Don't be a notebook wanker - nobody likes a notebook wanker.

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023 

#7 : Blue Lights

On paper, this Belfast police drama provided a fresh twist on the genre by following three new recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, with a couple of months of probation still to go. In practice, it breathed new life into a much-done type of TV by taking a bird’s-eye view of a city still coming to terms with the legacy of the Troubles – and the problematic nature of policing it. Impeccably written characters, charmingly blossoming relationships between colleagues, and <redacted> made this gripping procedural feel like a Belfast version of The Wire.

I've read various things that have praised this, but doubt I've had got round to watch it under normal circumstances.  Setting it in Belfast feels kinda different though, so I'm interested to see what we've got here.

As The Guardian tells us, we follow three probationers - Annie (Katherine Devlin) and Tommy (Nathan Braniff) are both young and green whereas Grace (Sian Brooke) is older, was previously a social worker and is an interesting mix of experienced and hopelessly naive.  And there is obviously a load of pressure and politics involved both within the force and from, shall we say, other organisations in the city.  And, at this point, all I really need to tell you is that things build as the season progresses...

The last two episodes in particular are really good - <redacted> happens (which I'm really annoyed The Guardian mentioned) and then people have to deal with it and it's all really well done.  It's all very tense - they spend an awful lot of time in no-go ("double-oh-bee") areas where either crowds of people rock up in thirty seconds flat to throw anything they have at the police or, alternatively, there's absolutely no-one around in a kinda spooky way.  

As the series progresses it throws all sorts of things that you're not expecting into the mix - right until the very end, which is really well done.  It also has a nice way of linking characters together that you don't think are necessarily connected (or, in my case, you haven't even recognised them from when you previously met them) - it's quite Happy Valley-ish in that way.  And it does a good job of wrapping things up nicely whilst leaving you wanting more - a second season is on its way and I'll definitely be watching.

It's really well written on several fronts.  It does a good job of balancing the cynicism of the experienced officers and the naivete of the probationers, when all the while they're all being royally shafted by their seniors, other security forces, external parties - well, pretty much everyone actually.  It also gives everyone a line they're not willing to cross or a line they're not prepared to ignore which makes them feel more like real people - you get to care about them and you enjoy seeing them develop relationships which are generally well written, if a little rushed at times (they've only got six episodes after all!)

It's hard to call out any of the actors as better than any of the others, but if I had to pick some out I'd go for Sian Brooke and Martin McCann for their easy chemistry and developing relationship and Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion from GoT) and Andi Osho (who I didn't recognise at all) for the same reasons.  John Lynch is a very good baddie (you know what I mean - he also looks very like Eric Cantona), Nathan Braniff grows nicely into his role, Joanne Crawford is the calm centre as the team's sergeant and Hannah McClean is great as a constable who goes on QUITE the journey.  But calling these names out is harsh on everyone else in this because there's really not a weak link - they're all really good.

As is always the case these days, it's well filmed and shows off the city nicely, making good use of drones to get some interesting shots.  And, despite Belfast obviously being another world, it feels pretty real - although there's remarkably little traffic there, which I know for a fact not to be the case.  There's also a load of claustrophobic indoor shots and they're also really well done and add nicely to the tension.

I really enjoyed this and feel some of the best praise I can give it is that I think it's better than Line Of Duty - there are more characters you care about and there's a strong argument that they're better written.  I watched three episodes of this in one evening because I really wanted to see what came next and that NEVER happens (I was also scared of the pack of teenage girls that had invaded the house, but we'll just ignore that, shall we?).  If you like a police drama then you should really check this out on iPlayer, it stands out from the pack on several levels.

#6 - Some outstanding telly
#8 - Watch this space!