Review of Murphy`s Law: Series 3 (Box Set)

Introduction

James Nesbitt returns as undercover cop extraordinaire Thomas Murphy for the third series of this BBC series.

Ep 1 - Murphy tries to infiltrate the inner circle of big-time villain Dave Callard, ending up tasked to bump off one of Callard`s associates..

Ep 2 - Callard sends Murphy oop North to complete an arms deal for a drugs heist.

Ep 3 - Murphy is partnered with a female undercover officer in order to crack a forgery ring.

Ep 4 - The team`s priority changes when the identity of Callard`s new associate becomes known. Can Murphy handle staying undercover for much longer?

Ep 5 - The operation is at a critical stage, but Murphy has to alternate between Callard and court appearances as he is a key witness for the prosecution.

Ep 6 - Things went wrong with the deal and Callard, Murphy and co. get away by the skin of their teeth. As it all starts to unravel, how will it end?

Video

Not really much to say (again) about the visual side of things. It`s a decent transfer from recent-ish TV and that`s about it…

Audio

Dolby 2.0 Stereo soundtrack with subtitles.

Features

Nowt again…

Conclusion

All change again as the producers presumably decided that Murphy, and by default, Nesbitt wasn`t hard enough for an undercover policeman. So out goes everyone from the previous series and Murphy has an image makeover as the biker from the Village People. It takes some getting used to, I laughed when I saw him, but it sort of works. The drama is much grittier and the idea of linked storylines to one overall arc works well, although it`s probably just as well that the series is only 6 episodes long as it starts to lose it`s way a bit at the end.

Nesbitt is still pretty good as Tommy Murphy, although they really do need to look at that image again. Either that or give him the leather cap and chains and just go the whole hog. The addition of Michael Feast as Murphy`s boss Rees and Mark Womack as villain Dave Callard helps set a more serious tone, but for me the pièce de résistance was bringing in Owen Teale as Murphy`s handler; himself an ex-undercover oppo who has unseen history with Murphy and retired due to some unseen but hinted at undercover problems. For the first time in 3 series there is a real chemistry between co-stars, the obvious being Teale and Nesbitt, but both Feast and Womack add to the realism rather than just actors collected under one roof.

Murphy`s love interest this time round is the delectable Georgia MacKenzie, who plays the wife of Ramon Tikaram (always good to see him on TV again…). There is a lot of circling between Nesbitt and MacKenzie, due to the storyline and the fact that neither of them are quite sure of what the other one either know or is doing. Again, much more realistic despite her being attacted to a member of the Village People.

I felt that this series was much stronger than the previous two and I`m curious as to how series 4 will follow this up.