Protection

I typically jump at watching most all Brit crime shows, especially with a great cast of actors. Sadly, this plot was at best confusing and at worst not believable for the most part. I often enjoy mystery pot boilers, but this is not on that level. I hate to blame this mess on anyone in particular except for the writer.

It is difficult to stay invested in a story that includes inane plot lines, unbelievable twists, and no reason to believe that this would end in any way other than "black ops control everything," even without any rhyme or reason. If you want to watch an escapist mystery with no need to worry about the plot, this is for you!

Siobhan's Character is a dullard. Wardrobe has her dressed poorly with an awkward walk. When confronted with dangerous situations she's a bit of a deer in headlights. Granted, that's the script she was given so it's her character to do very little in those situations.

While I say this when only viewing three episodes, that is halfway through the show so her character is well established as a poor decision maker. While this drama takes place in the UK, it apparently doesn't have any CCTV every other UK show utilizes. So as I advance to each new episode, I'm having more questions about her decision making skills that have me wanting to just stop watching.

Another great British police story with a brilliant Siobhan Finneran as always. She has really turned into one of my favourite actresses. The story line keeps you engaged throughout the episodes and without too many plotholes as well. I watched it over a couple of days and never felt bored at any point of time. It's really amazing how these Britt's can come up with one exiting series after another in this specific. If you liked Happy Valley and some of the other similar police stories you will definitely also enjoy this one. Without revealing the story I can say that the plot and the ending also was well crafted indeed. Highly recommended!!

I am writing this after series 1. I assume there won't be a second. This was a good series until the finale.

Maybe it was the strong cast that had kept me engaged (a lot of familiar B-listers but none of them really top billing) but the story just seemed to fall apart at the end. Maybe 6 episodes was too much for the writers.

I love Siobhan Finneran but this probably goes to show that she is a great support actress rather than a leading lady (even in Rita and Sue and Bob too see came second each time. The one time she came first there was an unsatisfactory outcome and the same goes for this show).

To have Siobhan, Katherine Kelly and Catherine Tyldesley in the first episode won me over but why they got as big a actress as Catherine Tyldesley for such a small role is beyond me (I guess she had a ship to catch) and she and Katherine Kelly are similar in looks and acting style.

I loved David Hayman as the cantankerous father, reluctantly having to give up on his independence as his health wanes and the way he acts with his daughter who dutifully followed him into the force is brilliantly written.

For a story made mainly in Liverpool, it did seem to have very few scousers but some great northern actors seeing the story through to a poor and convoluted conclusion.

There's no gloss in Protection, and that's exactly why it lingers. Across six taut, emotionally bruising episodes, this BBC drama delivers a quietly blistering takedown of a system that promises safety, then disappears the moment it matters.

Written by Kris Mrksa and led by a career-best performance from Siobhan Finneran, Protection doesn't rely on genre gimmicks or manufactured cliffhangers. Instead, it roots itself in something far more disquieting: the reality of British witness protection, and what happens when even the people sworn to uphold justice are forced to make morally corrosive compromises.

Finneran plays DI Liz Nyles with remarkable restraint. Every decision, every silence, feels loaded. She isn't the usual telly cop with a tortured backstory... she's just a woman doing an impossible job, one compromise at a time, until the ground disappears beneath her. Her performance never begs for sympathy, which is precisely why it earns it.

The pacing is deliberate, but never dull. Each episode deepens the psychological stakes, moving from procedural discomfort to full-blown ethical crisis without ever raising its voice. It's beautifully directed, especially in the moments between action: hushed corridors, flickering eye contact, late-night phone calls. It's in those spaces that Protection truly thrives.

This is not a show about big twists or neat endings. It's about failure - institutional, emotional, human. And yet, it's never cynical. It's simply honest.

Some viewers may find the finale frustrating in its lack of resolution. But that's the point. There are no heroes here, no neat redemptions. Just the question: what happens when the system meant to protect becomes the thing to fear?

In a landscape cluttered with noise, Protection stands out by whispering the truth - and it cuts deeper because of it. Unflashy, unfaltering, unforgettable.

One of the finest British dramas of the year.