The show kept my interest and I was able to connect with the characters... the biggest distraction for me was Sheridan Smith's haircut and her duck face expression at times... I know, superficial things.... but still were a distraction. Overall though, it was worth a watch.
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swtsthng-259-85613013 April 2020
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zdarov26 July 2020This show didn't bother me like it seemed to bother others. :) It wasn't brutal (I can't watch brutal), it was interesting, and I thought the acting was fine across the board. I didn't love the lead character, but she was sympathetic. The kids were both good, and the boy was not rebellious, he was sweet, not sure why someone said that. There were a few jumps in the plot but I'd go back 10 seconds (great button on the Acorn app!) and get enough info. I watch a lot of UK cop/detective shows and this fit well within what I like.
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For decades, the UK has produced so many high-class crime dramas, that it is impossible to "shoot without fail" all the time. Tastes develop, as well as circumstances, and viewers may move beyond the approaches and issues they used to like in Poirot or Morse, for example, or have begun to like "new age" in the form of Luther or Prey... Black Work is a kind of related mix, but worrying and grief overshadow other elements, including credibility, several male performers are too look-a-like, and the final 20 minutes or so add unnecessary sophistication.
True, Sheridan Smith as P.C. Jo Gillespie is catchy and the background realism is up there, but I am able to "blurt out" dozens of more interesting (mini)series I have seen in recent years. To me, Black Work is more a long film than series, and when you see all 3 episodes in a row, you could realise that many scenes and dialogues could have been more compact. -
Lejink3 August 2015This three part ITV drama fed off the recent major news story here about an undercover cop infiltrating a criminal gang over a period of years to the extent of getting involved romantically and having children with one of the associated females.
This series took it many steps further, having the undercover cop killed and then focusing on the dead man's widow, played by Sheridan Smith, a fellow police officer who decides to investigate her husband's unexplained death which occurred just before the police bust the gang he's been painstakingly planted to uncover. The plot has many layers, with almost everyone against her, including the murdered officer's sullen ex-wife and rebellious teenage son, the black woman with whom he's lately gotten involved and fathered a daughter, her husband's loyal (to him) mother, not to mention a plethora of so-called colleagues, some better-intentioned than others, especially as things develop.
Smith's affair with Matthew McNulty and its exposure courtesy of someone bugging Smith's home and car, the young gang member being framed for the murder, whose teenage girlfriend has mysteriously disappeared and the senior D. I. who attends the funeral only to vaguely threaten Smith and her children are all there in the mix, although I personally felt that every fifteen minutes or so a new suspect came into view only to be dismissed until practically the only one left turned out to be the insider who did the deed.
Putting aside my disbelief about Smith's one-woman crusade for the truth and the clichéd characterisation of the good and bad cops on view, I still enjoyed the unfolding of the storyline. The acting was okay not helped by a certain over-familiarity with several of the leading actors, Smith, McNulty and Dougie Henshall in particular. That said, the mystery of the murder was tidily wrapped up in the end and the show fulfilled its brief as a satisfactory TV cop drama, without being good enough to make me think much about the wider issues arising from police undercover operations in general. -
paulcreeden12 October 2020I am a fan of British suspense and crime thrillers. Catching up with offerings on Acorn network led me to this series. I am beginning to understand why PBS picks up on some things and leaves the rest.
There is no reason why this series should not have been better rated, except for Sheridan Smith's lead performance, which sucked the life out of it. The doll-faced musicals actress displays all the emotions from A to B, as one critic once said of a young Katherine Hepburn on Broadway. Her supporting players only make her inadequacy in the role more pronounced. Ms. Smith succeeded in making Douglas Henshall look hysterical by comparison. Geraldine James stood out, as always. And Matthew McNulty's enthusiastic performance as a smitten suitor crashes on Ms. Smith's wooden facade.
Another example of programming on Brit-export channels that makes me wonder whether they think we Americans don't know the difference between mediocre and quality productions. -
Sleepin_Dragon9 October 2020Police Officer Jo Gillespie learns that her husband, an undercover Detective is killed, she sets about learning the truth for herself.
I am so glad ITV put this out again, as I must have missed it when it first went out.
Ok, there are several times when you need to suspend your disbelief, at times it is a little bit far fetched, but then it is TV, and it's rather good TV.
She has her critics, she has her fans, personally I adore Sheridan Smith, and for me she is the standout, I think she's wonderful throughout, she's well supported by Geraldine James, Matthew McNulty and plenty more acting talent.
It's a good story, it's a topsy turvy, rollercoaster ride, you are made to question and doubt, you are made to wait until the very end.
