The Commander: Blacklight

Outstanding group of actors in this series. Amanda Burton always at her best. Blacklight series was the first time I had ever heard of Yorick van Wageningen who played the role of DI Van Hautin from Holland. Now here is a wonderful actor with great abilities and appearance before the camera. I certainly would like to see more of this young actor in USA/Canada. After watching the Blackdog series, I wondered what Lynda LaPlantes' next exciting series would be and she did not disappoint me at all. Both Blackdog and Blacklight had exciting story contents. Lynda certainly does pick her cast very carefully and precisely. Cannot say enough good remarks about the cast in both of these series.

The story was fun and exciting for a crime drama! I am not going to give away the plot because that is the point of movies like this one. I have to mention Yorrick van Wageningen who plays a dutch cop assisting in this case for certain reasons. He is part of the reason this story stays exciting providing humor and charm. Amanda Burton (the commander),the main character doesn't do much in this story. But the chemistry between Yorrick and her was great. The other actors make their part believable. There is a hint of graphic violence to make your skin crawl. This movie provides enough to get you entertained but could have been better if the psychological aspects were deepened more. This series shows good promise and can become a great one if they pay more attention at the psychological themes.

The corruption is no longer the story. DI Carol Browning is gone. This is much more of a standard police procedural. Commander Blake's goddaughter Sadie Carr is murdered while out nightclubbing. Escaped psychiatric patient Reginald Aitken is caught with the body. DCI Mike Hedges quickly assumes that Aitken killed Carr. Police detective Eric Van Hauten arrives from Amsterdam investigating similar murders. Hedges rejects the outsider until he can no longer ignore new evidences.

Blake is pulled back from the dark side but she is still terribly flawed. Hedges continues to be close-minded. Van Hauten is interesting but maybe over-acting a little. There is plenty of over-acting in the Aitken character. He mutters, hangs upside-down like a bat, and walks like a monkey. In total, he's a caricature of a psych patient. Overall, this is a functional standard police procedural with extremely flawed characters.

I only recently became acquainted with the series. I find it entertaining, but some of the behaviors are beyond belief. In Blacklight, this disruptive, deceptive, dissembling Dutch inspector shows up. No one tells him no, no one checks his credentials, he worms his way into staying at the commander's flat, he runs around interviewing witnesses and suspects without permission, ... in what British police procedural would this be allowed to happen? I'm only part way through part 2 of Blacklight, but the only question remaining for me is, will the commander keep it in her pants? Well, I suppose I am also curious as to what other bad decisions the team will make.