TV Show Review

TV Review: LINE OF DUTY: Season 2, Episode 5 [BBC]

Line of Duty season 2 episode 5

BBC’s Line of Duty Season 2 Episode 5 TV Show Review. Line of Duty: Season 2, Episode 5 is a thrilling, tense, realistic, powerful and masterfully crafted chapter of the second season of Line of Duty. The episode shines with brutal, striking, vastly detailed realism and a script that grabs your attention for one hour, increasing the tension more and more with every other sequence. Line of Duty is probably the best BBC show right now-with its superb leading actress, with its masterful supporting acting and its gritty, unflinching truthfulness. Episode 5 turns the tides in favor of our character and features yet another spectacular interview sequence.

Episode 5 is superb for the usual Line of Duty formula involving quick editing, slick camerawork and solid acting but most of all-exceptional writing. This is an episode in which, in short, payback is accomplished and Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes) finally manages to taste a bit of triumph. Here the actress demonstrates moving fragility and straightforward heroism in sequences of quiet hope and straightforward cold-blooded action. However, Line of Duty is not a show of good and evil but of constant resilient reality in which everything and everybody can be questioned and broken.

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It’s a marvelous show in which even the seemingly orthodox police lines like the different codes and police procedures sound absolutely bad-ass because in reality they are and in reality they are not uttered by superheroes but by normal people. Maybe this is the reason why the cold reality of the police force seems so appealing in Line of Duty. The characters are so real and humane that when they act as police officers they earn our respect as much as if we are meeting an actual expert detective in real life.

For example, investigation scenes, in which police officers are interviewing suspects are probably the most clichéd type of scenes you can think of when it comes down to the ordinary cop big screen or TV productions. However, in Line of Duty where we never even leave the perspective of the person who is searching for the truth and is constantly kept in the dark those investigations become the most emotionally charged and arresting sequences that you can see on the TV screen right now.

That near 10-minute interrogation sequence with the new primary suspect, who is quite special and unusual, takes your breath. It is a superb symphony of sound, dialogue, editing and camera work. It starts off slowly, the director allowing the tension to slowly step in. There is even a small moment of humor, that doesn’t kill off any of the tension but just the opposite it multiplies it. The most priceless moment always happens to be breaking the suspect.

It is a masterful, emotional moment that lasts for long and you are fully allowed to immerse yourself in the shame and the silent hostility of it. I connect this scene-the one in which justice is delivered with the one three episodes ago when injustice was bestowed upon the main character. We can see the difference in the two scenes and even though our character is not there, we realize exactly how worthy of admiration the hero of Lindsay Denton is.

My conclusion is that in five episodes Line of Duty proves to be one of the greatest crime shows I have ever seen. It is incredible how a series can involve so many of the same elements in every episode and yet feel so different and unique in each one of them.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of Line of Duty below in the comments section. For more Line of Duty reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our Line of Duty Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, or “like” us on Facebook.

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Deyan Angelov

My name is Deyan Angelov and I am 25. I have written articles for FilmBook. I graduated from the University of London, Royal Holloway in 2014. I have worked as an air operator, sound recorder and camera operator for different TV stations. I have participated in a variety of internships at Nu Boyana Film Studios.
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