Very satisfying, well worth a look, 8/10. -
grandeldress1 February 2023Don't like to compare this series with others; yes, there are (many) police procedurals that are more realistic but I don't mind suspending reality once & a while for a nicely done show. I found the main character a bit flat & almost a bit unlikeable & I agree that a couple of the supporting officers looked enough alike to cause some confusion as to exactly who was doing what. And I agree that a shorter format might have worked better as there was much repetition that slowed the story down. Though I wasn't aware when choosing this show, I was pleased to see Phil Davis & Douglas Henshall, 2 of my favorite British actors, in the cast.
Not high drama, but watchable. -
maureen_smith513 July 2015Lets get this out the way first Sheridan Smith is on another level to nearly every other British actress and on TV no one beats her lately and must be close till Hollywood calls and its thanks to her that Black Work is another winner for her and ITV. Her acting,a strong supporting cast and truly heart wrenching emotion as well as gripping sequences keep this show from wobbling which it can do at times especially in the last episode but this is Miss Smith's show and even with the short hair she is just stunning beyond belief in both looks and performance and you will find yourself rooting for her against everyone even those you thought you trusted,that is hard to do in any film or TV series and proves how incredible a talent she is.
Police constable Jo Gillespie(Smith)is stunned to hear her undercover officer husband Ryan has been killed and is determined to find out the truth of what happened plus keep it together for her daughter Melly and stepson Hal(a star in the making Oliver Woolford)but as no one seems to be doing much in finding out what happened Jo starts her own investigation but the more she founds out about Ryan the more secrets are revealed and Jo finds that her husband may have lead a double life away from home. Along with close friend DC Jack Clark(Matthew McNulty)who Jo has been getting too close with she tries to find out exactly who is behind Ryan's death but Jo learns that even those she thought she knew may be not telling the whole truth about things.
As I said before Sheridan keeps this show from being worth a watch and turns it into a excellent three part series and helps when the cast is filled with so many well known faces and she seems to bring out the best in them,her emotion about Ryan's death will bring tears to your eye as well as quite beautiful scenes with her children and Woolford as Hal is a future star for me and the sequences with him,Jo and little Melly are very powerful and bring real weight of emotion. Smith is also excellent in the thriller parts chasing down suspects and taking on people she thought she trusted and not many characters I've seen have I rooted for as much as Jo as no one seems to want her in the investigation and you will her to get in there and take them all down Charles Bronson like,OK a bit far but you really will root for her.
The rest of the cast though support her well are a bit wasted and don't really get a lot to do but standouts are McNulty as Jack who seems a nice guy but is he hiding something,the cool as ever Phil Davies arrives briefly as the tough nut handler of undercover Ryan and of course young star Woolford who really impressed me with a portrayal much older than his years and if you were young Melly you would want a older brother like him and you feel for him and is split about his dads death and weather to like Jo anymore and support her. Other well known people all are great but as I said wasted but this is one of the strongest casts I've seen in years.
A top effort from ITV with tension filled moments and genuine shocks and twists and though it wobbles a bit towards the end and the last episode loses the plot a bit this is one of the best dramas on TV in 2015 so far and is headlined by the unbeatable force of nature that is Sheridan Smith who could put on a dustbin and win a Bafta for it plus a star in the making for talented teen Woolford.
Hope Smith remains on British television but come on Hollywood her time to shine is now. -
Britinmiami4 November 2019Broadchurch set such a high standard that everything after it was difficult even to come close. This is OK, but more of an amateur show, and the direction is terrible. The "local" accents are a bit over the top and irritating. I like some of the actors when I saw them in other shows, but in this show, they all seem to have taken an amateur pill. The lead actress is OK but keeps overacting with her facial expressions, or perhaps it's the camera work that looks deficient. There is a scene in episode 2 where she and another detective is coming down an escalator and her facial expressions are very weird! She is supposed to be upset, but her face looks like she is laughing! Andrew Knott is particularly irritating, and his outbursts were terrible.
The writing is inferior, and the direction is lacking and low standard. Put all that with the dark atmosphere and continual bad weather scenes, and you have achieved the complete opposite of a Blue-Sky Drama. I feel you should be somewhere in the middle. Maybe we are all getting bored with this Nordic style dark real-life drama! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was such a breakthrough and brilliant. If you were to watch that movie and then watch Broadchurch, Line of Duty, Bodyguard, Luther then this.... You will have fallen off a cliff! If you want something to watch while you are ironing it will do, but don't hold your breath! -
We watched this in one hit on download not realising we had seen it before. It was a bit too convoluted and confusing. The various subplots getting in the way at times of the main one. Sheridan Smith's appearance was a bit off-putting. Her close-cut hair had her coming across as severe. Her make up in the opening seen made her look like she was wearing a Halloween mask and some of her facial expressions throughout were rather obscure. As for the plot, the final episode turned from a whodunit into a "who hadn't done it" as the prime suspect switched regularly over the final half hour. The final outcome was just implausible. The reason for the perpetrators actions not being made clear at all. Also, some events were just never fully explained.
