Are we OK?
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.
#5 : The Responder
Tony Schumacher spent 11 years as a night patrol officer in Merseyside. Night after hellish night he worked the job that ended up giving him a nervous breakdown and PTSD. He took all the carnage, trauma and humour and packed it into The Responder, one of the most raw BBC dramas in recent memory. Martin Freeman played Chris Carson, a constable heading for certain collapse, possibly death. Freeman put in an astonishing stint as the officer whose every act was either hard to stomach, ethically questionable or entirely reprehensible. Here was a man who had to sift the motorway’s edge for body parts. Who regularly attacked the people he was meant to protect and serve. Who stole a flask of soup and pack of cigs from a woman who’d not long since died. This was television so morally murky it made for fascinating, challenging viewing – but it kept up the propulsive pace of a thriller.
This got good write-ups, but I've avoided it because I think it's going to have more tension in it than my sensitive soul likes - as The Guardian put it in another review "if it sounds grim, oh good grief it was".
In the first episode, we follow Chris as he tries to help out Stacey, a crack addict who has got herself into a spot of bother - and she's not doing a great job of getting out of it. Things get steadily worse for both Stacey and Chris, not helped by the introduction (a la Training Day) of a rookie partner Rachel - who seems to know less about getting by on the mean streets of Liverpool than I do (and that's saying something). And basically things just get worse and worse from there on...
It's enjoyable but it doesn't really add anything to the genre (with the exception of an interesting storyline which pops up in the very final episode and is resolved far too quickly). Chris is a bit "hard nutter with a heart of gold who's seen it all" at times and I'd be lying if I said it was believable as a whole, but it's made up of believable parts. It makes for a wild ride though, being very tense at times - you can't really guess where's it's all going to end up and I was keen to stay to the end to find out (although I did find it a tad anti-climactic).
Martin Freeman does indeed put in an astonishing stint - he's definitely not Tim, Bilbo or Dr Watson in this. And he puts on a good Scouse accent as well, which I wasn't expecting (although I don't know what our Liverpudlian friends think about it). He does a great job of playing a man on the edge - trying to be decent, but really struggling to do so or even recognise what's decent any more. Other worthy shout-outs go to Adelayo Adedayo as Rachel the rookie, Ian Hart as Carl the rubbish baddie and MyAnna Buring as Kate, Chris's wife - all caught up in Chris' orbit. I'll also call out Romi Hyland-Rylands as Tilly, Chris and Kate's daughter, who gives a very good performance as a child who knows too much but also knows nothing.
It's well filmed - seemingly natural lighting with lots of shadow, hiding who knows what or who, at times. You'd also have to say that it's set in a very quiet Liverpool - I've only been once and it was heaving, but this one is silent as a grave for most of the time.
So, I enjoyed this but I'm not currently convinced it was the fifth best thing on telly last year - it feels more like a mid-table performer to me. It was well acted, written and shot - but I don't think it was exceptional in any category and I don't think it was quite as murky as The Guardian suggested. It's well worth a watch if you like a police drama - but if you like a police drama, I don't think there's a lot here that will surprise you.
At time of writing, it's available to watch on iPlayer - I suspect it will be there for a bit.
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