Code of Silence

I found this show too stressful to watch. The principal character is a young woman Allison, who is a gifted lip reader due to her deafness. In a break from waitressing, she is temporarily recruited by the police of a British city, to lip read surveillance videos. The police clearly warn her, for her own safety and in order not to compromise their investigation, not to research the names or have any contact whatsoever with any of the subjects of the surveillance, who are very dangerous.

So, unbelievably, this is exactly what she does. She takes one foolish risk after another, with no sense of danger, with minimal precautions, and carries on oblivious to police warnings, in order to play detective. In the end, I found it just too stressful to watch, even though Allison was a personally very appealing character in several ways.

I watched Rose Ayling-Ross on Eastenders. Now I see she is flourishing as Alison Brooks. Despite being hearing impaired, Alison wants to be useful to the law enforcement and is a young woman who ends up falling for the wrong man. She lives with her deaf mother in an apartment complex in Canterbury, Kent, England. They're going to lose their longtime home. Her mother can't get a job without having an interpreter for training. Both mother and daughter are hearing impaired in real life as well. Their relationship onscreen feels quite genuine. The story about a secret gang trying to rob a jewelry store seems far fetched. Why would law enforcement there be so keen on this crime? Alison goes too far but that's the story. I'll enjoy it and hope to see more of the actress in the future.

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!

I was drawn to the unusual premise, for sure. And the acting is fine. I've watched the first 3 episodes. The problem is, the writing goes off the rails for me. Alison's continual naivety-- blowing off instructions, not thinking through the ramifications of her overly obvious attempts at surveillance, the police team's inexplicably vague explanations --gets old for me. And the willingness of the investigators to go along with Alison's clumsy efforts to infiltrate the mob is just too unrealistic. All this judgement decreases my caring about Alison and that's not helpful. I hope she gets better before episode 6...

Code of silence.

ITV can be hit or miss with its dramas but this one's a hit.

We really enjoyed Code of Silence as it was a bit different for mainstream TV. The story is good enough to justify the show and even though it has more than its fair share of 'aye right' moments it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment. The show is very well paced and there's no fillers like there are on Netflix.

Rose Ayling-Ellis holds the whole thing together brilliantly. She was absolutely convincing in her role as Alison. She's very likeable even though her character never does a thing she's told. Keiron Moore is also very convincing as Liam. All the main cast are good like Charlotte Ritchie and Andrew Buchan and all are convincing with only the odd one letting the side down. Most of the eff bombs are unnecessary and feel unnatural in places. We don't need them and British TV should not be influenced by the vulgarity plaguing US TV.

We watched on ITVX with the subtitles on even though neither of us are deaf or hard of hearing.

I hope there's a second series of this because we liked it.