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Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#29 : Guilt

The first series of Neil Forsyth’s crime thriller was a word-of-mouth hit, largely thanks to Mark Bonnar’s psychotic growl of a performance. This year’s second series lost a little of its pace, but was still as compelling as ever. Let’s all cross our fingers for a third series.

I was aware of this, but only from the first season which got good write-ups but I was never convinced it was for me, so didn't search it out.  I probably heard there was a second season, but it somewhat passed me by.  So - do I watch from the beginning, watch from the start of season 2 or skip it entirely?  Ah - season 1 is 4 episodes so I think I can manage that.

And, yeah, season 1 is good.  I'm not sure I can really tell you much about it, but it's very dark and very twisty.  It's also incredibly good looking - some of the scenes have movie level direction in them.  Impressive.  And it's a fantastic performance by Mark Bonnar - the man is such a bastard that it's all very amusing.  And, finally, it's a really well written piece of work - you never know exactly who the bad(dest) guys are and I was never really sure where it was going to go next.  Although I wasn't quite convinced where it decided to end - it felt like possibly they were aiming for a second series.  So let's find out, shall we?

And no, I'm not being fair there because the second series doesn't attempt to resolve any outstanding issues from the first series - it carries a few characters over but otherwise gives us a completely new story.  And yeah, maybe it has "lost a little of its pace" but I think part of it is that after the first season you're expecting twists and turns in every scene.  Although, if anything the final episode has too many twists and turns - I was getting quite confused by the end of it, but it does have a lovely (and, for me) completely unexpected ending.

One of the reviews I saw described it as "Fargo, but in Leith" and that's not a bad description at all - it has a similar sense of a smallish cast with links between them all gradually being teased out.  Sometimes the audience is one step ahead of the characters and sometimes vice versa, which adds a nice bit of suspense and intrigue into the mix.  Season 2 also has a nice thread of revenge and redemption running through it - obviously I'm not going to tell you whether anyone gets what they're looking for though.  I'd also actually say it often looks better than Fargo - which is quite some compliment.

Considering the acting, it's really Mark Bonnar's show and he carries it well.  Looking at his IMDB entry, he's had recurring roles in a lot of series - he obviously has a face that fits in well but isn't too memorable.  The other characters which run through the two seasons are Kenny, who has quite the character arc and is played well by Emun Elliott and Roy, who has quite an odd story and is played by Bill Paterson in season 1 and Stuart Bowman in season 2, which is unfortunate for Stuart because he's a fine actor, but he's no Bill Paterson. 

Other actors that stood out for me in season 2 were Greg McHugh as Teddy (that man has had some strange roles and this is one more), Sara Vickers as Erin (who I knew I recognised from somewhere and she was in Sunshine On Leith, which is a charming film if you haven't seen it) and Rochelle Neil as Yvonne (who was in The Nevers, which I also enjoyed) - but everyone involved does a good job.

All in all, I really liked this - they're both good twisty stories with fine actors playing interesting characters who you grow to like, whilst suspecting that you probably shouldn't like them.  It's a strong recommendation from me - if you like Fargo, then I suspect you'll like this.

#28 - Some impressive acting and writing
#30 - Impressive, but too much of a stretch for me