So, how will this show fare without one of it's lead actors. The answer for me was, reasonably well, but there's certainly a lot of misery to get through in this one away from the case.
A new DCI Jessica James (Sinead Keenan) joins the team on what is undoubtable one of the worst days of her life, as her husband admits to having an affair. Already with impossible shoes to fill, she takes against Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and the existing methodology of the team. A body is found in a fireplace, during a house refurbishment. The body is identified and linked to the troubled generational problems of Ebele Falade (Martina Laird) and Jay Royce (Rhys Yates) and also to Senior Tory Lord Anthony Hume (Ian McElhinney).
Whilst others might initially have taken against DCI James just because she's not Nicola Walker, I knew Sinead Keenan from "Being Human" so am happy to see her appear in another high-profile series. Replacing the lead character, I guess there's only two ways to go; abrasively different or clawingly similar. James is pushed into the abrasively different route, before settling down later on as she and Sunny find their common ground. Sunny has much more personal life in this series than he has previously, and his inability to deal with Cassies death is a long plot point for the run.
The case itself is probably the weakest that they've done so far though. Though there's a big performer in Ian McElhinney, the rest of the cast is, for the first time, not the sort of ensemble of recognisable character actors that we've come to expect from the series. Whether its because they spend so much time on the personal side of things this time, but the case in general seemed easier to solve for them too, than the previous ones.
It's still good, and I don't actually think that - come the next run, we'll be missing Cassie still, but I would like the show to focus on the case a little bit more and the personal lives a little bit less.
A new DCI Jessica James (Sinead Keenan) joins the team on what is undoubtable one of the worst days of her life, as her husband admits to having an affair. Already with impossible shoes to fill, she takes against Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and the existing methodology of the team. A body is found in a fireplace, during a house refurbishment. The body is identified and linked to the troubled generational problems of Ebele Falade (Martina Laird) and Jay Royce (Rhys Yates) and also to Senior Tory Lord Anthony Hume (Ian McElhinney).
Whilst others might initially have taken against DCI James just because she's not Nicola Walker, I knew Sinead Keenan from "Being Human" so am happy to see her appear in another high-profile series. Replacing the lead character, I guess there's only two ways to go; abrasively different or clawingly similar. James is pushed into the abrasively different route, before settling down later on as she and Sunny find their common ground. Sunny has much more personal life in this series than he has previously, and his inability to deal with Cassies death is a long plot point for the run.
The case itself is probably the weakest that they've done so far though. Though there's a big performer in Ian McElhinney, the rest of the cast is, for the first time, not the sort of ensemble of recognisable character actors that we've come to expect from the series. Whether its because they spend so much time on the personal side of things this time, but the case in general seemed easier to solve for them too, than the previous ones.
It's still good, and I don't actually think that - come the next run, we'll be missing Cassie still, but I would like the show to focus on the case a little bit more and the personal lives a little bit less.