The Responder (TV Series) Episode #2.1 (2024) User Reviews

Bilbo Baggins goes to the dark side

[stephenmsaunders · 9/10 · 5 May 2024]

It's BACK and not a moment too soon.

If anything The Responder Series 2 is grimmer and more stressy than the last series.

Martin Freeman continues to be a revelation. Talk about your antihero.... He's best summed up by a senior officer telling him: "mate, everyone thinks you're a knobhead."

Everything in episode one is complicated and feels real. There are tradeoffs and compromised coppers galore.

Pacing, accents, violence and the sense of a city that's beyond decline .... It's all here.

Keep an eye out for the chicken shop scene. It was clearly written by someone who knows the culture.

Banger. Watch it.

Episode 2

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 6 May 2024]

Bernard Hill died on the day the second series of The Responder was due to be transmitted. His landmark role was Yosser Hughes in Boys from the Blackstuff. One of the most powerful and iconic performances ever put to film. It elevated him from a journeyman actor.

I was not a big fan of the first series of The Responder, very much an average but glum show of a cop in over himself with the pressure of work. The series was partly based on writer Tony Schumacher's life in the police force.

The first episode of series two is more of the same. Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) has split from his wife. He has money worries, he loathes the night shift and has joined a self help group.

It is not long before Carson is dragged down by a colleague Deb Barnes. All he was meant to do was pull over a black Range Rover as Deb saw the driver do a drug deal. It turns out something more murky.

I thought the whole episode was murky and dingy. Too many side characters with their own plots which I'm sure will eventually criss cross. It felt like the beginning of a Tarantino movie but maybe Carson should had been the main focus.