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Plotwise, a big episode. I’ve mentioned before that the structure and pacing of the story sometimes feels more like a TV show than a miniseries, but here, it feels more like a miniseries. This is the ramp-up, important threads of the story coming together that will build to the climax and ensuing conclusion. It feels more purposeful, which I like.
It’s a slow day, and the entire watch is stuck at the fire station waiting for something to happen. It’s the middle of a heat wave, and as personal issues between different watch members have been bubbling up, they’ve found themselves without the focus of their work to distract them. Major issues come to a head. It’s an especially hard day for Kev, as it’s also the one-year anniversary of the fire. Grieving what was lost that day, he can’t put aside his longing for revenge.
A bit of a bubble episode, with everyone hanging around the station and nerves wearing thin. It’s a good mix of drama, like the stuff with Kev, and comedy, like Al’s ex unexpectedly dropping their kid off for Al to watch (and the resulting havoc the young Batman-clad boy wreaks around the station.) We get major movement on a couple of main plots, and I enjoy the give and take, with some conflicts reaching their boiling point and others showing signs of a resolution to come. I won’t get into too many specifics for the sake of spoilers, but I like all of the following: 1) a nice scene between Mal and Al, 2) a subplot involving a group of women on a hen do (aka bachelorette party) stopping by in search of sexy firefighters, and 3) a small story for Rob (David Walmsley, who played Rick on In the Flesh,) the one firefighter who’s gotten hardly any focus so far.
I have mixed feelings about the Kev plot. While I like most of the way the story goes here, the acting takes me out of it at points. I liked Jamie Bamber on Battlestar Galactica, but in this miniseries, there have been different episodes where he just hits the drama way too hard for me. I’m not sure if it’s the dialogue or the direction or what, but it just gets laid on too thick and makes it hard for me to buy it. On the other hand, Taron Egerton’s Dennis is also in this plot and, while his material gets very dramatic as well, I think he pulls it off 100%. It’s heightened, but it still feels genuine. The contrast is palpable, which is unfortunate since Bamber is the lead and Egerton is supporting.
That storyline is also where Trish’s main involvement is. She comes by the fire station in the hope of being there for Kev on the anniversary and subsequently gets pulled into the stuff that goes down. Admittedly, there’s one scene where I feel Jodie Whittaker acting just a bit too hard, which suggests there might be more of an overall problem with the writing or direction (after Broadchurch, I know she can pull off intense drama without it coming across as overbaked.) Apart from that, though, I really like her work here. Trish is most interesting to me when she’s self-possessed and clear-eyed, and we get a good portion of that in this episode. In an environment where a lot of emotions are running high, she becomes a steadying presence, and that really works for me.
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