Reviews

The crimes and resolutions profiled in DCI Banks are generally interesting, and sometimes surprising. The show is marred however, because about 40% of every episode is devoted to exploring the tortured personal lives and difficult relationships of the main characters. That, and the fact that the majority of victims and suspects for each episode are friends or relations of the police detectives. Perhaps Yorkshire could use another police force to investigate crimes not involving members of the force? If so, maybe they could focus the series on that one instead.

The cold cases described are often fairly interesting, although the plots are very formulaic, usually starting with the most obvious suspect, then proceeding down a line of other potential suspects until they find they real perp, who was a character you barely noticed at the beginning.

My real problem with the show is that it typically spends about one third of each episode on some personal challenge of a main cast member - love triangle, criminal charges against a detective, whatever - about characters that I have not really been persuaded to care about that much.