The Killing Times’ Top Crime Dramas Of The Year 2015: Part Three, 5-1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

Once you lay out your favourite crime dramas of the year, you see certain themes and ideas replicated. We saw a bit of The Bridge in Witnesses; there was a bit of River in The Bridge, and so on. What was clear from looking back at this year’s cream of the crop was that the standard was incredibly high in 2015, without actually producing a masterpiece like a True Detective series one or a Broadchurch series one. There were plenty of outstanding moments, performances and bits, for sure, but I would say that only the top three of this list approached total awesomeness. And, I have to say, I went back and forth on our top three because each had a case to be number one. In fact, I changed positions right up until the moment I settled down to write this list. See what you think of our Top Five…

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Review: River (S1 E6/6), Tuesday 15th November, BBC1

Photographer: Nick Briggs

“The closer you get to the truth, the further you get away from me. An then you’ll see who I really am. Solve this, Mr Magoo, and you know what happens.” This was the inescapable truth. We were being set up for an emotional climax, a climax that would contain something that I and River dreaded – saying goodbye to Stevie.

River finale: Who killed Stevie?

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

River has definitely divided critics and viewers alike during its five-part run, and its sixth, final episode this Tuesday still has some questions to answer. Leave aside all the manifest business, there’s a murder to solve here – that of his beloved partner, Jackie ‘Stevie’ Stevenson. Yes, we want to know if River can vanquish his demons and start on the road to recovery, but we also want to know who killed Stevie. Who are the suspects?

Review: River (S1 E5/6), Tuesday 10th November, BBC1

 (C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

We left River having grave suspicions about Chrissie Read’s husband, Tom, and he wasted no time in confronting him. That’s one of the things I like about this series – it confronts things head-on and doesn’t leave things to fester. This confrontation with his friend’s partner meant that they were both now implicated in the case, which was bad news for Chrissie and bad news for River – he needed to display the kind of tact he had been incapable of showing in previous episodes.

Is River ‘an absolute stinker from top to bottom’?

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

There was an interesting article on the Radio Times website yesterday (have a read of it here) from a respected journalist who presented a fulsome argument against River, Abi Morgan’s six-part thriller-with-a-difference. The headline itself – Why River Is A Stinker, From Top To Bottom – leaves us no doubt which way Alison Graham’s argument is going to go. But is she right?

Review: River (S1 E4/6), Tuesday 3rd November, BBC1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

Straight away the pace and the intensity of this episode was a notch above episode three, mainly because the search was on for Haider – the man who worked at Crystal Kebabs and the man Stevie was spotted in an embrace with on CCTV. The investigation took River and Ira (and Chrissie now) into the world of Somalian refugees. What could have been a hackneyed view of these economic migrants panned out into something sensitive and heartbreaking.

The 10 Best Crime Dramas This Week (Monday 2nd – Sunday 8th November)

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

Here we go then – another week of murder, mayhem and shrewd detective work. But this week is a bit of a rarity, as there doesn’t seem to be anything new starting, which is a blessed relief. There’s enough to be catching up with! 

Review: River (S1 E3/6), Tuesday 27th October, BBC1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

After two episodes of this well-made crime drama we had gone from cooing over the relationship between John River (Stellan Skarsgard) and Jackie ‘Stevie’ Stevenson (Nicola Walker) and their perfectly meshed, affectionate chalk-and-cheese dynamic to not quite knowing who Stevie was or is anymore. Not quite an unreliable narrator, but certainly an unreliable character. So the question remained: who was Stevie?

Review: River (S1 E2/6), Wednesday 21st October, BBC1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

In the first episode of this six-part series we were introduced to John River and his partner Stevie. One was taciturn, sullen while the other was bubbly, lively and liked to laugh. It was another classic instance of a chalk-and-cheese police double act: one ego, one id; one light, one dark; and, in this case, one alive and one dead. yes, the big twist in this series is that River’s partner Stevie was shot dead two weeks before this story started, and the person we see on-screen is River’s ‘manifest’ of her – a construct from his subconscious to aid him in his grief. What could have turned out to be a cheesy ghostfest was turned into something of sensitivity, depth and poignancy by writer Abi Morgan and an outstanding case, led by Stellan Skarsgård and Nicola Walker.

Review: River (S1 E1/6), Tuesday 13th October, BBC1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

For this Abi Morgan-penned six-parter the BBC has assembled some serious talent. Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård and British favourite Nicola Walker are a bit of a dream team, and anything created by Morgan is absolutely worth a watch. But of course this pedigree doesn’t guarantee a good series. Thankfully River turns out to be pretty much everything you hope it would be – all your favourite tortured cop tropes and character traits, but with a different twist.