That series works on a simple but extremely effective formula. The first characteristic is that there is only one plot going on, one investigation, as opposed to most American, and even French, detective series. That enables the episodes to go into detail a lot more and delve into intricate elements of psychology or economic interest, especially since the episodes are about one hour and thirty minutes, twice as long as standard episodes of detective series.. The second interest is that crime is always stated as being some kind of business. And that is fundamental. We think of crime as being asocial or antisocial. It is in a way, but not because it wants to disrupt and destroy society, but because it plays the rules of society in order to get an easy profit out of it. Easy? Way of speaking. Fast for sure. The pilot episode takes us into the business of undertaking and shows how that business can easily become a cover for another deadly and lethal business: heroin in exchange of diamonds, or vice versa if you prefer. "Electric Bill" is beautifully wrapped up so that the first suspect will be revealed as the culprit but after a long hesitating line of exploration and digging out. But this serial killer is only someone who is preparing the big case with little ones so that he is sure the target will pay because he will be frightened. Serial killing as an efficient business procedure. "Kiss and Tell" is funnier because a spa center is transformed into a hunting ground for a female serial killer who is only getting a lot of money out of some rich men who are looking for sexual variety and killing them when she gets the real prize. "Manic Munday" shows that sports, in that case snooker, are nothing but a business but with a lot of "agreements" and "contracts" that are little legal but much profitable for the manipulator. And you can always win when you use kidnapping and killing as a pressurizing argument. Finally "Reunion" shows how some of the clubbing and gambling business in Soho, London, are nothing but born bullies and that they are totally lost when some violence comes against them from an unknown source, when the bully becomes the prey of a vulture. Then you discover these bullies succeeded only because they killed or took advantage of the right person at the right moment in the right place to recuperate some business leverage. But when he is cornered, what's more in public he will only wet his pants, beg and cry. He will become what he always was: a capricious, whimsical child overcompensating some environmental problem by terrorizing his surroundings in order to avoid tears and wet under-wears, if not beds. But the best element of this series – and I will try to put my hand on the subsequent seasons – is that the main police investigator is systematically undercover among the criminals he is supposed to arrest sooner or later. That undercover element makes the dealing with the crime different, more interesting, more intimate even, and it is good to feel intimate with criminals: that may reassure you because criminals are just plain ordinary men and women who just want to make some dough fast. It is also true James Nesbitt is a hell of a cool investigator, as cold as an unmelting iceberg in the furnace of an incinerator.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID
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