Martin Freeman returns in the most exciting and tense police drama in years

Responder
★★★★★
SBS, Thursday, 9:50pm

Martin Freeman returns for the second season of one of the best and most intense police dramas in recent memory. Two years ago, we were introduced to Chris Carson, a Liverpool police officer working the night shift in Emergency Response, dealing with a rotating cast of addicts, the mentally ill, the homeless and the lonely. Created and written by former police officer Tony Schumacher, Responser It depicts both civilian life and police life in an underfunded police force.

Last season, Chris was involved in the murder of local drug dealer Carl (Ian Hart), and all of this, combined with his troubled marriage (to Myanna Berlin’s Kate), the death of his mother (Rita Tushingham), and unprocessed childhood trauma from his violent father (Bernard Hill), took its toll on him. Amazingly, he hadn’t had a stroke by the third episode. I thought I would have one myself when I saw Freeman’s brilliant portrayal of a confused, angry man on the edge (Freeman won the International Best Actor Emmy last year for the role).

This season, Chris and Kate have separated, his mother has died, he’s trying to join a men’s support group, he’s living in a run-down apartment, and his daughter Tilly (Romy Hyland-Rylands) says he “smells like a kebab.” Suffice it to say, things haven’t gotten much better.

But he’s determined to be a better man; he’s desperate to get out of the night shift and spend more time with Tilly, and when Kate tells him she’s applying for a job in London, he lies and says he’s switching to the day shift, even though he’s already been rejected for that job (“Everyone thinks you’re a fool,” his boss tells him).

The problem is, Kate is living with Ray (Warren Brown), a cop trying to destroy Chris’ career, and he quickly uncovers Chris’ lies.

So begins a series of poor decisions that sees Chris decide to do a shady job for corrupt police officer DCI Deb Barnes (Amaka Okafor) in exchange for a cushy day job in her office. When the plan doesn’t go as planned, he ends up doing a “favor” for Carl’s widow Jodie (Faye McKeever), who now aspires to become the local drug lord, and, well, things take a turn for the worse from there.

Meanwhile, Rachel (Adeleo Adedayo), whose formerly conformist status has been dragged down by Chris, is now almost as fed up with life as he is, and her disappointment is not eased by her abusive relationship. Her storyline is much deeper, and frustratingly, she seems to be on a similar path.