Karen Pirie (2022 – ) Season One After the promotion to Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit, Karen Pirie reopens the cold case of a murdered barmaid. Her investigation unearths flaws in the original 1995 inquiry.

My thoughts: Sometimes it feels like television deals with the exact same social issues in the exact same way.  Predictable.

3/5

Retribution/One Of Us (2016)

A horrific murder rocks the lives of two families living side-by-side in isolated rural Scotland.

My thoughts: Slow, bleak, not very engaging family drama/thriller.

2.5/5

Criminal: UK (2019-2020)

A cat-and-mouse drama, which focuses on the intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects. The stories take place within the confines of a police interview suite.

My thoughts: The problem is that instead of information being revealed as a result of the interrogation, information is simply held back on the part of detectives until it is dropped late in the episode where it can have the most dramatic effect.  It all feels like a massive cheat, the revelations unearned.

2/5

Slow Horses ( 2022 – ) Season 1

Follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve as a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes.

My thoughts: I found the first season pretty good, but thought the second season altogether great.  Looking forward to season three.

4/5

We Own This City (2022)

Tells the story of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it.

My thoughts: Well-written and well-acted, but really feels like a weaker version of The Wire which always did a great job of balancing sympathies between parties on both sides of the law.  Here, instead, the cops are irredeemably corrupt while the criminals are the only ones worthy of sympathy.

3.5/5