TV Review: Better is a new thriller about a corrupt detective
Better for Ed Power review Weekend Picture: BBC Lou and Col have a past that will be difficult for her to escape from
, BBC One, Mondays, 9pm,
★★★☆☆
What if
was filmed in Leeds rather than Belfast? And how about putting us in the shoes of the ‘bent copper’ for once? That’s the premise, more or less, of
(BBC One, Mondays 9pm) — a slick but underwhelming new thriller about an organised crime detective (Leila Farzad) who has sold her soul to a local kingpin.
Actually, the kingpin isn’t all that local. He’s played by Cheshire-born Andrew Buchan but with a broad Northern Ireland accent. Is this a nod to ’s Ted Hastings? Hopefully — because it otherwise makes little sense why Col McHugh should choose to establish his criminal empire in Yorkshire’s largest city.
What does make sense, from the show’s perspective anyway, is why detective Lou Slack — Farzad — should strike an alliance with McHugh. They’re best pals for the past 20 years and their arrangement is straightforward. Lou helps Col clean up the collateral messes caused by his mobsters and he bankrolls her luxurious life in the suburbs.
Unfortunately, the premise never really stacks up. The idea that a police detective would be living in grinding impoverishment were it not for a gangland benefactor is absurd. And Farzad never sells Slack as a woman who has hocked her principles for a nice kitchen.
Better also suffers from muggy storytelling. There’s a confusing opening in which Lou is called away from some sort of works do (this is never fully explained) and required to scrub one of McHugh’s crime scenes. His men have left it in a state. But why didn’t they cover their tracks prior to exiting? If they had time to executive a rival drug dealer and make off with the stash — surely they could have taken moment to bring away the murder weapon?
But no — for reasons of plot, Lou must retrieve it instead. The following night she is summoned to Col’s birthday party. This means surrendering her phone. So she’s out of the picture when her son Owen comes down with meningitis — leaving her husband deal with the emergency on his own. When she finally reaches the hospital, husband and wife are more miffed about the missed calls than about their child’s health situation. In any event, the news is not good. Owen must use a wheelchair and his motor skills may not recover. Which is tragic. But why is Col so interested in the boy’s well-being?
picks up considerably in the final minutes of its first episode, as Lou goes against Col’s wishes and arrests one of his goons following an armed robbery. It hints at trouble ahead. It’s just a pity didn’t get better sooner.
