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

Also this was the episode where they said the name of the show! Always a highlight.

i feel like they even did a little camera move when he said it too :D

And we had a "bent coppers" from Hastings too

oh yeah we did. he wound up for that that one. set it up, planted his feet - THWACK

So my o/h's view is that the bookie van delay is a red herring and possibly genuine, the real delay was Buckells saying the night before not to investigate it (after discussing with someone above him, 'the SFC', who wanted to wait for executive sign-off). Not sure why that hasn't come up.

It is a running theme in LOD that there's a random element that puts some sort of coincidence that sets something off at a tangent. Denton on duty (I think?), Danny Waldron coming face-to-face with his abuser, the Huntley/Ifield fight.

I keep thinking Chris Lomax is the grown-up Ryan instead of the real Ryan. Bet there's something dodgy there.

Ted only interested in bent coppers *and* "in the line of duty" = Mercurio knows about LoD drinking games and is playing everyone.

Bit *too* heavy on the "have we all being paying attention to the last five seasons, boys and girls?", I thought, but hey, it's what we're here for. Especially Buckells post-Steve visit standing silently in front of a picture of a man playing golf (CADDY GUYS DO YOU SEE??) was a bit much, but it's all part of the fun.

Lomax and Vicky McClure were in a drama about their abusive relationship (he was a toxic boyfriend) hence I don't trust him.

Enjoying this season so far, hopefully it doesn't fall down the "balaclava men storm the police station" or "actually Organised Crime is the name of my dog" holes that pervade post-S2 LoD.

Giving Hastings a whole monologue of Irishisms while Arnott stands there was some blatant fan service but why not

series 5 is just bad

The last two episodes, with the extended interviews with Hastings and the revelation about Biggeloe, were great, though it's not H it's morse code for four was just stupid. John Corbett was a good character I thought, even with his idée fixe on 'bent coppers' and the fact that one out of three sentences out of his mouth were incomprehensible.

I didn't understand how they had screenshots of the encrypted chat, where they spotted 'definately', when previously they said they only had metadata.

Good job with the spoiler tags there ledge.

you need to get [ h ] involved there, fella

is there a snappier way to yell at the screen 'obviously Dot isn't referring to Hastings as he didn't indicate 'a' as the second letter of the name!!'?
Watching the last ep of s5 wasn't me at my most articulate

you need to get [ h ] involved there, fella

Quality joke.

And we had a "bent coppers" from Hastings too

― The Rampaging Goats of Llandudno (Nasty, Brutish & Short)

We high fived.

The voice on the murdered journalist's recovered audio file sounded very much like Jimmy Lakewell, the dodgy solicitor from Series 4, played by Patrick Baladi.

BUCKLES

he's a criminal mastermind imo

_series 5 is just bad_

The last two episodes, with the extended interviews with Hastings and the revelation about (-Biggeloe-), were great, though (-it's not H it's morse code for four-) was just stupid. John Corbett was a good character I thought, even with his idée fixe on 'bent coppers' and the fact that one out of three sentences out of his mouth were incomprehensible.

I didn't understand how they had screenshots of the encrypted chat, where they spotted 'definately', when previously they said they only had metadata.

one very weird thing during the kelly interview: steve said to her "here's the sightline of the van outside the bookies" but the photo was from some high camera angle looking down slantwise at the street, and nothing like the sightline she'd have had -- not even sure how AC12 wd have got that picture unless steve climbed a lamp-post or operated a drone

There was a handily placed security cam shown in ep 1, and I'd take the photo to be demonstrating the line of sight, not replicating it.

i had the same thought. it would have been better for illustration purposes if they'd got a similar model car, put it where her car would have been, got a transit van, put it in front of the bookies, and taken a photo of it from the car. but possibly that type of "as if" isn't considered evidence - they may have needed an actual photo from the day and a CCTV still was the closest thing they could get.

xpost or what ledge said

oh yes they mentioned a cam didn't they, fair enough

but to make the point (that no way cd she see the van well) they p much need to replicate the line of sight (which would be very easy to do!)

have to say their paperwork is always superbly in order in the powerpoint displays

― mark s, Monday, 15 April 2019 11:01 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

"let's undermine our usual tropes!"
"in a clever way?"
"no!"

― mark s, Monday, 15 April 2019 10:17 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's not evidence for a court it's evidence for pressure in the interview

yeah i'm just speculatin'

BUCKLES

me too :D

lol

looking up to see if that usage is regional (making buckells possibly the only midlander on this midlands force) or just borrowed from earlier TV as i suspect, i found the story "peppa pig talk my daughter the F-word"

xps

I'm prepared to believe they're naturally note-perfect improvisers by now, but I'd still like to see just one glimpse into the background work for the interviews (in the world of the show, I mean, not the actors rehearsing) - just to get a sense of how long it must take for them to get everything so tight and to see who is choreographer-in-chief.

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.