In Hermione Norris’ final season with the show, Series 3 of Wire in the Blood goes dark
“The longer it goes on, the worse it will get”
There’s a slight sense of clutching at straws with some of the storytelling in Series 3 of Wire in the Blood. A mugging lays Carol up in bed for most of the first episode, a rushed brain tumour diagnosis for Tony, plus resolution, takes up space in the final episode, telling stories about crimes alone apparently just isn’t enough any more. It’s not an unfamiliar move for a long-running crime show but it is a tricky balancing act between deepening the narrative and distracting from it.
The psychological crime thriller remains largely on track for the most part – the first story Redemption features a serial killer of children and a sniper runs amok in Bradfield in the last to great effect. And with a growing familiarity of the team working around Carol and Tony (Mark Letheren and Emma Handy both increasingly effective), the universe of the show has settled into a compelling and accessible one, getting its hooks well into its audience.
So it is a bit of a shame that there’s an insistence on adding in these false threats of jeopardy for the leads, effortful twists that rarely convince or make substantive impacts on the plots. And there’s something inevitably underwhelming about Hermione Norris’ last appearance, her departure from the show coming off-screen due to leaving for reasons unknown (presumably getting the role of Ros in Spooks…). We might have wanted more closure but that’s not always the way.
