost unbearable to watch (and it cleverly achieves the desired effect putting us on Denton's side before the extent of her duplicity is revealed).

I'm sticking to my theory that Hastings isn't necessarily involved in the big conspiracy but probably has some skeletons he wouldn't want unearthed by any investigation.

less than two weeks away! excellent.
Yes funny that a show that's had a shooting, throat slitting, almost-finger-chopping, actual finger chopping, car set on fire, throwing someone from a window, hand scalding, dead girl blowtorching, plus numerous abh - in the first two series so far - is mainly known for police officers quoting regs in internal interviews.

Less than two weeks = better get my re-watching skates on (have just watched s3e1).

Only on S1 of re-watch so won't finish in time but as it's only on weekly will probably just hold off the new ones for a couple of weeks.

S3 ep 4 (I think) - does Steve admit (to Kate) to planting the money in Denton's house? Huge if so?

that is, I know she took the money at the time, but Steve says something like 'we needed something a jury could see'. he could be talking about his 'fake reveal' of the cash that he already admitted to but that wouldn't make much sense.

remind me again why Kate and Steve meet in a secret tunnel only to go to work at the same office the next day?

*S5 spoilers, kind of*

If there's anything binge-watching 4 series has taught me, it's to never jump to conclusions unless they've been spelled out, so I saw the 'mistaken id' thing coming from a long way off - LoD usually doesn't drag it out that long when it's doing something like that purely to mislead the viewers.

Glad we jumped straight in with the Maneet stuff. (Nooo!)

No Offence had a (potentially) similar storyline with a UCO gone silent iirc

I’ve never seen Line of Duty.
This is what I think it’s about pic.twitter.com/MF4QSN0TNu

— joe heenan (@joeheenan) March 29, 2019

- 'There's no-one blacker than me' says Hastings, referring to his victimisation as a Catholic police officer in NI - is this supposed to show his lack of PC or is it a bit off?

I did laugh when he said “I didn’t come up the Lagan jnba bubble you know”, he’s so ridiculous.

Think I knew Maneet was doomed as soon as I saw her on screen, this show does not like a loose end.

Saw this, good spot if true but don’t think the dates match up?!

that’s Ryan from series 1 omg #LineofDuty pic.twitter.com/qzJDn8V76z

— jacey (@jaceyowen) March 31, 2019

Yeah other ppl are saying that's Ryan, also Arnott's tinder woman on his phone is his irl wife.

I hope that's enough of the deliberate misdirection - I'd forgotten that bit with Ted on the phone outside his travel tavern too.

I like how small character moments (e.g. Maneet showing off the video of her kid) are now an inevitable portent of doom.

“I need a drink of water” followed by the world’s feeblest chase was pretty lol (intentionally, I think)

Apart from that, I thought this was a refreshingly low-key and non-baroque opener compared to the last season.

Am I the only one who thought it was highly implausible that Steve could go undercover in his own department with just that beard for disguise

I know that's how television credits work, but it does seem a bit rich that Stephen Graham gets credited ahead of everyone in AC-12 on this. He's not the star!

am I mad or does Maneet have two young kids? she brought a baby in in series 2 or 3 when she came in late to help out. then was pregnant and going off on mat leave in s4.

I'm not wrong there
https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/line-of-duty/64362/line-of-duty-a-salute-to-pc-maneet-bindra

Graham's big line, "there's only one thing worse than a BENT copper – that's a bent copper who pretends she ISN'T" - does this... make sense? There's a lot of negatives trapped in that sentence.

I didn't really get that either. What was the thing they pulled out of the phone? Some kind of recording device?

A location tracker or something?

i think phones can be located via cellphone masts without use of a tracking device so a recording device would make more sense

I assumed tracker but who knows.
How would Steven Graham's character even know about ac12? (If he was a legit criminal I mean). There's more to this...

