Reviewed by David Selby

I love series’ which have recurring themes. If an overreaching story arc is a step too far, recurrent leitmotifs are enough to just draw the whole series together and reward those who do look for more in the episodes. I’m pleased to say that Law & Order UK have managed to keep up this trend, as the seventh series has taken a surprisingly tragic turn.

Both cases were ‘Order-lite’; focusing mainly on the ‘Law’ side of each case, with the implications only deliberated upon. Both had tragic elements and motifs relating to parent/child relationships being broken: one being that a mother would have to leave her dying child, the other being that a mother had spent her whole life protecting her daughter, and had ended up letting danger into her own home.

There’s been very little to say about the last two weeks. I’m just thankful that we’ve been treated to these ‘leitmotifs’, because otherwise things would feel slightly bland. What made the opening ‘two-parter’ (if you can call it that) stick out was how it involved itself with the personal lives of the protagonists and experimented with their dynamics. This was lost, unfortunately, for the last two weeks, and I find that a shame. However superb and thought-provoking the third and fourth instalments were, they didn’t reach the heights of their predecessors. It’s not that characterisation has been off; simply that characterisation hasn’t really been there.

The third episode had a shockingly poignant ending. It left the case up to the imagination, and simply proved a point that justice isn’t always just. This was a unique take on the whole concept of Law and Order. The court case for the third episode was fascinating; the characters were ingeniously created and fleshed out; never confessing openly, but instead allowing us to deduct things by how they conduct themselves. This credits the audience with a level of intelligence; something I respect in television.

Whilst the third episode was very unique, it would be the fourth episode, Fatherly Love, which was my favourite. It even managed to begin with a crime that wasn’t actually the centre of the case, which I found a clever idea. The characters felt more like tangible personas than before, despite their short amount of screen time.

Episode Three ‘Paternal’ Verdict: 8.5/10
Episode Four ‘Fatherly Love’ Verdict: 9/10