London Kills

It's watchable. Considering the base material, the acting is OK. But the plot is full of holes, the dialogue is corny and predictable, and the intrigue and character psychology are below soap-standard mushy. Oh, and it's directed like a soap, too. The UK have a strong tradition of producing quality police procedurals, usually with strong plots and characters: Prime suspect, GBH, Luther, LIne of Duty, Bodyguard, and the list goes on... Unfortunately, this is not one of these. I guess, aside from the expensive cars (a DI drives an executive merc that is usually marketed to successful senior executives and entrepreneurs!) they didn't have much money to shoot this one and it shows a bit as well. So this sums it all up: not much script, not much money, not much talent, yielding very average entertainment. They should save resources and not make a second series: no one will lose any sleep not knowing who killed the DI's wife. Just saw the end of series 2: it's even worse than I originally thought. I hope they don't make series 3.

Great story lines, but every time there is an office scene phones are ringing in the background... I understand they want to make it realistic but it's just a bit tooooooooo much.. can you get an extra actor to answer these calls?

Does not one suspect ask to have a lawyer present when they are being questioned? And unlike just about every other British police show, they do not appear to be taping the interviews.

Also, what exactly .was Sharon Small thinking with that hair-do?

What is the fixation with London Transport buses? EVERY street scene used to connect plot changes has several buses passing through. We get that this is London. Not necessary to have buses passing by time and time and time again. Also, how about a different view of the police building and the CCTV sign? The technique of having actors exchange knowing glances is tedious as is the out of focus shots inside the police station. Why does Vivienne always show up after the two constables at each opening murder scene. Not much imagination. It could be better. Aside than all those negative comments we watched and enjoyed the series.

London Kills struggled to get into its stride during season one, despite a solid underlying premise. The main characters on the team are introduced as is the story arc regarding the disappearance of DI Bradford's wife, Sarah. The problem lies in the weakness of the episodic cases, mostly riddled with holes and magic leaps, whilst the missing wife story plays second fiddle.

Season two is a complete turnaround rising from mediocre to quite good. The stories are generally coherent and a much greater emphasis is placed on the Sarah plotline making each individual episode and the season as a whole feel more consistent and engaging.

A decent cast performed well, despite poorly written dialogue in season one. Season two made the relationships more believable with both Sharon Small and Hugo Speer benefitting from their characters' being more relatable with less random caricature disagreements.

The improvement in season two bodes well for three which I am gleefully anticipating.