In a nutshell, series 2 ruined the greatness of series 1. Not because of the murder story in the second series, which was as intriguing as it should have been, but because of the interminable extra bits. Unnecessary and just confusing.
His sister's affair with a victim's sister, his nephew's cross-dressing, his step-father's last-minute revelation of a knowledge of the event that had traumatised the lead character since childhood. All of this was unrequired in a detective series.
Everyone seemed to have a secret connection to someone else in the story. Too many coincidences re who knew who. This made the sub-plots unlikely; and thus irritating. There was a young cop who couldn't shut his mouth (an unlikely character in the police force, I'd hope), sexual dalliances that were also ridiculously superfluous, a daft comedy scene of twin-like lookalikes that was completely unneccessary, and an older cop that was a perv in secret. Not to mention an anti-Christian story segment that - though the 2 'Christians' were complete hypocrites and deeply dislikeable - was again extraneous to the crime story. There was far too many side-lines in the drama.
Few of these parts gelled with any other part of the story. The programme began to look like a badly storyboarded production, rather than the super programme of series 1 that I'd planned to rate 8 stars.
The extra story parts made me wonder at times what I was watching; a crime show, a comedy, a family soap, or a posh-porn drama?
A slightly gratuitous nastiness/vulgarity began to be seen as the episodes ran on. One could of course say that this was the effect of the author Irvine Welsh - after all he wrote 'Trainspotting' and 'Filth' which are both very violent and edgy - but it seemed largely unjustifiable in the story.
All the sub-parts seemed unnecessary. And, frankly, the connections between them - and their connection to the main story concept, the crime - were badly written. At times the script veered all over the place. The segues required between the story components weren't present.
It was as if several scenes had not been completed by the story creators before the drama was made. Bad editing all over. Resulting in a poor exposition.
Even in the final scenes we are left unclear as to what is going to happen on several levels: what does Lennox's "See you on Monday" meean? As he had just emptied his office, was he not off to a new life? At times the end scenes made me sense a bad US TV movie was being played out on the screen; schmaltzy and saccharine. And that is not what I had watched in the first series, nor tuned in to watch in this second series. As a TV viewer, I don't like being played with, or misled . . . It's dishonest.
Overall, the most likeable parts of this second series were the continued story of how Lennox's past was still affecting him: a believable depiction of extreme stress on the human mind, PTSD, and the effects of triggering. Plus there was a watchable and good element in the detective work Lennox carried out on the murders: we saw key cop procedural processes, ending in a solution to the puzzle. If the viewer could ignore all the irrelevant side-plots then the drama offers a good whodunnit.
And I believed in the character of his boss, played by the great Ken Stott. And the part was cleanly written in this second series. Stott's character's frustration at having to adapt to new work terms and protocols was bang on for a man his age in the workplace. And I have to mention his witty scriptline homaging TV's 'Taggart' - "There's been a mu...". This was the one funny part in the series that seemed appropriate to the drama.
The series lacked much warmth, and at times the relationships between too many of the parties became salacious and sadistic. This was implausible. If a human is flawed it doesn't mean they are psychopathic. The only kind and healthy association within the story was between the police boss and Lennox. It was the only heartwarming human connection in the drama.
At least the acting in the production was good. The camaraderie between the boss and Lennox was well played. And Dougray Scott was superb in the role, as he was in series 1.
But, sadly, the negatives - such as the lack of cohesion and purpose in the production - overcame the combined positive qualities of the drama. So in the end my planned rating of 8 for the production was dropped to 5. Too much was added in for the second series, and it just drowned out the clarity of the main part of the story.
His sister's affair with a victim's sister, his nephew's cross-dressing, his step-father's last-minute revelation of a knowledge of the event that had traumatised the lead character since childhood. All of this was unrequired in a detective series.
Everyone seemed to have a secret connection to someone else in the story. Too many coincidences re who knew who. This made the sub-plots unlikely; and thus irritating. There was a young cop who couldn't shut his mouth (an unlikely character in the police force, I'd hope), sexual dalliances that were also ridiculously superfluous, a daft comedy scene of twin-like lookalikes that was completely unneccessary, and an older cop that was a perv in secret. Not to mention an anti-Christian story segment that - though the 2 'Christians' were complete hypocrites and deeply dislikeable - was again extraneous to the crime story. There was far too many side-lines in the drama.
Few of these parts gelled with any other part of the story. The programme began to look like a badly storyboarded production, rather than the super programme of series 1 that I'd planned to rate 8 stars.
The extra story parts made me wonder at times what I was watching; a crime show, a comedy, a family soap, or a posh-porn drama?
A slightly gratuitous nastiness/vulgarity began to be seen as the episodes ran on. One could of course say that this was the effect of the author Irvine Welsh - after all he wrote 'Trainspotting' and 'Filth' which are both very violent and edgy - but it seemed largely unjustifiable in the story.
All the sub-parts seemed unnecessary. And, frankly, the connections between them - and their connection to the main story concept, the crime - were badly written. At times the script veered all over the place. The segues required between the story components weren't present.
It was as if several scenes had not been completed by the story creators before the drama was made. Bad editing all over. Resulting in a poor exposition.
Even in the final scenes we are left unclear as to what is going to happen on several levels: what does Lennox's "See you on Monday" meean? As he had just emptied his office, was he not off to a new life? At times the end scenes made me sense a bad US TV movie was being played out on the screen; schmaltzy and saccharine. And that is not what I had watched in the first series, nor tuned in to watch in this second series. As a TV viewer, I don't like being played with, or misled . . . It's dishonest.
Overall, the most likeable parts of this second series were the continued story of how Lennox's past was still affecting him: a believable depiction of extreme stress on the human mind, PTSD, and the effects of triggering. Plus there was a watchable and good element in the detective work Lennox carried out on the murders: we saw key cop procedural processes, ending in a solution to the puzzle. If the viewer could ignore all the irrelevant side-plots then the drama offers a good whodunnit.
And I believed in the character of his boss, played by the great Ken Stott. And the part was cleanly written in this second series. Stott's character's frustration at having to adapt to new work terms and protocols was bang on for a man his age in the workplace. And I have to mention his witty scriptline homaging TV's 'Taggart' - "There's been a mu...". This was the one funny part in the series that seemed appropriate to the drama.
The series lacked much warmth, and at times the relationships between too many of the parties became salacious and sadistic. This was implausible. If a human is flawed it doesn't mean they are psychopathic. The only kind and healthy association within the story was between the police boss and Lennox. It was the only heartwarming human connection in the drama.
At least the acting in the production was good. The camaraderie between the boss and Lennox was well played. And Dougray Scott was superb in the role, as he was in series 1.
But, sadly, the negatives - such as the lack of cohesion and purpose in the production - overcame the combined positive qualities of the drama. So in the end my planned rating of 8 for the production was dropped to 5. Too much was added in for the second series, and it just drowned out the clarity of the main part of the story.