REVIEW: The latest in the lengthening list of Line of Duty-inspired British police procedurals at least grabs you from the get-go.
It’s also short and sharp, three hour-long episodes ensuring The Tower (which begins screening on TVNZ 1 tonight, Sunday, at 9.35pm and will also be available on TVNZ OnDemand) never outstays its welcome.
All the action revolves around a “critical incident” called in at 6.31pm on April 21. A teenage girl and a police officer have fallen to their deaths from the roof of a tower block, leaving behind a clearly traumatised young boy in a bear onesie and rookie cop Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif).
With two bloody corpses in clear public view, Directorate of Special Investigations detective sergeant Sarah Collins (Game of Thrones’ Gemma Whelan) is anxious for immediate answers. But with the boy’s mother determined not to delay their return home and Adama equally avoiding any attempts at questioning, she’s left exasperated.
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Complicating matters is the revelation that the teen’s father is currently in custody at the local police station, having been arrested by one Lizzie Adama.
While facing increasing animosity from the officers there, especially upon seeing her sympathy and empathy with the teen’s dad’s grief, Collins knows the only way to find out the truth about what’s going on is to talk to Adama herself. However, the station’s boss, Detective Inspector Kieran Shaw (Emmett J. Scanlan) believes that to be out of the question. “She’s a significant witness in a sex trafficking case,” he reveals. “And we cannot risk exposing her, because he [the accused] is a nasty piece of work.“
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The Tower is Line of Duty-lite, but it should certainly appeal to fans of that series, and is not without its own dramatic charms.
But as that suggestion is quickly debunked by experts elsewhere, and other unanswered questions begin to stack up, Collins starts to wonder if her investigation is being deliberately impeded and its potential conclusions already being manipulated.
With its backdrop of alleged cover-ups, corruption and crooked cops, comparisons with Jed Mercurio’s beloved Duty are definitely hard to ignore. Time constraints mean there’s not much time for character nuance and crowd pleasing banter here, but Whelan makes for a grimly effective detective, as Collins tries to overcome her own recent emotional traumas (bitterly used by those opposing her as evidence as to why she shouldn’t be on the case) and institutional sexism (she admits her career has been stifled because she “couldn’t tell jokes to blokes in bars”) to uncover the truth.
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Gemma Whelan makes for a grimly effective detective in The Tower.
Screenwriter Patrick Harbinson (Homeland, 24) and director Jim Loach (Save Me) ensure the pace of this adaptation of former murder squad detective Kate London’s 2015 novel Post Mortem (the first book in a trilogy) never lags, while generating just enough mystery, as the story flashes between the build-up to – and the aftermath of – the two deaths, to keep viewers engrossed.
It is Line of Duty-lite, but it should certainly appeal to fans of that series, and is not without its own dramatic charms.
The Tower debuts at 9.35pm tonight, Sunday, on TVNZ 1. Episodes will also be available to stream on TVNZ OnDemand.
