Sixth series of Line Of Duty on BBC 21st March

[DrGreggles]

Oh go on then, someone summarise what happened?

A nice doggy appeared.
Can't remember anything else.

[BeardFaceMan]

Top tip - putting on a trailer for your big new drama right after the ending and stating "from the makers of Line of Duty" is a great way to get people to not watch it.

[BlodwynPig]

Lesbian cottagecore for coerced bent copper
Bog roll for Buckells
Moody lift for the matey three
100 Grand for photographs of Cold Feet star

[BlodwynPig]

Top tip - putting on a trailer for your big new drama right after the ending and stating "from the makers of Line of Duty" is a great way to get people to not watch it.

Holby City: beginnings?

[Custard]

To be fair, Mercurio was quite brave to finally do the H/Fourth Man reveal, as there's probably a sizeable portion of the audience who tune in just for that. By wrapping that up it does free the show to move on a bit. I guess this will involve them chasing James Nesbitt and his syrup around the med

Hurrah

[Fabian Thomsett]

That ending makes sense if you've ever seen Mercurio's medical drama Bodies wherein an incompetent surgeon keeps failing upwards and no-one wants to stop him because management will have them fired if they speak out.

Bodies is better than Line of Duty to be honest.

[Custard]

If I had written it, and let's face it I should have, I'd have had Motherland as H.

"You don't know how deep this all goes...", sarcastic smile, dies

[Custard]

Bodies was probably better or at least more realistic as Mercurio was a doctor before he thought he could write TV drama

[BeardFaceMan]

It seriously feels like someone kicked Mercurio out of the writers room 5 minutes before the last ep of series 5 and didn't let him back in, everything since then has been so fucking bad it feels like it's been written by someone else, like there's no way the person who wrote this shite is responsible for the first few series as well.

[mothman]

I was out of the country when Bodies was on, and when I returned it was with a pregnant wife who'd had a miscarriage previously, so we were quite nervous. My mum told me that Bodies wasn't something I'd want to be watching right then, so I never did.

[chveik]

I might be the only person in the UK who enjoyed that. Its low-key bleakness, sense of futility and suppressed rage was absolutely what the country needed to see. Suck it up viewers. We don't deserve escapism in police dramas.

what a load of bollocks. viewers don't deserve terrible tv

[mothman]

what a load of bollocks. viewers don't deserve terrible tv

Exactly. Though I haven't seen it obviously, there are ways you can accurately depict in all its sordid glory quite how corrupt this country is in general, and the police are in particular, without how you do so totally sucking.

[Custard]

We watched the first series again this morning, and I must agree the quality difference compared to this latest series is incredible

It helps that it was a straightforward, simple story about one copper who could possibly be corrupt. It was free of the conspiracy bollocks for the most part, and just told a simple story very well. It helps that Lennie James was excellent in it too

Since then they've just been dragging in this year's guest star and repeating the same story but with loads of other distracting shit thrown on top, complete with more and more nonsensical twists n turns just to surprise the audience

I think series 2-4 were enjoyable enough, but these last two have seen a big dip in quality

[BlodwynPig]

To be fair, Mercurio was quite brave to finally do the H/Fourth Man reveal, as there's probably a sizeable portion of the audience who tune in just for that. By wrapping that up it does free the show to move on a bit. I guess this will involve them chasing James Nesbitt and his syrup around the med

Hurrah

Nesbitt is dead. No guarantee of another series. Cop shows that have a season in the med are uniformly terrible.

[Custard]

Yeah you're right, I just Googled it and had no idea there may not be another series. I think there will be though, as they all seem up for it

[mothman]

We watched the first series again this morning, and I must agree the quality difference compared to this latest series is incredible

It helps that it was a straightforward, simple story about one copper who could possibly be corrupt. It was free of the conspiracy bollocks for the most part, and just told a simple story very well. It helps that Lennie James was excellent in it too

Since then they've just been dragging in this year's guest star and repeating the same story but with loads of other distracting shit thrown on top, complete with more and more nonsensical twists n turns just to surprise the audience

I think series 2-4 were enjoyable enough, but these last two have seen a big dip in quality

Yeah, the implication there was this big kingpin who looked like Brian Johnson from AC/DC was hastily dispensed with and he was basically killed off offscreen.

...

HANG ON.

AC-12. AC/DC.

D - 4th letter of the alphabet. C - 3rd letter. 4 x 3 = 12. Suddenly everything is clear!

