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Better is a new BBC1 drama with a ridiculously non-descript title. Tell someone about it, and they’ll ask the title, you say “Better”, they’ll reply, “Pardon?” and then you have to describe it. God knows who thought that was a good idea.
But then we get onto the programme itself, where we see DI Lou Slack (Leila Farzad – This Time With Alan Partridge) leaving a pub evening with friends to speak to some dodgy bloke on her phone, privately. This leads to her apparently stumbling across a murder scene, bagging up evidence while trying to be incognito before returning to normality and her happy family life, yet with DNA techniques being what they are, they’d easily spot if she’d been on the scene. Who does she think she is – Dexter Morgan?!
Of the main cast, Andrew Buchan (This England) is from Stockport, yet as baddie Col McHugh, he puts on the most ridiculous Northern Irish accent, talking with Lou in hushed tones about their dodgy doings. Come on, now, it would always be loners trying to lead a double life, not someone who also has to maintain the facade of a happy family life, especially when her son has to go into hospital. There’s no way you’d dance with the devil if you had a family to protect.
Wherever she goes, she tries to act all clandestine, and she seems the least likely person ever to do this; and as she flits back and forth between good and bad guys, there’s not a chance that no-one would NOT see her about on her travels, especially as she had to abandon her cop partner at one point – something that completely unfazed her, yet in the world of TV drama, it always means that the main cop is up to no good.
She must be getting paid a ton of money to turn traitor on her own kind, since the low-end baddies she deals with have clearly got a lot of mental health issues going on, and couldn’t be trusted to even tie their own shoelaces!
Meanwhile, Col’s the prime suspect in a big case they have going on. Good Lord – who write this rubbish? It’s a complete insult to any viewer’s intelligence.
In fact, with this drama, you do have to suspend an awful lot of disbelief to see Lou as going from ‘normal person with the ability to hold a conversation’ to someone who acts suspiciously like some dodgy character from ’24’.
In short, Better couldn’t be much worse. And that’s before we get to even mentioning that she suffers from a serious case of RBF.
Thanks to the BBC for the screener in advance of broadcast.
Better continues next Monday on BBC1 at 9pm, but the entire series is now available on the BBC iPlayer.
Director: Jonathan Brough
Producer: James Dean
Writers: Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent
Music: Samuel Sim
Lou Slack: Leila Farzad
Col McHugh: Andrew Buchan
Ceri Davies: Samuel Edward-Cook
Jenny: Caroline Chesworth
Rachel: Kate Hampson
Thomas Ajazi: Florian Rafuna
PC Morgan: Harry Egan
Owen Davies: Zak Ford-Williams
Peter ‘Bulgey’ Donovan: Garry Cooper
Noel Wilkes: Kaya Moore
Alma McHugh: Carolin Stoltz
Donal McHugh: Cel Spellman
Curtis ‘Lord’ Roy: Mark Monero
Elise: Charley Webb
Juliet Donovan: Kate Rutter
Dr Bhaskari: Asif Khan
Neurologist: Suanne Braun
Physio: Chris Grierson
DS Khan: Junade Khan
DI Phil Cowper: Gavin Spokes
DC Esther Okoye: Olivia Nakintu
DS Ibbotson: Anthony Lewis
DCI Sandy Mosby: Lucy Black
Rashid: Zaid Munir
Sidra: Neelam Bakshi
Belinda Wilkes: Liz Hume-Dawson
Jade Wilkes: Tillie Amartey
Abbott: Danny Ryder
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.