Wed 9 Sep 2020
A British TV Episode Review: VEXED “Episode One†(2010).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[5] Comments
VEXED “Episode One.†BBC Two, 60m, 15 August 2010, Toby Stephens as D.I. Jack Armstrong, Lucy Punch as D.I. Kate Bishop, Roger Griffiths. Created and written by Howard Overman, Director: Matt Lipsey. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Acorn TV.
It is difficult to tell what the creators of this series had in mind that would make it stand out amidst all of the other male-female cop series that have been on the air over the past few years. Perhaps it is its light-hearted approach to crime-solving, such as stepping over the latest murder victim back and forth several times as this episode begins in order to evaluate her apartment as a possible rental.
He (DI Jack Armstrong and the senior partner) is lazy, unorganized but is in his own inimitable way, charming. She (DI Kate Bishop) is neat, efficient and therefore totally exasperated with her new partner on the force. So of course they mix it up together like cats and dogs. Another aspect of Bishop’s role in the series is that she is worried that her husband is straying from their marriage, while Armstrong shows that he is not quite the ladies’ man he would like to pretend he is.
This all ties in with what they discover as they tackle their current case. The three women all had loyalty cards with the same store, and someone with access to the accumulated data on their customers could find lonely women to be easily preyed upon. This also gives Armstrong the means to meet by “chance†a woman he saw in a supermarket, while Bishop uses it to spy on her husband.
In spite of all these threads running concurrently, they don’t really mesh all that well. Both the story and the characters involved are easy enough on the eyes, however, without straining too many brain cells, and the show managed to stay on the air for two seasons, albeit with a a two year separation between them.
Perhaps, if I give them the opportunity, the characters will grow on me as well.
September 10th, 2020 at 8:06 am
We tried it, but for all the reasons you stated, we couldn’t get through even one obnoxious episode. Too many other, better, shows to waste time on this. Stephens, of course, is the son of Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith. His older brother (who uses the stage name Chris Larkin so as not to trade on the family name to get roles, is also an actor.
September 10th, 2020 at 8:19 am
I added that last sentence of my review at the last minute. It was strange. I found I liked this first episode a lot more while I was writing it up than while I was watching it.
It is a sizable “if,” though.
September 10th, 2020 at 7:04 pm
I like Stephens, BBC Radio’s James Bond (and the villain in DIE ANOTHER DAY) and Philip Marlowe in the latest round of dramatized Chandler novels, and star of Netflix LOST IN SPACE, but this feels like a hard pass.
September 10th, 2020 at 7:11 pm
I’ve decided to give Episode Two a try. I don’t give letter grades to things I review any more, but if I did, I’d give Episode One a solid C. Which way the series goes from here I will know very quickly.
September 11th, 2020 at 2:42 pm
I watched Episode Two last night, and, well, I liked it. The humor, crude and overdone as it was, made me laugh out three or four times, often in surprise, when I didn’t see the punch line coming.
There is still too much emphasis on Bishop’s marital problems, but she seems to be a good sport about it. Armstrong is still trying very hard to give goofball antics a good name, but to make him more human, I guess, a lady doctor he is trying to have an affair with has just found a lump in his right testicle.
And David, you are right. Stephens who plays him, does have the voice of a James Bond on the radio, provided he plays he straight, which I’m sure he can.