Vera (TV Series) Black Ice (2018) User Reviews

slow to start, but strong towards the end.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 17 January 2018]

A dramatic start sees Faye Wakeland driven off the road, Vera has to investigate who would want to kill such a kind and much loved girl.

Blood and Bone was such a strong opening episode, gripping, this one took a while to get into, indeed it was slow to start, but gathered pace and ended really well. Blethyn once again superb in the title role, so incredibly charismatic, her scenes with Kenny Doughty get better and better, such a great team.

Definitely some positives, last week I kept saying how wonderful it would be if Ibinabo Jack (DC Jacq Williams) joined the show on a permanent basis, and low and behold she did. Ben Batt was excellent as devious taxi firm owner Tony Everett, as was the brilliant Sam Troughton.

The bar is genuinely so high with Vera, so many episodes are first rate, this was a bit slower, but still had enough intrigue and absorbing character play.

Interesting episode but the suspense is shoehorned in

[mgl-92037 · 7/10 · 3 November 2022]

This episode does not feature a gruesome murder, which is fine with me.

I felt that the character of Faye was still a cipher at the end. She was such a lying manipulator, but also had a heart of gold? I don't buy it. In particular, the fact she chose to work for the loan shark doesn't square with her having a stellar character. There is a rather serious error with the logic of the investigation here. What I mean is that once the van was found, with which Faye's car had been forced off the road, the pool of suspects narrowed to Roddy's son, and anyone close to him. Those people should have been the focus. But to keep the viewer's interest, we go on some more wild goose chases after other suspects, before at the end the boyfriend turns out to be Faye's (accidental) killer. That's too much sauce, sorry. Up until the final twist, the episode was somewhat believable, but that was killed at the end.

To sum it up, this was an interesting episode which didn't quite make the mark.

Another Great Episode for Season 8

[laurelhagen · 10/10 · 12 June 2021]

Black Ice really appealed to me for the sheer fact that I couldn't figure out if the deceased was actually a good person or a manipulative liar. This episode was full of twists that made it engrossing to watch from beginning to end. Brenda Blethyn and the phenomenal cast always deliver their talent at 100 percent.

Black Ice

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 January 2018]

DCI Stanhope needs to go through a fog of lies when a young woman, Faye Wakeland is deliberately run off the road. Stanhope knows her death was not an accident. Faye was seemingly popular with everyone but then she finds out that Faye could had been manipulative and had made enemies.

Not as gruesome as the previous episode with a charred body but Stanhope does finds fault with a community bobby who fails to spot a local loan shark who has a hold on the community who ensure he has a strong alibi. A more genteel episode with a nice twist or two to wrong foot the viewer.

Just OK

[mrb-90539 · 4/10 · 27 October 2018]

IMO, this series has been hampered by the accountants. The photography which was stellar to start, is now an afterthought. The number of characters, especially on Vera staff have shrunk...in this episode there are a few that just sit like dummies. The stories are more formula and less thought. The locations are used over and over.....I could go on and on. The writers have Vera running around like a "chicken without a head" just to get that "frustration" shot. Supporting actors are wooden and just reading lines. Maybe its me, but it all looks like it was put together as fast as they could, just to get it done. So..just OK...to bad because it use to be terrific.