Expectation subversion has been very trendy amongst writers in recent years, ever since Game of Thrones made it cool. So cool, in fact, that Rian Johnson seemed to use it as the entire basis of his plot in The Last Jedi, and it can be such an effective tool for surprising and shocking audiences, it’s... Continue Reading →

Apparently, liking the ending puts me in a minority, so... there you have it. I liked that ending. It was satisfying, I enjoyed how I'd been wrong-footed the whole time but it was all so obvious, and, from a series that's been very, very obvious about it's real world parallels, who else could it have... Continue Reading →

The Babylon Project was a dream given form, a self-contained storyline five seasons long. A shining beacon of interconnected writing ten years before the The Killing or the MCU made it cool, all alone in the night (because hardly anyone watched it). This is a blog about the first of the TV novels. The year... Continue Reading →

Criminal is one of those high-concept Netflix shows, made with top acting talent, gorgeous cinematography, and a ticking digital clock that counts down how much time Our Heroes have to crack the case. There are actually four versions, UK, France, Germany and Spain, each entirely focussed around the interviews between the suspect, and the police... Continue Reading →

I make no apologies for the joke. Audience tastes in crime fiction change over time. The 90s, in the UK anyway, was the heyday of the Big Story, usually as told by Lynda la Plante and lasting up to five hours’ viewing time with ads. Then the 00s came along, and suddenly everyone wanted to... Continue Reading →

The only absolute rule with serial killers, is that there is no absolute rule with serial killers. There are a lot of generalities that often hold true. Serial killers tend to be men, their crimes usually have a sadistic sexual element, their victims tend to be those they’re sexually attracted to, they tend to carry... Continue Reading →

Literarily speaking, there’s very little that’s worse than an otherwise gripping, clever, well-made piece of art dropping in something clunkingly stupid to try and trip you up. I love a good twist. They are, after all, a big part of the attraction of crime fiction. The unexpected reveal of who the villain was all along,... Continue Reading →

As a loyal Line of Duty fan, it pains me to say this, but… that wasn’t quite as good as seasons 2, 3, and 4. It was still good. Just not as good. There were still some great twists, from a show that’s always been more about the story than the characters. Corbett’s murder shocked... Continue Reading →

Once it’s out there, it’s out there   There’s a running joke among writers, that goes something along the lines of an over-zealous English teacher explaining to their class that the curtains being blue shows the depression and sadness of a character in a scene. Meanwhile the confused writer sits there going ‘Huh? No, I... Continue Reading →

Ok, so, as shown in the movie, it wasn’t an incredibly easy case to solve (unlike, say, the Sandbrook murders of Broadchurch). Amy knew how to play to the prejudices and expectations of investigators and spin what would at first glance seem a plausible narrative. The operative phrase there being at first glance. Because, with... Continue Reading →