Thursday , March 28 2024
A police procedural comedy that knows how to take crime seriously.

DVD Review: Vexed, Series 1

How often have you heard two people working together closely referred to as being just like a married couple? It doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re two men, two women or two people of the opposite sex. It usually refers to a type of working relationship in which the couple have become so comfortable working with each other they can complete each other’s sentences and casual bickering hides a depth of feelings between them. These types of relationships often develop in jobs where the two have developed a great deal of trust in each other over the years. It’s not surprising to find this type of relationship between police officers who have been partnered for an extended period of time.

Of course this type of camaraderie doesn’t develop overnight, and in some instances might not ever develop. Even the most ideal partnerships had to have had their start somewhere and gone through a certain amount of growing pains. Trust isn’t earned overnight after all and not everyone who you’re partnered with is automatically going to be compatible. In fact, as in any sort of relationship, there’s always the chance a partnership between two cops isn’t going work out.

Vexed, Series 1, released on DVD by Acorn Media, is a British police procedural featuring two officers in the initial stages of a partnership. Detective Inspector (DI) Kate Bishop (Lucy Punch) has just moved to London with her husband in the hopes of advancing both their careers. She’s a dedicated, hard working and ambitious officer with hopes of climbing the career ladder. So being partnered with an experienced officer, Detective Inspector Jack Armstrong (Toby Stephens) should fit her plans perfectly.

Unfortunately she soon discovers DI Armstrong is quite content to coast through life enjoying himself as much as possible. Which means doing his best to make certain police work interferes with more important matters, like being fitted for a suit, as little as possible. While DI Bishop is quite prepared to put in whatever extra hours are required to solve a case, Armstrong works strictly to the clock. He could be in the middle of a murder investigation, but when quitting time comes he’s off the case and happily ensconced in his favourite cafe before the clock finishes striking the hour. In fact he’s managed to work things so well he almost never has to set foot in the police station and does everything from interviewing witnesses to receiving pathology reports while enjoying a good meal and a glass of wine.

To the highly ambitious, by the book, and do everything according to the rules Bishop this type of behaviour doesn’t sit very well. Normally in this kind of show it becomes a case of opposites attracting and the two officers, at the least, develop a good working relationship based on mutual respect. They might be different but they sure do work well together. However that’s not the case here. Investigating what appears to be the work of a murderer who preys on lonely women, Bishop discovers Armstrong is not only lazy, he’s also callous, judgemental and quick to jump to conclusions. However, that doesn’t stop her from taking his advice and renting the flat of one of the murder victims. This leads to a very funny scene of her being led around the apartment by an estate agent with the victim’s body still laid out on the floor. Armstrong’s best contribution involves advice on the placement of the couch and TV so they can be used to cover up the blood stain on the carpet.

However, when you don’t have anyone else to talk to, as is the case for the newly arrived to London Bishop, if you spend the entire day in close contact with a person you develop a kind of intimacy almost in spite of yourself. Which is how she ends up confiding in Armstrong her worries about her husband’s infidelity. When they discover the murderer has cracked the computer system of a shopping rewards program – earn points and win prizes – by using the shopping habits revealed by people’s receipts to pick out targets, they both use the system to find out information for personal reasons. Armstrong wants to find out information about a girl he’s interested in picking up while Bishop is hunting for proof her husband is fooling around.

Somehow or other the two still manage to find a way to solve the murders, even though their first two suspects are completely innocent. However, they end up making more than a bit of a mess of their personal lives leaving them both single. While this doesn’t necessarily improve their working relationship, they try to make the best of it as neither has anyone else in their lives. The more we get to know both characters, the more we realize they each could stand to learn a little from the other. If Armstrong were ever to start thinking of anything more than just his own personal self-gratification and take a lesson from Bishop in dedication he has the potential to be a decent cop and a good person. On the other hand, if Bishop were to take a leaf from Armstrong’s book and be a little more relaxed she might not have quite the number of problems she does on the home front.

The three episodes in Series 1 see the two officers solve a series of murders, protect an investment banker convicted of bilking clients for millions against the threat of assassination and deal with the kidnapping of the member of an all girl pop music trio. Somehow they manage to solve each case almost in spite of themselves, and at the same time begin to grudgingly respect each other. At times it seems like the crimes they solve are almost incidental to the action. However, just when you’re about to wash your hands of the two of them, they remind you that you have to have some policing skills to have obtained the rank of Detective Inspector. When Armstrong can be stirred from his navel gazing and Bishop can bring her head down out of the clouds they end up working quite well together.

Both Punch and Stephens are gifted comic actors. On top of that, they both know how to straddle the line between keeping  characters likeable in spite of their flaws. They are helped by scripts that never descend to the level of one-liners. Instead the comedy develops out of the interplay between the two characters and their behaviour in given circumstances, Even better is the fact the writers have gone out of their way to give the characters enough material to work with that neither of them are completely one dimensional. So occasionally we see a spark of genuine emotion from Armstrong instead of his usual glibness and cracks in Bishop’s veneer of professionalism.

Even better, is that when it comes right down to it, they are still police officers, and when they have to they take their jobs seriously. While the show is primarily a comedy, it doesn’t cheapen itself by taking the subjects of murder or kidnapping lightly by treating them as jokes. We’re meant to laugh at the foibles of the two main characters not the victims or the crimes. Even when Armstrong makes demeaning comments about those in the episodes with them, we aren’t invited to laugh along with him. Rather we are invited to laugh at him for being so insensitive and rude.

The course of some relationships run smoother than others. In the case of the working relationship between DI Bishop and DI Armstrong in the British police comedy Vexed there are definitely a number of bumps in the road over the course of the three episodes in Series 1. However in spite of the inevitable humour resulting from their clashes, and the occasional bungles they make of their jobs because of them, the seriousness of their work is never in doubt. Not only is this show a lot of fun, but it will also surprise you with its grown up attitude to police work.

While there’s not much in the way of special features included with the set (a photo galley and the show’s trailer) you won’t miss them. Watching a police procedural comedy that knows how to take crime seriously is enough of an attraction that you don’t need any extra incentives to watch this show.

About Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of three books commissioned by Ulysses Press, "What Will Happen In Eragon IV?" (2009) and "The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion" and "Introduction to Greek Mythology For Kids". Aside from Blogcritics he contributes to Qantara.de and his work has appeared in the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been translated into numerous languages in multiple publications.

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