My one grumble about this ep, and a lot of them actually, is that they could do with a bit more room to breathe. Loads to cram in, which is exciting, but how about making it a 7 or 8 episode run?
I suppose they have to skip over a lot if stuff to leave us questioning what's going on (eg was Maneet acting on ac12 orders to make things right?)

xp yeah but something under the radar like this isn’t going through the official channels

How would Steven Graham's character even know about ac12? (If he was a legit criminal I mean). There's more to this...

because we've just established that he himself is a UCO?

I don't agree about needing "room to breathe" - part of the show's appeal (for me) is it's pithy intensity and disinterest in the character's personal lives (while somehow remaining super ANGSTY) even if it's at the occasional cost of plot legibility.

I like how "oh, Kate's back with her family" gets a lip service and then it's done. And based on how badly The Bodyguard handled it, Mercurio is probably better leaving that alone.

(It reminds me of Grant Morrison's "skip the boring bits, try and keep up" style of comics writing in the mid-00s)

am I mad or does Maneet have two young kids

Maneet showed Kate a video of her two kids, which was pretty much when we figured she was earmarked to be the first big casualty of the series (not counting the ambush victims, because we don't really know them)

Xxp I think I do agree with you; it's something I've always loved about LoD. My head was spinning last night trying to keep up with everything but in retrospect that's probably because I had a stinking cold so my brain was v foggy.

xp i thought that was to show us how much time had passed! but lots of comments online re her being mum to a baby

She went on maternity leave during the last season, and I don't think we're too far on from that timewise.

And she had a baby before that, because she showed up with a baby in tow in season 3 (which I've just watched again quite recently)

timewise we're 1 x beard farther on unless it's glued on

yeeeaah they said the name of the show!

There are too many crossovers with No Offence throughout this (Mayor Hassan being the latest) and I just remembered the baddies in the last series of NO even had the surname 'Caddy' - it's too confusing for my poor addled mind
unless it's the No Duty universe I guess

They've said it before - Tony Gates asked that they consider his suicide to be killed in the line of duty before he stepped into the road. Sure it was mentioned in regards to Lindsay Denton as well.

My new mental theory is that somehow Mrs Hastings is H, or connected. I'm assuming Gill is somehow involved too.

It's totally not Ted. The "it's Ted" pointers are far too ham-fisted.

Worried for Kate though, now that she has rediscovered her home life. Outside bet on Sam being for it next though to fuck Steve up.

yeah I know, they say in every series, I've just been waiting for it

the 'it's Ted' bits are getting ridic

they're doing too much based on manipulating the viewers in this series so far. like how as soon as we know who the real undercover ocg person is, the dynamic between him and the woman totally changes.

Jane (another Jane!) Cafferty was basically Lindsay Denton in ep1 but they cleared her almost immediately based on nothing

Given that Ted wouldn't be kipping in a Travelodge surrounded by red bills if he was the big chief kingpin of all Belfast-inflected Midland crime ever, it's totally not him. But I'm quite enjoying all the "omg, it's Ted" hysteria on Twitter from people who have totally missed four seasons of misdirection.

I thought the misdirection in previous serieses was more even-handed though... that's why it annoys me, although it is kind of fun
poor old Maneet though.

Could Cafferty have been told to implicate Hastings in order to redirect attention away from the real "H"? It's very convenient that she would give away the head guy's identity so easily, considering it would probably mean her days are numbered.

I'm worried for Steve, he's so desperate to crack the case he's getting in way over his head, keeping secrets. I'm not convinced Corbett can be trusted, he was just a little too keen to reach out to Arnott for someone who's supposed to be deeply entrenched in an OCG.

this line of posting is oppressive

I thought that the image Cafferty was pointing at was Dot. There was one shot that gave a half decent view, I'm sure someone will have a good freeze-frame of it.

Corbett seemed to be manipulating Steve, but I'm not sure to what end(s).

So who would people be most upset to find out is a crook - Hastings, Kate or Steve?

Hastings for me by some distance. And something bad is obviously going to happen to Kate after those scenes of her happy family life