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

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.

'Between the Lines' was one of the outstanding British television drams of the 1990s, the story of a police investigations unit. 'The Cops' was another excellent series, with its gritty, cinema-verite portrait of life on the force. 'The Ghost Squad', Channel Four's new drama, is an heir to both those series, with a premise similar to the former's, but put together in the style of the latter. And some senses, this is more of a handicap than a blessing, as the police drama is such a staple of the schedules that it's very hard for a program to appear fresh. The hand held camera work, the quick inter-cutting of scenes, the stock characters (most notably, the bitch of a boss who may or may not be trustworthy): it's all been seen before. Additionally, 'The Ghost Squad', whose investigators work undercover, sometimes seems to strain credibility. The requirements placed upon its officers seem immense, and to generate the story lines, they always have to get more personally involved in a case than is altogether desirable (or, more to the point, likely).

But 'The Ghost Squad' does also have some distinguishing characteristics of its own. By focusing on a single officer, it retains a claustrophobic feel throughout: in general, we know what she knows, nothing more. In the lead role, Elaine Cassidy is superb, and in general the acting is good, although both her boss and partner seem a little young for their roles (surely such sensitive missions would be handled by people a little more senior?). Even if at times, the world portrayed seems just that bit more intense than reality ever is, this is still top quality drama, intelligently structured, fast moving, and impeccably executed. It surely deserved better than a late night slot and the minimal publicity it received.

I think this has been, in the main, a good series if a little patchy and uneven. At times, it has shown the police service in an unflattering light (casual racism, corruption, violence), but also I think has tried to be even handed by showing what a challenging, and often thankless job, modern policing is. 'Ghost Squad' has managed to avoid some of the clichés of the usual cop shows by showing the darker side of policing, the embittered front line officers etc, and how hard it is to maintain one's poise/dignity in the face of unrelenting hostility and how hard it is to do good often in the face of opposition & cynicism from one's own colleagues.

I thought the series was at its best when the cases were less sensational, the third episode in particular where Amy investigated a typical gruff front line officer possibly involved in the disappearance of a young girl. As through most of the series, the plots twisted and turned, played with your expectations with Amy discovering the information at the same time as the audience so that often, we, like her, were no nearer the truth than she was. I expect that's why the POV of the series was mostly through her character.

I enjoyed the final feature length episode though I agree with the last comment that after all the twists and turns it really did not merit a feature length. I felt uncomfortable with Amy's revelation to Gus, the officer under investigation that she was working undercover and how her handler, Mackay did not seem at all interested in her welfare but in the outcome of the case. I feel this is where fiction parted company from reality. More interesting was how Pete, her colleague, and in love with Amy himself, tried to fabricate evidence after listening to Amy & Gus making love.

The final episode disappointed slightly with its ending - though it did avoid a pat ending and left us in doubt about Gus. Credit to C4 though. Even if 'Ghost Squad' was flawed, it was nonetheless an interesting variant on cop clichés. Earlier, I watched Jack Rosenthal's reworking of 'Ready When You are Mr McGill', the work of a fine writer for TV, but also an indictment of modern TV and TV drama. Sometimes it's better to fail with an interesting experiment than peddle the same tired old rope. Writers like Dennis Potter didn't always succeed, but at least they were given the opportunity.