Season1#1A Disastrous Affair:Summary and Review

An innocent man gets killed in a counter-terrorist police raid while raiding the wrong flat. DS Steve Arnott faces disgrace and refuses to be a part of the cover-up. Hence, he is transferred to the anti-corruption squad, AC-12, which is led by Superintendent Ted Hastings.

 

Arnott is informed about his first case that focuses on investigating DCI Tony Gates, the senior officer in Central Police CID who was recently awarded a medal for heroic conduct but with a suspiciously high arrest rate. Initially, Hastings tries to get Gates on minor bribery charges but fails.

 

Married Gates reassures his lover, businesswoman Jackie Laverty, as he helps cover up a fatal hit-and-run by her by faking a break-in at her home while she had already reported her car stolen. Later, Gates urges Laverty to come clean when he discovers that Laverty killed a man, and not a dog as she claimed.

 

Meanwhile, DC Kate Fleming joins Gates's team and tells Arnott that she is investigating Gates from the inside as she is undercover for AC-12. While surveying two suspected drug dealers, Cottan and Kapoor leave their post early and the dealers are found murdered the next day. Jackie arrives at the police station and gives a statement to a civilian employee that coincides with her claim that her car was stolen without disclosing her part in victim’s death.

 

Gates wants Jackie to tell the plan, he organized to the police. However, she had refused, leaving gates angry with her decision, which could put him at risk.

 

Sponsored Link

 

As with any good British drama, bureaucracy is about as evil as actual corruption. Jed Mercurio is always right on the small frustrations of working life in big institutions and thus we were repeatedly shown how the police department is hampered by stats, red tape and the desire to hit targets.

 

According to me, the first episode was taut, tightly scripted and well-acted all around. I felt a whole gamut of emotions from thrilling, intrigued, shocked, horrified, bewildered, disappointed, pleased, and the list goes on. It is also a show which gets steadily stronger as the episode improves.

 

The acting is excellent, and the storyline is riveting. The episode has many plot twists and turns that keep you on your toes wondering and guessing who the real villains are. For audience engagement, it doesn't get better than this.

 

THEME OF THE EPISODE

Changing the story was a main topic in the first episode. Our wide-eyed hero, DS Steve Arnott (played with just the right amount of sanctimony and confusion) refuses to believe in the story his fellow anti-corruption officers want him to tell.

 

The nervy Jackie Laverty changes her tale throughout the first episode (and never comes close to telling Tony Gates the truth). On the other hand, Kate Fleming is creating a narrative in which she is one of the lads, an ambitious female copper desperate to join the big league, but it is all smoke and mirrors to disguise the fact that she's undercover for AC-12.

 

TWISTS I LIKED

• I liked the twist that Kate Fleming was an undercover mole. I was not expecting her to be an important character of the show but turns out that she is a part of AC-12 and is actively investigating Gates from inside.
• The plot point that really had me excited and cheering was the revelation Jackie Laverty may have deliberately murdered her accountant and been playing her lover Tony Gates all along. It was wholly unexpected yet convincing.

 

THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS

In the first episode, it is nearly impossible to decide that who are the good guys and who are the bad ones. One of such characters is DSI Tony Gates. There are so many questions related to the character in my mind. As he could be classified as a good officer or a bad officer from his actions.

 

Is he someone who makes a mistake for love or someone who has hovered so close to corruption for so long that making that mistake is easier than you might think?

 

Is he, as DS Steve Arnott points out, an officer who has had to be twice as good as everyone else to get where he has? Or someone, as Hastings thinks, who is too good to be true? There are other questions also: how far is he prepared to go? And how now have he and his team already gone?

 

A subtle but charismatic performance which ensured that you couldn't help but support DSI Tony Gates even as you recognize his actions will surely doom him. Can Gates really be as good as he appears? Arnott must engage in a cat-and-mouse struggle to uncover Gates' secret.

 

Sponsored Link