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

I thought the love story was incredibly trite. The workaholic cop who can't say I love you. Her 'arc' is that she... says I love you. And the monstrous mother-in-law was just totally fine with DCI Silva being queer I guess? Maybe her shitty little comments were off-camera. In any case there was just no texture to any of that.

Longacre got squintier and more pinched the longer the series went on. I guess she had good reason to. But now that I know she was a Tory in real life I can't help thinking of her character as a Tory. A kind of Ann Taylor lesbian. Eventually her remonstrances of Silva - in the tub, in the bed, wherever - started to feel a little... pressure-y? Yes you fell in love with a cop who constantly looks as though she's been asked to clean cat poo off the couch. What did you expect? You're her first lesbian relationship. Ease off! Can you just enjoy a moment without giving her another 'I Love You' test??

On the other hand I thought the action on the sub was pretty great. You end up loving Prentice. The show does a really neat job of switching your allegiances around with quite a few characters. I love Paterson Joseph but I never quite got a handle on his captain. A good man? Incompetent? I guess those were his two character traits. Unbelievable that a saboteur is known to be aboard but he takes literally no precautions, changes no routines, until that bulkhead valve is wrenched open, and by then of course it's too late.

The Russian plot was I thought pretty stupid. Doesn't mean it's unrealistic. There are a lot of stupid plots undertaken by former superpowers. But the idea that a series of murders and critical failures on a British nuclear sub, all instigated by Russia, would lead to... a withdrawal of Trident funding? seems like wishful thinking! Surely MORE investment would be needed in the face of such an aggressive enemy? (And this aggression seems to put the show firmly on the side of 'we have always been at war' as a simple statement of fact rather than the dystopian paranoia it clearly wants to leave open as a possible interpretation earlier in the series.)

The action throughline on the sub was the best part and really inventive and creepy. It veered from detective fiction to horror to action movie. Really great.

Great post, Tracer.

I think I agree with you about the relationship stuff, though I wouldn't dare to call anyone an "Ann Taylor lesbian" and luckily don't know what it means. But I think you're spot-on really. I didn't know about this real-life Con garbage.

You're so right about certain things on the sub esp: XO Prentice. The Captain was somehow my highlight - this extraordinary crispness every time he spoke, as if he occupied a different element from everyone else.

Ann Taylor is an upmarket women's office-wear brand: https://www.anntaylor.com/

“We took you away from your mum for unspecified reasons after your terrifying ordeal that left your dad dead, but now that your mum has almost died on a submarine and become a lesbian we feel more comfortable giving her custody”

Just making sure I have the grandparents’ reasoning down here?

I thought she was her stepmother, not her actual mother.

I assumed that from the scene where they were laughing about people saying that they looked so alike. That wouldn't be remarkable if they were genetically related.

Not even stepmum as she hadn't married the dad yet. Otherwise tracer otm.

Oh I didn't catch that lol. I guess that explains why her daughter was calling her 'Amy' (though I have called my parents by their names since I was was 3, apparently)

Ruh roh

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58838332

i hate when spy stuff extrudes into real-world stuff, spies make nothing real happen and they shd stay contained in their relevant dramaspheres

― mark s, Monday, 13 September 2021 20:12 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^
this correct judgment (political and aesthetic) has stopped me watching the final eps of this drama, also rose leslie's acting is terrible (she was ok in GoT)

https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/daisy-ridley-zoetrope-jed-mercurio-podcast-newsupdate/

^ an Audible exclusive sadly (for now)

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2021 season is nominated in the ILX TV poll, with voting ending this weekend:

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!