Code of Silence

Code of Silence is a Masterclass - in how to squander a brilliant premise. What began as genuinely compelling television deteriorated so rapidly that I had to ABANDON it midway through the season - something I rarely do as a completionist.

The show started with real promise. Rose Ayling-Ellis delivered a committed performance as Alison, a deaf lip-reader assisting police surveillance. The concept felt fresh, and the deaf representation was handled with authenticity and care. For two episodes, this looked like quality television.

Then the script completely collapsed. The writers seemed trapped between maintaining Alison as the central character while manufacturing artificial drama through increasingly poor decision-making. Instead of smart procedural work, we got protagonist-driven plot conveniences that destroyed any sense of realism.

The romantic subplot with one of the suspects represents everything wrong with modern television writing - lazy, predictable, and insulting to viewers' intelligence. The crime thriller elements became afterthoughts as the show devolved into generic romantic drama garbage.

The scriptwriters clearly had no idea how to sustain their initial concept beyond a few episodes. What could have been a tight, focused series - and with a great upshot about deaf representation in crime investigation became an exercise in how NOT to write television.

A complete waste of talent and potential.

I absolutely loved code of silence. Brilliant acting and I hope there will be more episodes to come PLEASE. The suspense to throughout all six episodes never wavered. I loved the connection between Alison and Liam. Considering Liam was a "bad boy" he really looked out for and protected Alison and her mam. Great acting from Alison's mam too. And having three deaf people in the series proves acting is for everyone. Well done to all actors and all that were involved in the making of this brilliant series. But you can't just leave it at that, I do hope there are more series to come as this can go a long way.

Wanted to watch this with the wife. But unfortunately her hearing isn't great, so we rely on subtitles. But a show featuring a deaf person as the main character of all things, does not have subtitles. We can't play the volume too loud because we have children in the house, and the show does have some strong language. And still then, while the main actress makes an admirable effort, she is nonetheless at times hard to understand - even for someone with remarkably sharp hearing as myself and the volume up just fine. So had to stop watching 3/4 of the way through the first episode. If they ever sort out the subtitles, I'll watch the rest of this (with my wife hopefully) and return here to leave a proper review.

I bingewatched the series over a couple of days.

The first episode was very good but then starts to slide into the same hum drum of many other dramas these days.

The premise of a deaf girl helping police in the cathedral city of Canterbury does seen rather similar to the recent Channel 4 series Patience which had an autistic girl helping police with their enquiries in the cathedral city of York a couple of months ago and it is only just over a month since Rose Ayling-Ellis appeared in Réunion on BBC 1 (she was also in Ludwig late last year set in the cathedral city of Cambridge).

You have to constantly watch the screen as there are a lot of subtitled parts but it wasn't totally engaging and really seemed to lose its way not knowing where the story was heading.

Itv's new liking for 6 part dramas can be a bit much for shows and this was no exception going on too long and included one officer having an affair which didn't really go anywhere in the story and then their was the robbery which really didn't make any practical sense.

Watchable but let's itself down.

Out of the 2 recent crime dramas with deaf leads, this is the better one. Code Of Silence has a far fetched premise but is so honest with it we're up for the ride. Great cast helps a lot but it's the slow building romance hiding in plain sight that makes this show a stand out. The main characters are flawed and constantly asked to question their moral compass which makes for a very fun watch. Yes the ending is very silly and unbelievable but this must be the first time a crime drama builds its storyline around a blossoming and forbidden love. Season 2 please! And with the same leads if possible!