TV REVIEW: New Blood Case Two

Arrash and Stefan
Image Source: digitalspy.com

Stefan and Arrash are back! In case two of the BBC’s new explosive crime drama our two lovable investigators end up once more coincidentally working the same case whilst being fully unaware of it. Anybody else think their bosses must be in cahoots? With the second case only compromising of two hour long episodes instead of three, how did the show fare with developing on its great premiere?

The case opens with the ‘accidental’ (secretly very not accidental murder) death of a polish worker, Adam, on a construction site- the construction site of London’s newest- and largely not wanted- skyscraper, the Scimitar. When the generator goes wrong after our nameless bad guy tinkers with it and it blows- literally, blows right up- in poor Adam’s face, most want to write it off as a case of wrong place wrong time. But once again, Trainee Detective Arrash Sayyad is the one to spot the suspicious: somebody else had been near the generator before it went loco. Add that to the fact that the unfortunate Adam had recently run into a lump of mysterious money, and Arrash, certain there’s more to the story, digs a little deeper.

Image Source: bbc.co.uk
Image Source:
bbc.co.uk

So how did this episode compare to the last? In this girl’s humble opinion, very well indeed! With the dynamic duo still struggling in their flat hunt, tensions rise as their natural competitiveness and troubles at work start to cause conflict for the pair. Arrash once again gets himself into a whole world of trouble as he ends up assaulting a fellow police officer and messing up a stakeout- and when I say he messes up, I REALLY mean it. Meanwhile Stefan is once again dressing up and peeking into people’s accounts, and manages to get himself bitten by a dog while he’s at it. With the search for why anybody would blow up a construction worker taking them to a shady antique dealer who enjoys threatening police officers and doesn’t try to hide it, the boys soon wind up in danger.

The acting was once again superb, proving that giving the two leads to younger, inexperienced actors was a good decision. Seeing Arrash and Stefan stumbling around drunk and slurring their words had me laughing out loud, the script still delivering great dialogue for them to play with. The supporting actors play their roles brilliantly as well- Mark Bonnar stands out as the manipulative and seemingly unpopular Peter Mayhew, government health advisor and meddler in the SFO’s business. Anna Chancellor is also shining as the strict and bluntly honest head of the SFO.

The show is certainly doing its job of appealing to a wider audience, with younger viewers being pulled in by the younger actors and fast pacing. The show has definitely established itself as a different kind of detective drama- there’s no ongoing scenes with old, seasoned detectives gazing out of windows or into fires with a glass of scotch in one hand. With its tactic of pulling in the younger viewers by releasing the cases on iPlayer before they hit the TV so the binge-watching generation can sit and watch the whole story working well, the show looks like its got a promising future.

Case three will be hitting BBC iPlayer in July.

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