Suspects

Makes a nice change from the formulaic US-style crime dramas with their monologues and maverick cops, pieces to camera and complete absence of false starts, hesitations and incompletions.

The performances (I wanted to say 'scripts', but that doesn't really apply here in the usual sense) are well-judged to contain just enough of the jargon and officialese that marks the dialogue out as belonging to the context of police work and makes it feel believable, but not so laden with it that the actors fall into that pat delivery where emotion has to be overplayed to break through the sheen.

Having a degree of improvisation seems to free the performers up to be both emotive and small-scale; understated and authentic.

(Full disclosure: I do fancy Damien Molony)

Unusual crime drama not just for the unscripted dialogue, but the meta-speed of plot developments. Puzzle pieces and connections among characters that on most crime dramas come together over several episodes fall into place in the course of each crime-to-solution hour. The pace is a bit off-putting, often defies credibility and comes at the expense of deeper character development. But the appeal of the primary detectives and the satisfaction of one-episode resolutions (in most cases) is it's own reward. I prefer the slower-burn dramas but thought this was an entertaining change of pace.

But when you find yourself playing games on your phone with this running in the background, you know it's not exactly "gripping".

The main dude policeman is SO bad, it's utterly ridiculous. He behaves so unprofessionally, he should have been suspended pending an enquiry and then sacked! If any policeman carried on like that, I'd like to think their career would be curtailed asap.

The filming is different but not always in a good way. I get that it's supposed to be gritty and realistic but it just becomes annoying after a while as with the sound. All echo-y and tinny in the interview rooms.

And, last but not least, I must mention the solicitors, as has most of the other reviewers and their complete indifference to the clients they're supposed to be representing. I'd engage one that wasn't a deaf mute, if I was any of these suspects!

My wife and I have watched scores of international detective series. This one is different in that there is almost no mixing in of the detectives' personal lives. It's all about solving crimes through modern police techniques and frequent interviews of suspects. For us, there were two negatives: many of the crimes were extreme ("sick") and there seemed to be excessive use of 4-letter words by everyone. Most of the episodes were self-contained although there were some two-parters and Season 5 followed certain crimes through the entire season. We thought it deserved better than a 7.0 rating.

I just find this series dull and repetitive. Constantly in interrogation with the "suspects". I always laugh that the "solicitors" NEVER say a thing... Just sit there and act like they are taking notes. Totally predictiable. Seems like every episode is the same. Dont like the video format either. My girl on the other hand loves that. Just not my thing. Boring.