★ Aside from uneven pacing, heavy-handed clues and drab dialogue – the biggest problem was Grace’s treatment of its female characters ✒️ littlewondering
have all incorporated violence against women into storylines but moved away from tropes, giving their victims identities, exploring their trauma and shifting the camera away from mutilated bodies or extended, graphic assaults.
The show was quick to establish that the case had been mishandled by a cartoonishly old-school boss who judged victims and dismissed leads, leaving the case unsolved. But that was all in the past. Nowadays, such poor police work that underserved and endangered women would never be allowed. Not with the likes of Roy Grace in charge – a man depicted here as so unfailingly empathetic that it’s a wonder he wasn’t knighted at the episode’s conclusion.