The Shadow Line (2011)

Confusing, bloody, stylised and absolutely brilliant, The Shadow Line seemed to me as near perfect as a mini series can be. I imagine that's partly because the writer-producer-director Hugo Blick's multi-hyphenate creative status allowed him to stay true to his vision for the drama without toning things down for the masses. I'm itching to rewatch the whole thing to catch bits I missed, or to understand earlier scenes in light of later revelations, and to simply drink in the whole production. 

Some have criticised the drama for being glacially slow and over-mannered in terms of the acting, but for me the slow burn really drew me into the murky-yet-recognisable world. Not a world with comic book violence where death is clean with no jagged edges, the camera of The Shadow Line explored the horrible exit wounds, the surprising blood spatter, the reality of violence, and it's a violence that happens in an instant and is then gone, without fanfare. Telling a tale of corrupt cops, drug dealers and double-crossing, the piece (I think calling it a 'show' does it a disservice) also has a very human side to the drama, in the relationship between Joseph Bede (Christopher Eccleston) and his wife (Lesley Sharp), struggling with her early-onset dementia, or the other lead, amnesiac cop Jonah Gabrial (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his attempts to get pregnant with his wife (Clare Calbraith). There are moments of levity, but mostly there's a nervousness, an impending doom of sorts. 

That doom has a name, Gatehouse, played magnificently by Stephen Rea, a cold, trilby-topped assassin with a charming patter and an amazing ability to survive. I found it all plausible and dramatically believeable, even Rafe Spall's mesmerisingly manic Jay Wratten, who comes across as a young Heath Ledger-as-The-Joker. Layers of menace atop intrigue, shocks and a haunting soundtrack, including the opening title music, all add up to a deliciously dark and immersive experience. I don't think I've gushed over a drama quite so much before, but The Shadow Line really hit all the right notes for me. That last episode was a shocker too, piling up the revelations and the bodies, confirming that no one is really good or evil, but continuously walking the line between shadow and light.