Not bad , not great, although it had it's moments. It's been almost 10 years since we've seen Fitz he soon gets back into the swing of things in a Manchester looking very different from when he left. He had not aged much, slightly grayer maybe but his wife (Barbara Flynn) looked like she had been the one pounding the bottle for the last few years rather than him, ---- the years had not been kind to her!
However, he comes back to the UK for a wedding after being in Australia for the last 7 years and soon gets embroiled in a murder investigation. Despite misgivings from the new boss he soon finds his feet and once involved starts to run rings around his new colleagues with his analysis. I thought that the writing was mediocre but it was the direction, production but more importantly the music score and sound that accompanied the relevant scenes which really created the atmosphere. I liked the flash backs and the camera angles and overall it was absorbing and compelling viewing, although I'd have to say the ending was somewhat predictable!
As with many Cracker episodes the killer (played brilliantly by Anthony Flanagan)named Kenny came across as believable as the troubled former soldier who years later was suffering from 'post pneumatic stress disorder' as a result of his tours in Northern Ireland. Not only did he see some of his best mates killed but was haunted by the spectacle of kids helping the terrorists and their laughing at the resulting carnage. What upset him was that with the "war on terror" had now taken center stage in the mind of the public and he clearly resented all the attention given to the Iraq war after the losses the British army took in Ulster. More importantly he was bitter, as he thought, about Americas new found outrage about fighting terrorist groups which he regarded as hypocritical. In his agitated state he turned to drink as a way of coping which not surprisingly only made his emotional trauma worse.
However, what sent him over the top was while visiting a Manchester night spot he was tormented by a grinning stand up comic from New York making jokes about Northern Ireland's war compared to the post 9/11 global environment. Kenny in his unstable mental state didn't see the funny side and regarded this as mocking the dead and making fun of his military service. The comedian who is of Irish-American extraction (his name was Malloy) soon had the smile wiped off his face as Kenny using skills he learned in the army unceremoniously breaks his neck while visiting the bathroom.
As the episode unraveled we were introduced to another American who knew the Malloy family. He was crass, arrogant, conceited, cocky and a philanderer to boot who was portrayed as the "ugly American". He made the mistake of being rude to Kenny, who of course took exception to this. Kenny paid him a visit to even the score and so he became the next victim who was also done in by same gruesome manner as the comic. Kenny finished off his rampage by using a baseball bat to pound in the face of a drug addict (note: not a cricket bat) who was a witness to his first killing and just for good measure blew up his apartment to make it look like a gas explosion.
US viewers might feel that there was an anti-American bias to the episode, especially when Kenny rambled on about the USA financing the IRA and the global heroin explosion as a result of America removing the Taleban from Afghanistan. This was clumsily done by the writers because Kenny was imbalanced and clearly coming apart. To allow the viewer to hear his rants while at no time having this view point challenged left an unfair impression. I would have thought that Fitz would have been given the opportunity to counter Kenny's feelings when interviewing him later on, but it didn't happen. American viewers might feel a bit miffed about that!
In conclusion I feel that the most important message will be missed. The effects of war turned Kenny into a monster. I'm not sure why this is always viewed as being left wing, post pneumatic stress disorder affects a lot of soldiers, regardless of their political views. He had a great family, a career and his whole life ahead of him but he was riddled with rage! Perhaps if you can kill in combat, killing in civy street comes easy too, war dehumanizes people! He was trained to kill with his bare hands and also learned all of the tricks of the trade, he could have been an assassin. When all things are said and done I wonder how many Kennys there will be in the future roaming around the UK and the USA ? Surly that's worth thinking about!
However, he comes back to the UK for a wedding after being in Australia for the last 7 years and soon gets embroiled in a murder investigation. Despite misgivings from the new boss he soon finds his feet and once involved starts to run rings around his new colleagues with his analysis. I thought that the writing was mediocre but it was the direction, production but more importantly the music score and sound that accompanied the relevant scenes which really created the atmosphere. I liked the flash backs and the camera angles and overall it was absorbing and compelling viewing, although I'd have to say the ending was somewhat predictable!
As with many Cracker episodes the killer (played brilliantly by Anthony Flanagan)named Kenny came across as believable as the troubled former soldier who years later was suffering from 'post pneumatic stress disorder' as a result of his tours in Northern Ireland. Not only did he see some of his best mates killed but was haunted by the spectacle of kids helping the terrorists and their laughing at the resulting carnage. What upset him was that with the "war on terror" had now taken center stage in the mind of the public and he clearly resented all the attention given to the Iraq war after the losses the British army took in Ulster. More importantly he was bitter, as he thought, about Americas new found outrage about fighting terrorist groups which he regarded as hypocritical. In his agitated state he turned to drink as a way of coping which not surprisingly only made his emotional trauma worse.
However, what sent him over the top was while visiting a Manchester night spot he was tormented by a grinning stand up comic from New York making jokes about Northern Ireland's war compared to the post 9/11 global environment. Kenny in his unstable mental state didn't see the funny side and regarded this as mocking the dead and making fun of his military service. The comedian who is of Irish-American extraction (his name was Malloy) soon had the smile wiped off his face as Kenny using skills he learned in the army unceremoniously breaks his neck while visiting the bathroom.
As the episode unraveled we were introduced to another American who knew the Malloy family. He was crass, arrogant, conceited, cocky and a philanderer to boot who was portrayed as the "ugly American". He made the mistake of being rude to Kenny, who of course took exception to this. Kenny paid him a visit to even the score and so he became the next victim who was also done in by same gruesome manner as the comic. Kenny finished off his rampage by using a baseball bat to pound in the face of a drug addict (note: not a cricket bat) who was a witness to his first killing and just for good measure blew up his apartment to make it look like a gas explosion.
US viewers might feel that there was an anti-American bias to the episode, especially when Kenny rambled on about the USA financing the IRA and the global heroin explosion as a result of America removing the Taleban from Afghanistan. This was clumsily done by the writers because Kenny was imbalanced and clearly coming apart. To allow the viewer to hear his rants while at no time having this view point challenged left an unfair impression. I would have thought that Fitz would have been given the opportunity to counter Kenny's feelings when interviewing him later on, but it didn't happen. American viewers might feel a bit miffed about that!
In conclusion I feel that the most important message will be missed. The effects of war turned Kenny into a monster. I'm not sure why this is always viewed as being left wing, post pneumatic stress disorder affects a lot of soldiers, regardless of their political views. He had a great family, a career and his whole life ahead of him but he was riddled with rage! Perhaps if you can kill in combat, killing in civy street comes easy too, war dehumanizes people! He was trained to kill with his bare hands and also learned all of the tricks of the trade, he could have been an assassin. When all things are said and done I wonder how many Kennys there will be in the future roaming around the UK and the USA ? Surly that's worth thinking about!