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qui_j8 May 2020This is a poorly produced, B grade series by ITV. The acting is terrible, with the lead actress strutting about like a runway model and constantly pouting, often at the wrong moments. The plot is passable but the way in which it is presented and told is confusing. There is often lack of continuity and the ending is not surprising. Have not been impressed by the quality of ITV dramas on Sundance Now and can only hope they will improve,
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ldlazarus9 July 2015Given the fine cast that this show had, perhaps my expectations were a little high. I have seen each of the main actors in other police/crime dramas where they really stood out. For example;Sheridan Smith in Jonathan Creek, Douglas Henshall in Shetland and Phil Davis in Whitechapel and Silk. Sheridan Smith did a reasonable job as a WPC managing to stay remarkably composed through the trying circumstances of her husband dying and the revelations from his undercover work. Apart from her, the other talent was wasted. The premise of the plot was quite good, but the pace was slow and the resolution unsatisfying. Should this series go for an extended run I would like to see the major talent used in more fleshed out roles.
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philipfoxe6 September 2020This has just been repeated on UK TV this week. As OP have said, it's just about watchable. Didn't have to do bad. Full of plot holes and not credible characters. With police procedurals, it's important to believe in the cops, and this wasn't achieved. Sheridan Smith gave a masterclass in one dimensional acting. Her over made up slightly smirking face hardly changed throughout. You just know there are going to be endless plot twists until you just don't care any more....
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wisewebwoman14 December 2022The cast was good, the series (3 parts) far too long and stretched out a movie would have made everything tighter and non-repetitive. And the ending was straight out of Disney. Jarring.
The writing left a lot to be desired and I've always disliked men with the fisticuffs scrapping over the wee lady. Puhleese.
Tiny Sheridan does her best in a demanding role involving multiple jealousies, going rogue - like all self-important coppers who figure out everything before the complete crew of baffled forensics and DIs do and blunder around, in forbidden investigation areas, suspended and never arrested on sight.
That plot hole was way too irritating:, where did her dead husband, the undercover cop get the money to buy a cottage and support all those kidlets?
And yeah, way too easy to figure out the perp. But it made no sense. Logically.
Henshall did his Henshall shaking head bit. The man can't act except in this one note Shetland thingie.
5/10 because Geraldine. -
Amongst the risks is the danger of over - exposure on television,and Miss S.Smith,possibly through no fault of her own,finds herself on the borderline between being regularly and successfully in work and being chewed up(and eventually spat out) by greedy TV programme makers. Barely a decent period has passed between her appearing as a terminal cancer patient and her latest role as a police officer "Blackwork". Indeed her hair hadn't had time to grow back to its usual length,so she decided to play her character with an urchin - cut rather than wear a wig. Nothing wrong with that per se,but it illustrates the haste with which the "Industry" wants to proceed when they have decided to promote someone "from the chorus" as it were and ensure the viewing public whom presumably they believe to have the attention span of a goldfish do not lose interest in them. So the smart and talented Miss Smith takes centre - stage as the producers hope she will give a bit of a boost to "Blackwork" which otherwise is a bit of a dog. Same old stressed Northern cops,a Chief Constable who goes jogging (an uncomfortable - looking Miss G.James) and a creaky old plot about an undercover detective who might or might not have gone rogue. By the end of the first episode I no longer cared one way or the other. An elfin - looking Miss Smith moved from being miserable to being very miserable and back again at random. You can make an original and gripping TV show about cops oop north even in 2015("No Offence")but it has to be rather less of a one - person band and you need to fill it with characters that the audience can empathise with. The arrival of Mr P.Davis in episode 2 may help,but it shouldn't have been left to Miss Smith to carry the show until his arrival. She is clever,she can be subtle and moving,but frankly,"Blackwork" will not be a highlight on her C.V.
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When Jo's husband is murdered, ostensibly while undercover, she starts digging into whatever was going in her husband's life - because she obviously didn't know anything about him.
And I must say...
Whoever wrote this has a very low opinion of Yorkshire Police...
They're all either dirty, inept, or just plain thick as a bag of extra strength sludge. All the cops go down the pub on the first or second day of the murder investigation for lord's sake!
The only one doing anything in this show is Jo, who by doing what her colleagues in the police force should do, actually finds stuff out about her lying sod of a husband. All while every other cop on the force does nothing at all.
The main downfall of this show is that, besides Jo, every other character is just too stupid and annoying to be real. From the useless Superintendent to the violent DS that goes mad on a suspect in an interview, everyone is a collection of clichés with a large helping of stupidity thrown in for good measure.
Example. At one point the mother of the dead guy yells her daughter in law for "not caring who murdered her husband", then in almost the next scene she's in, she yells at Jo for investigating her husband's death and "not caring about the kids".
