The Red Riding Trilogy: 1983

Here we have the final chapter of the this turbulently dark and maturely free-flowing three part mini-series, picking up three years after the second chapter, the story for 1983 might be a little convoluted (with the plot digging further into past events --- where some passages are set-up flashbacks leading us to even more surprises) it still was a fulfilling, harrowing and exciting way to close it off. It might not reach the heights of the first two chapters, as it came down a notch but for me it didn't disappoint and remained just as acceptably engaging as the previous entries.

1983 sets the story that another young girl has vanished from the same area, where nine years earlier (set-up in the first chapter; 1974) a young girl's mutilated dead body was found with angel wings. Detective Maurice Jobson was originally on the case with an autistic man Michael Mishkin being accused of the murder/s, but now of this new development the family of the accused seeks the help from dreary lawyer John Piggott to get an appeal. At first hesitant, but Piggott learns some astonishing facts from Michael about police brutality and corruption at the core. There he goes on trying to take on the Yorkshire police on his own. While Detective Jobson seems to be having a change of heart and starts digging in to the case wanting to do the correct thing, which some of his fellow officers begin questioning.

1983 pretty much follows on from 1974, as while 1980 seemed there more so there to connect/hold together some issues that worked its way in. The sprawling plot brings together all the pieces (child abuse, serial murders and police corruption) to put them as one; as every little detail, lead and revelation about this deeply crafted and intelligent crime story comes to a conclusion. Recurring characters seem to find themselves being wrapped up too and it actually centres more on the endlessly brutal actions of the police behind closed doors. The story was never about the bigger picture of police corruption and violence, but just a small note of it with how this case (and also Yorkshire ripper) was manipulated for self-gain and power… the series focused on that aspect.

Here the narrative for the last chapter is about someone trying to make a difference, no matter how much they're out of their league or badly tainted. This can be seen from the viewpoint of two central characters ; lawyer John Piggott and Detective Maurice Jobson. Both have regrets and troubled minds, but see this crusade to not turn a blind eye and at least add a touch of hope amongst such bleak, unflinching and fearful circumstances. David Morrisey had lesser roles in the early films, but this one its all about his character's transformation in what is a superbly reflective performance as Jobson. Mark Addy is also outstanding as lawyer Piggott. Then there's a third character; BJ (Robert Sheehan) who ties all the incidents together from all three chapters. The support is up to game with brilliant show-ins by Warren Clarke, Jim Carter, Daniel Mays and Peter Mullan.

Director Anand Tucker just like the other additions captures the times through place and time, embarking with a visually crisp look but never forgetting the glassy and hardened edge that made this series an uneasy and challenging viewing. What always left a mark with me throughout the series, were the music scores and this chapter was no exception. Gloomy, but soulful and emotionally tailored.

An unforgettable and stimulating TV crime drama.

In two words, brutal and disturbing. But also complex, adult, respecting the viewer who wants more than a linear tale with loose ends all strung up very neatly; its a close-up of a society in decay, of a police force that fails to have a moral compass, of some dark perversions lurking where one least expects to find them. The performances are uniformly excellent, and each of the tales, separated by a few years, showcase a specific individual into whose motivations and feelings we are allowed access: a journalist, a federal investigator, a local policeman. Be warned that there are graphic scenes of torture, that often a clue dropped in Part 1 is not picked up until Part 3, that character motivations, like those of our own, are not always crystal clear. There are 300 minutes of intensity, filmed with immediacy if not always clarity, and worth an immersion for the willing viewer.

And finally the loose ends are tied up in the last part of the acclaimed RED RIDING trilogy. This time around, a low-rent lawyer and a cop with a conscience combine forces to expose the child killer who has been eluding police from the very beginning.

I'm a sucker for a happy ending and this film gives us one - well, sort of one. I found the story punchier and although events become even darker - and more shocking, if that's even possible - there is hope, finally, in the full-on powerhouse ending.

What a coup in casting Mark Addy as the sympathetic lead (he's usually typecast as lovable rolly-polly types since THE FULL MONTY back in the day)! David Morrissey is given a chance to shine, too, putting memories of BASIC INSTINCT 2 into the distant past. The series definitely ends on a high and it's nice to have some closure after everything that happened.

The Red Riding trilogy is not something one would normally watch for comedy style entertainment. The underworld criminal corruption and fascist bastard Yorkshire police encountered so far in the first two parts are just touching the surface of this crime drama; beneath this is sick, violent and twisted evil. And the final episode lays it bare.

I have to say the performance by the cast is extraordinary. Sure, you can say that actors like Sean Bean and Paddy Considine do possess a degree of cool and that they easily endow upon their character roles. However, in the final part, something happens which really surprised me and gave me the creeps.

The setting for this trilogy: 1970-1980's Britain, has touched a nostalgic nerve in me - a 40 year old Brit. However, my memories of Gypsies, vandalised cars on the street and the grassy wilderness that carries on from the back garden are all fond memories of my childhood. Red Riding brought me back into these days and these places, and introduced a host of beastly horrors and brutal realities of which - until now - I was blithely unaware.

Finally, I guess that in conclusion, I was specially targeted by this. But it may just be well-written, expertly researched, quintessentially British, supported by a great cast and neatly photographed. And the impact that was intended for the end - certainly worked on me.

The seemingly untouchable, corrupt West Yorkshire police, and the true evil mastermind behind the child abductions and murders of the last 14 years, can't resist doing it again. "Red Riding: 1983" sets the story that another young girl has vanished from the same area, nine years earlier. "Red Riding: 1983" cycles back to the terrible events set in motion in "Red Riding: 1974", when a series of young girls went missing and a mentally retarded man, Michael Myshkin (Mays), was wrongfully convicted for the crime. Detective Inspector Maurice Jobson (Morrissey), a regular if mostly background character in the first two films, becomes our first focal point here as a man deeply wrecked by his complicity in the Yorkshire Constabulary's general lawlessness.

In 1983, another young girl disappears, and Jobson decides to do some actual police work--and reopening several old cases his colleagues would prefer to keep closed--and sniffing around the likes of series constant Rev. Lawes (Mullan, with the omniscience and eerie stillness of a very dark angel). Simultaneously, in the trilogy's first dual narrative, another lead emerges in the form of John Piggott (Addy), a sad-sack solicitor and Yorkshire native who reluctantly agrees to file an appeal on behalf of Myshkin. Piggott marks the trilogy's most uncomplicated hero.

It may come as a surprise that the ending of "Red Riding: 1983" adds a dose of hope to its brackish main course. "Red Riding: 1983" provides a fitting conclusion to a whole that is, in some ways, greater than the sum of its parts." Red Riding" is an effective crime thriller, but it's an even more striking drama about the dark parts of the human soul and man's capacity for inhumanity. The third movie represents the middle ground between the promising-but-uneven" Red Riding: 1974" and its sequel, the shocking and haunting "Red Riding:1980." This time around, there's less in the way of a stand- alone narrative as screenwriter Tony Grisoni, working from the novel by David Peace, stitches closed various plot holes. The finale doesn't answer all of our question, but it provides a sense of closure and clears up a number of nagging questions left over from the previous two segments.

What we can take away from all of this is not just an investigation into a series of child murders. This is an in-depth character study of three (or four) main protagonists--as they slowly unfold a ring of corruption surrounding an era of a very specific locale of the UK. As things get "hairy" within each of our main characters' worlds, rather than dig deeper into the case, they instead spend three quarters of the running time of each film digging deeper into their own psych--and begin to like what they see in themselves less and less.