BRITISH CRIME DRAMA. “Trigger Point.” / “Gone.” / “Traces” Season 1 and Season 2. / “Intruder.” / “Grantchester.”

“Trigger Point” (Britbox) Season 3. British crime thriller. Explosives officer Lana Washington and her team investigate a sinister revenge plot targeting corporate managers. As Lana hunts a bomber attempting to expose a corporate asbestos cover-up, she battles her own escalating trauma, PTSD, and a dangerous dependency on prescription medication. 

     This series is all Vicky McClure as explosives expert Lana Washington. As in the 2 previous seasons, the storytelling can be melodramatic and the dialogues, soap-operatic. But it's easy to ignore them for the thrills.

       The plotting or writing trajectory is so powerful that you can't possibly stray your eyes away, no second is wasted. That is the given in this high-velocity series. What was missing in the first 3 seasons is a deeper navigation of Lana's personal demons. That she isn't superhuman, regardless of her steely resolve to defuse bombs that could easily break her into smithereens. 🎥💻📽

“Gone” (Britbox) British crime drama. A headmaster becomes the prime suspect after the disappearance of his wife.

       The cat-and-mouse dare, backstopped by a tight script and crisp pacing, makes this thriller a fine watch. Add the expected stellar performances by David Morrissey and Eve Myles. And don't forget this young man: Billy Barratt. His troubled Dylan is controlled intensity. 🎥💻📽

“Traces” (Britbox) Season 1 and  2. British crime drama, centering on three female forensic professionals solving mysteries in Dundee, Scotland. 

       In Season 1, Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor) returns to Dundee to work at the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science. Her arrival reignites her search for the truth about her mother’s unsolved murder. While investigating, she begins dating Daniel (Martin Compston), who is linked to a deadly nightclub fire. And so on and so forth. 

       The story trajectory of S2 tends to get a bit incredibly circuitous or jaggedly contrived that it verges into melodramatic realm. 

       Season 2 centers on two main investigations: professors Sarah Gordon (Laura Fraser) and Kathy Torrance (Jennifer Spence) investigate a deadly bombing campaign in Dundee, while Emma and her partner Daniel McAfee work to bring down Daniel's criminal father in the High Court. The McAfee plotline should have been resolved in S1 so S2 could focus more on its compelling conflict and dramatic progression. Eventually it did. 🎥💻📽

“Intruder” (Britbox) British police procedural thriller. A married couple was living a perfect wealthy life in Cornwall, but after their house was burgled and they inadvertently killed one of the intruders, their life turned upside down. 

       The series begins with an interesting intrigue. A cover-up that'd challenge police deduction and legal parameters. Then there's the overlying moral guilt, class divide and racial lines. In fact, the show started well: A panicky phone call, then cut to a previous sequence in a kickass house by the sea, and dinner by friends. Then later, a stabbing of an intruder.

       However, the show quickly devolved into a daytime soap confection. Scriptwriter Gareth Tunley, it seems, couldn't follow through from the first two episodes and totally lost handle till the end. Good, this is only 4 episodes. 🎥💻📽

“Grantchester” (Netflix) Seasons 1 and 2. British detective drama set in the 1950s and 1960s in the Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester. 

       Non-bombastic, neatly alluring, and old-school delightful. It is easy to like “Grantchester” for what it is, and lead James Norton as the crime-solving Reverend Sidney Chambers is charming as what the role asks. But beyond Season 2, we'd feel we had enough already. 🎥💻📽