*Contains some spoilers*
So I somehow missed the excellent BBC Drama series The Shadow Line when it was on over the past few weeks. I heard about it through a friend yesterday and promptly set about watching it on iPlayer.
I must say I was pleasantly (and unpleasantly, given the nature of the programme) surprised.
The series has some moments in which it loses "Oomph" a little, but overall I would say it was a very tight and well acted Drama.
The basic plot concerns the murder of a drug lord, the instatement into power of his reluctant right hand man and the investigation of the murder by the police, the gang and an unknown third party.
Amazingly, the script (and some spot-on acting by Christopher Eccleston) actually manage to make the Heroin-dealing mastermind Joseph Bede a highly sympathetic character whose fate eventually adds a huge emotional swell to a highly charged ending. Surprising and also very pleasing to see such reversal of traditional roles in media.
Rafe Spall is great as the slimy psychopath Jay Wratten and Stephen Rae turns his character Gatehouse into a ruthless, efficient and incredibly evil man that you will utterly loathe as the series goes on.
Chiwetal Eijofor also plays DI Jonah Gabriel very believably, and he is able to present both a confused and shattered man and a decent human being simultaneously.
I found the middle episodes the weakest of the lot, but they were still enjoyable. The beginning episodes set things up very well, the later episodes all have very sharp knife-edge twists and the ending episode in particular is an hour of near non-stop revelation and shock.
In The Shadow Line, there are no happy endings. Good does not always prevail, and there is indeed the question of what "good" actually is.
In fact, when we look at the nastiest characters, they tend to be the ones that consistently profit most from the events of the series. Interestingly, however, the question is raised of whether they are the true winners over the more "noble" characters, who generally aspire to have more than money or drugs.
The only thing I found confusing (and perhaps I will not on subsequent re-watchings) was the police corruption plot overarching with the main story. Not only does this plot result in one of the most surprising and gut-wrenching twists, but it also gets very complicated to the point of confusion. In the end, I could witness the acts the characters commit, but not always their motivations.
I got the impression I was meant to know why, but it was hard to remember every small detail.
The series is also the absolute darkest I can remember ever really seeing on TV. The ending just didn't let up and felt very much like a Shakespearian tragedy - many of the characters really do not get what they deserve.
In a way though, this relentless bleakness is strangely appropriate. It almost feels like after the long tunnel that came before, things just could not have possibly ended happily in any plausible fashion. After so many murders and drug deals, so many personal heartaches for the main characters, a happy ending would have looked flippant and inconsistent.
I highly recommend you catch the series on BBC iPlayer if you haven't already, it's up for 3 more days. I know that I'm certainly going to be getting the DVD so that I can live through that final nail biting episode again at some point.
5/5.
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