The Ghost Squad

I started watching this show on youtube.com after becoming a fan of Elaine Cassidy. I fell in love with the show right away. I was looking around for the DVD, but it isn't available in region 1 as far as I can tell. It looks like you can preorder the 10 disc DVD from Amazon.co.uk (region 2), although some sites will tell you that it isn't going to be made available on DVD. Anyway, I am a fan of the show and was really sad to learn that it had been cancelled after only one season. I think that the producers gave up on it way too soon. I think they should have waited to see if more people became familiar with it come the second season. I am certain that the ratings would have improved had people actually watched it. I live in the US and liken their cancellation of the show to the cancellation of Alias or 24 after only the first season. I would most definitely watch it if it were to return to TV. I just think the producers should know what viewers think and so I am sharing my 2 cents.

Thanks.

I saw the trailers for GHOST SQUAD a couple of times on Channel 4 but never got round to seeing it mainly because I got turned off by cop dramas in the 1990s sometime when that was the only type of show they seemed to be making in Britain and I guess that my gut instinct of the show was that it seemed like a pitch that got sidelined when reality TV replaced cop shows as the staple diet of British television at the turn of the century

For some reason I found myself watching the penultimate episode last week and was fairly impressed . Okay I don't want to over praise it by describing GHOST SQUAD as must see television but as one hour of gritty British television it does the job nicely . It's kind of like BETWEEN THE LINES without the chain smoking and bed hopping: Drugs that have been going missing from a police station have been finding their way on to the streets again and Amy Harris an agent from the ultra secretive anti police corruption " ghost squad " has to find out who's the corrupt cop behind it . It was compelling enough for me to make a point of watching the final episode tonight which was feature length but I was slightly disappointed . The plot itself was fine which featured a cop being murdered by a black gang on an estate and Harris being told to find out if a black Detective Inspector who grew up on the estate has been giving the gang inside info and covering up for them . The reason it disappointed was simply down to the fact that there wasn't enough plot to last two hours and therefore it has a bit too many twists and turns and red herrings to work successfully . It would have worked much better as a hour long drama

Anything that made me dislike the style of the series ? Just one - The camera work which has far too many irritating jump cuts and for some reason the screen is almost always filled with a close up on a characters face but it's not the directing of GHOST SQUAD which will be its failing but the format . The producers of BETWEEN THE LINES changed the whole style of the series almost certainly because they realised that plots featuring corrupt cops is very limited so I doubt if GHOST SQUAD will be lasting longer than a second series which is no criticism of its quality but a reflection of how many plots people can think up without running out of ideas

I really enjoyed this 8 part series, largely due to the lead character's convincing evolution from episode to episode. It is not light stuff, and the good cop bad cop plots tackle serious issues of law enforcement ethics and the slippery morality of undercover "internal affairs" cops. Though the lead good cop, played by Elaine Cassidy, succeeds in most of her missions, the result is rarely satisfying to the character or the audience, as tragically flawed cops get caught in traps and slippery career-minded superiors operate behind the scenes. Cassidy is quite good, creating a character who progresses from gung-ho righteousness to grim determination; she is both manipulated and manipulating.

In some ways, the blurry morality and internal affairs theme reminds me of The Shield. For an American who doesn't watch a whole lot of British cop TV, it also provided an interesting insight into police work on that side of the pond. Unfortunately, the photography and editing can be distractingly bad, and yet the excellent acting and thought provoking perspective on police ethics more than make up for technical shortcomings. Kudos especially to Cassidy, who has proved herself an astonishingly versatile actress in recent years.

It is really hard to give a series a 10 because no one is perfect. So, the best I could come up with is I found the shaky camera technique (which was downright annoying on NYPD Blue) unnecessary.

The acting, writing, production, direction, etc all get 10s. Warning: this show is so intense at times that you miss the subtleties, and so subtle at times that you miss the intensity.

It was one of the best series I have watched in a while. It is of such a compelling high standard but with an interesting twist in the last episode, which brings in the human element. The story line was quite different and shown a different part of policing otherwise never seen before. Dramas from the UK always impress me with the great scenery, even if it is in the middle of London. The cast of Elaine Cassidy as Detective Amy Harris,

Emma Fielding Detective Superintendent, Jonas Armstrong as the support detective was well cast and scripted, however I felt that the casting of 'Amy' as such a young detective may be unrealistic, but maybe thats part of the cover.

very enjoyable