The makers of this show should have recognised that the UK audience has kept pace with high-end US police and legal shows, and its expectations have risen in common with the US in the time since the L&O franchise first began. US shows like "The Wire" and "Damages", the UK's "Prime Suspect", France's excellent policier "Engrenages" ("Spiral" in the UK) and Swedish export "Wallander" have all considerably raised the bar: in the policing and detecting and legalising, in the character development, there's more of the believable real-life criminality, more development of the complex psychological forces that motivate all sides. You can't then expect an audience used to these shows to be happy to "start at the beginning".
So "Law & Order: UK" doesn't feel like a step forward, coming off a bit uncomplicated and unchallenging, and for me now, that's just not good enough. OK, so the show doesn't make grand claims to be groundbreaking TV, just good old fashioned entertainment – but it's so very old fashioned! I've seen user review comparisons with long-running UK police show "The Bill", which isn't complimentary. "The Bill" is like a nursery skiing slope for programme makers; so a machine and smooth and skillful as the L&O franchise ought to be able to easily outstrip it. That's arguable, so far.
Having said this, there's a lot to like (plus it's always nice to see British actors gainfully employed). I like the pairing of Bradley Walsh (a very pleasant surprise he turned out to be!) and Jamie Bamber (great in "Battlestar Galactica"). I like the law element, and the way that Freema Agyeman sort of takes care of (the sometimes rather emotionally unstable?) Ben Daniels. There's a particularly moving and strong episode about sexual assault. But I don't feel I'm getting much insight into the legal knowledge necessary to bring a case to prosecution (skimping on consultation perhaps); and I was underwhelmed by the moments – surely among the most dramatic in law? – when it becomes clear, for example, that the police trail has gone cold, or a case is no longer viable for prosecution. L&O should take notes from "Engrenages" on how to make the contrast of the different departments – police and law – interact and sometimes clash excitingly. The drama lies – doesn't it? – in the way 'the system' makes a conveyor belt and a lottery of personal accident, people's wishes, innocence and guilt.
It's still watchable and entertaining and I'll be watching as each episode airs – but if this makes it to a second series I'd like to see more challenging scripts, longer story arcs that allow for complex exploration of the uncomfortable truces between law and order, and chaos and crime, that the police and judicial world actually live with. I'd also like to get a little bit more inside the heads of the slightly under-drawn protagonists. I don't see much (after the first episode) of the dry, gallows humour that might successfully differentiate the UK show from its US parents. If I wanted to be soothed and appeased with inoffensive no-brainer eye candy I'd watch Agatha Christie or the never-ending "Midsomer Murders" (for my sins).
So "Law & Order: UK" doesn't feel like a step forward, coming off a bit uncomplicated and unchallenging, and for me now, that's just not good enough. OK, so the show doesn't make grand claims to be groundbreaking TV, just good old fashioned entertainment – but it's so very old fashioned! I've seen user review comparisons with long-running UK police show "The Bill", which isn't complimentary. "The Bill" is like a nursery skiing slope for programme makers; so a machine and smooth and skillful as the L&O franchise ought to be able to easily outstrip it. That's arguable, so far.
Having said this, there's a lot to like (plus it's always nice to see British actors gainfully employed). I like the pairing of Bradley Walsh (a very pleasant surprise he turned out to be!) and Jamie Bamber (great in "Battlestar Galactica"). I like the law element, and the way that Freema Agyeman sort of takes care of (the sometimes rather emotionally unstable?) Ben Daniels. There's a particularly moving and strong episode about sexual assault. But I don't feel I'm getting much insight into the legal knowledge necessary to bring a case to prosecution (skimping on consultation perhaps); and I was underwhelmed by the moments – surely among the most dramatic in law? – when it becomes clear, for example, that the police trail has gone cold, or a case is no longer viable for prosecution. L&O should take notes from "Engrenages" on how to make the contrast of the different departments – police and law – interact and sometimes clash excitingly. The drama lies – doesn't it? – in the way 'the system' makes a conveyor belt and a lottery of personal accident, people's wishes, innocence and guilt.
It's still watchable and entertaining and I'll be watching as each episode airs – but if this makes it to a second series I'd like to see more challenging scripts, longer story arcs that allow for complex exploration of the uncomfortable truces between law and order, and chaos and crime, that the police and judicial world actually live with. I'd also like to get a little bit more inside the heads of the slightly under-drawn protagonists. I don't see much (after the first episode) of the dry, gallows humour that might successfully differentiate the UK show from its US parents. If I wanted to be soothed and appeased with inoffensive no-brainer eye candy I'd watch Agatha Christie or the never-ending "Midsomer Murders" (for my sins).