Review of Murphy`s Law: Series 1 (Box Set)

Introduction

James Nesbitt was a bit of a minor player in British TV until he hit the big time playing a comedic Irish jack the lad-type in mega-hit Cold Feet. Obviously I`m only guessing at this role as I never watched any of this series, but the fact it was virtually a housewife`s choice and the fact that Nesbitt is playing the same part in endless Yellow Pages adverts makes me think I`m not too far off the mark here. Murphy`s Law is an attempt at something slightly grittier.

Murphy (James Nesbitt) is an undercover cop with heartbreak in his past. Back in his native Belfast, Murphy was caught in a hopeless situation of balancing his daughter`s life against those of 100 colleagues in a terrorist bomb plot. His daughter lost and now Murphy throws himself into his work as an undercover cop for the Metropolitan Police.

Ep 1 - Murphy goes undercover with a gang of undertakers who fancy themselves as the next big gang, robbing security vans and banks whilst killing at least one guard.

Ep 2 - Murphy becomes cell-mate to a remanded cab driver who the Police think is serial killer Electric Bill hoping to get the inside track on the last victim, who the Police believe is being kept hostage.

Ep 3 - a femme fatale is seducing then killing off married philanderers at a posh exclusive gym, so Murphy puts on a suit in an attempt to get picked up.

Ep 4 - Murphy revisits his Belfast roots when called in as protection for Irish snooker player Mickey Munday, a man with secrets not listed in his autobiography.

Ep 5 - Murphy goes undercover with an old school gang who are now a real gang who are being bumped off one and one. The law think that it`s tit for tat rivalry with a rival club owner, and it all looks like coming to a head at a school reunion.

Video

Not really much to say about the visuall side of things. It`s a decent transfer from recent-ish TV and that`s about it, oh other than it`s quite dark a lot of the time…

Audio

Dolby 2.0 Stereo soundtrack with subtitles.

Features

Nowt…

Conclusion

There`s this odd thing that seems to happen to actors in British TV who are known for comedic or soft drama roles. They get this inclination to try and be some form of telly tec and the grittier the role the better. The first I can remember trying this was David Jason with A Touch of Frost, which personally I find much better than most of his Del Boy antics (heresy!!!). Other people to have tried this to some extent and failed really so far it has to be said are Reeves and Mortimer, ex-Spandau bass player Martin Kemp and Eastenders wimp Nick Berry.

It`s always a risk of course trying to do something different, even it is a formulaic style TV tec series. Reeves and Mortimer are easily outclassed by Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan (I did like their interpretation of Randall and Hopkirk though…), while Martin Kemp and Nick Berry just don`t strike me as being hard enough in their roles. The problem with the latter two is their history and their looks, so Nesbitt has one up on them as I`ve never really seen him in anything-else and he always looks rough as anything.

Of course, some of the situations and dialogue don`t quite fit and his backup team of Annie (Claudia Harrison) and Clarke (Christian Burgess) scream as being out of their depth, but maybe that`s the point. Annie is the team boss, but looks and acts like your stereotypical fast-track graduate-type and Clarke has that same feel to him, just further down the food chain. Murphy on the other hand is just as clearly out of his depth most of the time despite his experience, but you would expect that as an undercover cop wouldn`t just breeze into any situation and gain trust of his targets straight away. Win them over he does, otherwise there would be no point, but it`s a fine line he treads between acting the part and being a law enforcer.

Annie lacks the kind of ruthlessness and toughness that Taggart`s Alex Norton had in the pilot, but then the writers would have struggled with the sexual tension they clearly want between the agent and his boss - a must-have the majority of modern TV series. Still, it`s a slightly wasted effort as there is little sexual tension between the two and what is there is overplayed. The less said about her liaison with Neil Stuke in the last episode the better.

Still, it`s not all bad. It`s a decent effort at a TV tec show, but heavily outclassed so far by the big guns of Waking The Dead, Touch of Frost, etc that are already TV staples.

Oh, and someone please please please get rid of those bloody anti-piracy adverts. They are a pain and in my humble opinion achieve nothing. It wouldn`t be so bad if you could escape from them via Menu or f/forward but there is nothing worse than sitting down to watch a DVD and having to put up with that every time…