grant-wray

In the first episode we follow a police complaints division investigation into brutality accusations at a police station. The drama is shown from the point of view of Amy, a young female officer who's 'collar' is murdered in an interview room. As she tries to clear her name during the 'lock-down' no-one can be trusted, and the division between right and wrong blurs remarkably. This is a well made TV drama that shows off the talents of Elaine Cassidy well. My only gripe is that the makers had the chance to break the mould for this kind of drama and chose not to do so. Too many drama series produced today make use of the narrative style of showing things from the viewpoint of a single central character; it has become a writers cliché. The obvious conclusion of the first episode was that Amy was going to join the undercover squad after showing her mettle; she gave such a strong performance right from the outset that it became a foregone conclusion. How much more intriguing (and difficult) it would have been had they used the tension created during an internal investigation by showing it from the point of view of the people it affected, moving on to a new investigation and new central character each week.

Although the film has a few shallow moments and unexplored plot points, there are enough subtle twists to leave you wondering just what is going on right up to the end. Is it a police set up? Is it a rival gang? The pub landlord? The Grieving widow? Where's the loot? Masterful performances by the main characters add up to make it a delight, and anyone who says that Irish film = s*** obviously listens to too much Slipknot! With elements of Arsenic & Old Lace, The Great Train Robbery and The Commitments this should be a joy for anyone who doesn't like their films too fast paced or over the top. The DVD extras include cast interviews and are best avoided due to the fact they arrange the individual comments as chapters. It's a huge irritation when some chapters are as short as 7 seconds and the DVD player takes longer locating the chapter than the comment.