Actually, the mother in law is a terrible character and I found myself hoping she would die.
I also managed to guess the murderer from the moment they appeared, most by casting choice alone.
Otherwise, could have been great, but the writing is too poor to have it be any good. -
markmcdonald-811826 September 2020Not wanting to repeat what others have already identified, all I want to say is that whoever is the police liaison for procedure should get a health size nine in the spuds. I have waited, for years, for a police drama to be made with accurate procedure unfortunately this is not it. For all you none police out there who believe what you see police do in this and other so called police dramas..... you do not salute you're chief super or Chief Constable during a normal working day,, you do not GET PROMOTED to CID. We do not sneak up on suspects with sirens blaring, we do not run sneak up on suspects on foot and shout them to stop 100 metres away we do not arrive at a police station with lights and horns blaring.....God give me strength.
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kasey_coff6 January 2024The actors - most of whom have some sterling roles behind them - are good, but have been given such a lousy script and apparently banal direction that they can't develop much by way of characters.
The plot is full of "I saw that coming" coincidences. This looks very much as if the endpoint was someone's bright idea, and whatever had to be shoehorned into the script to get to that ending was done. Nothing seems to develop from the characters or their actions.
Nothing realistic about the story - the officer was working undercover, and what unfolds from that is not believable.
I watched this on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Even then with nothing much else to do it was a waste of three hours.
Bottom line: don't bother. -
a_mobbs2 September 2020I know it's only entertainment but procedurally there are plenty of errors. Bit of a hackneyed plot too, police incompetence and wrong doing blah blah blah. I've seen better, many times.
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saintgermain-839255 September 2020The problem with this mini series is the writing ,specifically the plot . There are so many holes in the plot or really stupid non explanations for issues in the plot that it spoils the watch for anyone who likes taut well thought out plausible actions and stories . I will not spell out the plot holes as that would be spoiling but they are so numerous and obvious any one with a brain will spot them ..especially crime story aficianados . Beyond the plot several characters are given actions and words that even the most theatrical person would never say .never mind real people . As has been said elsewhere good cast of actors but Sheridan Smith just looks wierd although I think she does ok with the poor script she has been given .And clearly influenced in a pathetically simplistic way by the long running saga of UK police undercover infiltration of movements and alleged subversive groups a couple of decades ago . because of some decent acting just about worthy of a watch if nothing else available.
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Spoiler by huge plot holes, where did he get 90K for the cottage, and why, for heavens sake were they bugging her car???? This was the crux of the whole and yet there was no reason for it. Acting by the main character was wooden and biy oh boy pouting does not equal expressive acting but apparently it does in this girls world. So overall itb twists and turns but sometimes you are left wondering waht was nactually going on. The police do NOT behave likenthis and I particularly laughed as she saluted the chief constable at the end - REALLY??? So overall a watch but not a great watcha nd I wouldn't really recommend it.
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Design8815 July 2023I had high hopes for this mini series based on the premise and the actors but it fell way below the mark for me. The script was rather dull and predictable and the actors all seemed to lack luster.
The lead actress is better in comedic situations. I loved her in "Two Pints Of Lager.." but here she looked bad with her dark pixie haircut, bad make-up and total lack of expression.
I blame the director, editor and camera person for the poor choices they made that contributed to this being an average piece of work.
The script could have been reduced to either a TV movie or a two part mini series. There were too many red herrings and subplots (hate to even call them that) that went nowhere and slowed down the pace. The dialogue was often ridiculous.
One of my biggest gripes was the shots chosen. Either the director or the DP instructed the camera person to shoot the most mismatched, ridiculous 'fancy' angles and what I call 'indulgent shots'. Of course the editing made it much worse as happens. But when I start noticing the chosen camera shot just because they are trying to show that they 'can" I get immediately frustrated. This show was full of them unfortunately.
All the acting was mediocre, including Douglas Henshaw who I think (like the lead in "Murdoch Mysteries") was perfectly cast in "Shetland" but isn't a particularly good actor in anything else. He always acts the exact same expressionless way and is boring.
At least they were all consistently a mediocre ensemble so no-one stood out in the bunch. I kept getting the impression they didn't want to be there. Some of the writing was good and I did enjoy all the twists in the final episode which is why I awarded it 5 stars.
What I found most annoying and inappropriate was Ms Sheridan's wimpy demeanor. She was supposed to be a good beat cop but from the very beginning she acted weak, insecure and vulnerable. More so than any ordinary woman. She clung to her 'boyfriend' at every turn and gazed up at him appreciatively when he'd step in to help her out or have a clever thought. She also was simply unlikeable. The idea of her breaking protocol and going off to solve the crime herself was so unrealist (like so many situations) it was almost laudable. I'm not even going to discuss the "Hallmark" ending.