[BlodwynPig]

Get mercurio and gibb on the phone!

[Crabwalk]

what a load of bollocks. viewers don't deserve terrible tv

I didn't say they did. I said it was different to what people wanted and expected, and in a way that I thought was pretty brave. LoD hasn't been much more than enjoyable guff since series 3 and I was glad Mercurio chose to subvert what the show had become in favour of landing a few blows and refocusing on the lead characters' arcs.

The show has long since collapsed under the weight of the 'H' conspiracy anyway and IMO was well past the point where it could be wrapped up satisfactorily from a narrative perspective. At least Mercurio did a decent job thematically.

[DrGreggles]

Regardless of how the story played out and whether it was what the viewers expected, the dialogue was fucking rotten. Not just tonight, but all series.
I'm sure it wasn't that shit before.

[Ja'moke]

I binged all of Line of Duty for the first time over the past couple months and caught up in time for Series 6 starting.

The first series was really good, the second with Keeley Hawes was the best, and the third series still pretty enjoyable. I felt like things started to dip into the ridiculous in Series 4, the Thandie Newton series, and it's all been downhill since then, with this series easily been the worst.

I think the overall take away from the series is that it taught people how to spell definitely. Or, at least, how not to spell definitely.

[EOLAN]

Rewatched recently and echo Ja'Moke sentiments and rating of seasons. Lindsay Denton was a great character and helped two of the best series.
This one seemed very plodding and Kelly McDonald's character was a relatively mundane lead.

[Wentworth Smith]

Not sure what people were expecting, every Line of Duty finale is a bit duff but at least this had a point to make. Enjoyed it when I twigged Buckles was Boris but this show has always had the same flaws, including its dodgy dialogue, up and down acting, and daft convolutions. Entertaining nonsense but at least it's angry nonsense.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Not sure what people were expecting, every Line of Duty finale is a bit duff but at least this had a point to make. Enjoyed it when I twigged Buckles was Boris but this show has always had the same flaws, including its dodgy dialogue, up and down acting, and daft convolutions. Entertaining nonsense but at least it's angry nonsense.

I do like the fact that millions of viewers just watched a show on BBC One in which the blatant message was: "People such as Boris Johnson are a corrupt bunch of useless cunts who will never be held to account because the system is geared in their favour."

I just wish old Jed had managed to get that point across while also bothering to write a decent series.

[jobotic]

I do like the fact that millions of viewers just watched a show on BBC One in which the blatant message was: "People such as Boris Johnson are a corrupt bunch of useless cunts who will never be held to account because the system is geared in their favour."

I just wish old Jed had managed to get that point across while also bothering to write a decent series.

Exactly

[Mobius]

It's not as good as it was but I still enjoyed that. Would be disappointed if that was the ending but it seems pretty obvious there'll be another series.

[Jockice]

I might be the only person in the UK who enjoyed that. Its low-key bleakness, sense of futility and suppressed rage was absolutely what the country needed to see. Suck it up viewers. We don't deserve escapism in police dramas.

I thought it was okay. I'm not a LoD obsessive but I can't see why people are so offended. Was H supposed to be old Mr Smithers from the fairground or something? And he'd have got away with it it wasn't for you pesky pigs.

No Offence was a much better police procedural show anyway.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I thought it was okay. I'm not a LoD obsessive but I can't see why people are so offended. Was H supposed to be old Mr Smithers from the fairground or something? And he'd have got away with it it wasn't for you pesky pigs.

As I said earlier, fair play to Mercurio for subverting those daft Scooby-Doo expectations with a solemn comment on the utter futility of it all.

I disliked the episode because I found it boring and badly written.

[Jockice]

As I said earlier, fair play to Mercurio for subverting those daft Scooby-Doo expectations with a solemn comment on the utter futility of it all.

I disliked the episode because I found it boring and badly written.

Yeah, fair enough. I'd never seen it at all until a few weeks ago until my girlfriend (who - da da da - has a surname similar to Buckells) started watching it from series one while I was visiting her. Beats us trying to have conversations I suppose. So I'm no expert and haven't even seen all of this series. I just happened to have an early night and thought I might as well watch it before going to sleep.

As I said, I thought it was okay. Nothing more. It was no Mad Men ending. But nothing is.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Nothing will ever top the Mad Men ending, no. It's absolutely perfect. Still makes me laugh.

[DrGreggles]

Six Feet Under nailed the ending.