Episode #2.1

While being a follower of the season, it is for the first time that I am viewing the full series in order.

I am developing a sense of frustration as I watch Rupert Penry-Jones playing DI Joseph Chandler exhibiting his character flaw as an "OCD" sufferer who, when under pressure becomes paralysed with inaction other than to count coloured markers - now really! Add to this the naivity of the entire crew who stroll the streets even though they know they are at war with the Crayes, but without a clue that they are making themselves targets for a mob which is not adverse to kidnapping police (as they did, DI CHandler, but who mentions nothing of this fact to his peers, saying only that he had a "meeting" with the Crayes, and thus not warning his fellow officers). The last straw is the level of information they are happy to divulge to the bogus representative supposedly from the CPS, and on learning of their stupidity are unable to even get so much as a car registration plates (don't tell me there's no CCTV around the station, or that they can't identify and charge the impersonator. Sorry, no, there's more: Why hasn't the Police integrity/Oversight department been advised and involved in what plainly is Police Corruption at the highest levels. Instead we find no inclination to involve anyone of significance from outside their department.

If this descent into improbability continues throughout the series, I will not waste my time and patience.

After failing to catch the new Ripper, the gang awaits a crime worth investigating. Even though we all know what happened to the Ripper, Chandler is thought to be ineffective. Here we have a beginning of a set of copycats that pattern themselves after a vicious family called the Crays. Once again Buchan offers his services, an expert on more criminals than Jack the Ripper. The guys begin to investigate some horrible murders. One man's brain has been removed. There are victims who have recovered from having been cut up by these guys. Once again, Chandler and his men receive no respect at all from the powers that be. It is assumed that many of the police are confederates to the Crays. This one really reaches, but I am enjoying it.