Thursday, October 11, 2012

Once a Red

Thriller the Thursday
***

Sam, Gene and Annie are all forced to go undercover to investigate a murder that could likely lead to a city-wide football riot.

The review for "Honey Trap" can be read here.

Sam (John Simm) is slowly growing more comfortable in this time, more resigned to it, and there are moments when it seems as though he's forgotten who he is and where he's come from. Certainly, he is aware of the differences that this period offers from his own, he also is determined to protect the people of this city whether or not they are real or simply figments of his imagination.

Gene (Philip Glenister) is greatly opposed to the idea of undercover work for this case until Sam offers him the chance to run the bar for the night. It's rare to see Gene take such absolute pleasure in his job, and to have him to jovial here to have a reason to drink on the job is a nice chance of pace. He plays the drunk in order to infiltrate the group his team is investigating, and does so well in his role that Sam takes him aside believing he has lost his faculties only for Gene to reveal that he could drink anyone under the table. Gene's drunken shenanigans are funny to watch thinking they're genuine, but grow greater still with the knowledge that he has a mastery over sobriety.

Sam offers a brief discussion of hooliganism in this story, with a focus on how it's escalation has ruined football, turning what used to be an exercise of camaraderie into an excuse to spread hate. The healthy rivalry that clubs have with one another, their determination to be the best in the game, can quickly morph their pride for their team into a hatred for their opponents, and a single punch-up can take the game beyond repair. Rivalries quickly escalate when a club's brawl is mentioned in the media, inspiring others to outdo one another in an effort to prove their own team's following, leading away from the family-friendly atmosphere of sports and creating an atmosphere of gang activities. Sam's exposition very clearly hits close to home for him, and the loathing in his words is palpable as he rips Pete's (Anthony Flanagan) ticket away from him.

Ryan (Michael Lawrence) physically attacks his best friend for supporting City after learning that a City fan had murdered his father, and while the connection to the episode's overall message is very clear in this interaction, it's also incredibly unlikely. For Ryan to support the idea that his friend had had a hand in the murder of his father, due only to having been a City fan, is ludicrous. The narrative attempts to lead us to think that Ryan's actions are due to his massive grief over the loss of his father, but the love of the game that Ryan and his father had had lead us to first believe that fans of any team could come together for love of the game.

At one point, Gene is confronted, while undercover, by someone he had recently arrested and knocks him unconscious in order to avoid confrontation. The moment is played for laughs, and is so unexpected that it is funny, and the joke remains funny the second time that Gene does the same action. It is the third confrontation, when Gene breaks a bottle over the man's head, that brings the gag to a standstill. Sam and Annie (Liz White) not only watch as Gene attacks this man, but they resist protest and make no move to help the man with his wound. This moment seems too far even for Gene, as he very likely could have seriously injured this man, and for Sam and Annie to look the other way, despite the man being innocent of any recent crime, seems very against character for the both of them.

Once more, the regular actors deliver a great performance here, each playing off of one another very well and settling very easily into their roles. Flanagan's killer Pete is determined and threatening, and while his actions are absolutely deplorable and disgusting, his motivation is understandable from an absurdist, conspiratorial point of view. The only questionable performance of the episode of Lawrence's Ryan, who seems either incapable of emoting anything beyond confusion or unsure of how best to portray grief, leaning slightly too heavily on the numbness of despair and missing out entirely on what follows.

S. J. Clarkson's direction in this episode is largely good throughout, with only minor issues detracting from her work here. A few small details seem to slip passed Clarkson's attention, the most notable being Sam having blue eyes as a child and brown eyes as an adult, but these points are so minor that they don't do much to distract from the narrative at large. While connected thematically, the scenes in the bar and the scenes of Sam's individual investigation are so tonally different in mood that it's somewhat jarring and lends a halting pace to the story.

Tony Jordan has a very good grasp on the voices of his characters here, having Annie deal with Sam in a way that's very natural for her and believable for their situation. Annie is an incredibly straight-forward woman, and it's refreshing to have her state that she has been deliberately avoiding Sam because of their altercation in the previous episode and to have her slowly soften toward him again as this story wears on. It's because she knows who she is, and what she wants, that she's able to tell someone that they've wronged her, she's still angry, but she'll forgive them in time, that she's able to then proceed to work with them in a very civil manner. There is a good focus on the argument between Sam and Gene in this episode, with Gene unable to admit to Sam that he was right about the murderer being in the pub and Sam's inability to tell Gene that he was right about the crime being sports-related. The two of them are so alike in some ways that any disagreement they might have quickly devolves into a pissing contest, and even though both are right and wrong, neither can stand to give the other an inch. Jordan finds an organic way to make the case personal for Sam by speaking to Sam's troubled relationship with his father, with a reveal in the end that reminds us of the world in which Sam has lost himself.

This episode highlighted the sense of loss that Sam has in regards to his father and points toward his finding out exactly where his dad left all those years ago. Meanwhile, the underplayed attraction Annie has for Sam continues its threat to break loose at any given moment.

The review for "Broken the Land That Needs Heroes" can be read here.

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