The One That Got Away

This series attempts to be dark and enigmatic equals dramatic, but only succeeds on the dark part of that equation. In the end it is merely a depressing expose of how the past can intrude on the present. All the twists and turns to the murder (most of which were obviously ploys for plot purposes only), all the supposed suspense, essentially is just to leave us uncomfortable and unsatisfied. Does every Welsh drama have to be so dark and nihilistic? Really? And why not let us watch it in Welsh, with subtitles. I would have preferred hearing the beautiful, musical, language rather than the plodding accents.

This is what you would expect from the BBC and others.

Usual array of suspects and diversions. Worth watching and probably not for watching in a binge, as you want time to digest.

The usual use of the weather to set scenes and move the plot on.

There is good complexity of character development and the dialogue is believable.

I do wonder if there is always doubt about those higher up,.

And of course the bloke with the glasses is a bit mysterious.

I do wish they made them call "Taser, taser , taser" when they use them, but you can't have everything.

Can you?

And no CGI or AI.

Nice.

And satisfying at the end.

And this series, streaming on AcornTV, is no exception. The story is about an old murder case, thought solved coming apart when the serial killings start up again.

Ellen plays DI Lloyd, one of the original detectives, called back to essentially redo the case. She was last seen on AcornTV in The Mallorca Files in a much more light-hearted role which I also enjoyed.

The question is what did they get wrong? And is the wrong man in jail all these 12 years? The story is further complicated because her former partner, now married, is also put on the case, despite their being involved last time around.

Normally I don't enjoy these relationship problems much, but with Ellen doing the acting, I found myself watching her depict what I recognized as real emotions and I had no problem staying glued to the TV.

The performances are all very good and I think most people will be entertained. But hats off especially to Ms. Rhys who is all star in my book.

We like so much British TV we thought this would be good. It has Erin Rhys and she was great in The Mallorca files and there were other competent actors in the cast. The downfall begins in the "Welsh noir" of the writing and kinda twisty romantic sidestory and the plot of the murders. The colors and scenes in the filming are too dark or somber,, The sidestory in the end becomes the main plot and the solution to the mystery becomes more clouded or uncertain and for these reasons it leaves one very unsatisfied. It is similar to the Welsh series Hinterland or Y GWYLL which also started with promise and interesting quality but just got depressing. We were let down by the ending and twists in the storyline and abruptness of the finish and lack of resolutions.

We watch all the UK detective series and tried this because Richard Harrington is always pretty good since we first saw him on Hinterland. And he's good here too. Can't say it's aterribly original plot, with the reliable blend of false identities, family secrets, and discord between the male/female detective leads. But it held our interest well enough. However the last 30 seconds of the series, the thing which gives the show its name, is just preposterous. It simply couldn't happen based on what we'd just seen for 51 minutes. Not unless the entire criminal justice system has been ignored. Wales has to do better than that.