Tower (ITV1) returned for a second series but since his first race, seemed to have misplaced all of its main selling points. When it arrived in 2021, this police procedural was characterized by the orange anorak worn by Senior Detective Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan), a plot of police malfeasance similar to the line of duty, and victims falling to their deaths. from the roof of a tower, hence the title. .

This four-part follow-up ditched the whole lot. No one fell from a building. There were no signs of police corruption. The protagonist had even traded in her coral coat for a less striking shade of green (pardon the pun). In the crime genre, giving up your distinctive traits is unwise. Call 999, the originality is gone.

Carrying her box full of belongings and her forehead constantly creased, DS Collins had been transferred from the Special Investigations Branch to Homicide Command. While her rude co-workers at the rental office investigated a chicken coop shooting, the new Collins found herself with an unsolved case: the disappearance of a teenage girl 25 years ago on the day of Diana, Princess of Wales funeral. Are these cases likely to be related? Alright, if watching those shows taught me anything.

Whelan convinced as the heroine of our beaten dog. Her loneliness was reinforced by several scenes of her returning home to a meal prepared for one with a salad as an accompaniment to heavy sighs. Sharif was Bafta nominated for her role as idealistic PC Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) and shined again. Brian McCardie has become one of TV’s go-to villains – from Course of actionfrom the gang leader to the head of Time’s prison. He delivered another memorable and chilling turn as a sex offender whose ‘look, don’t touch’ maxim did nothing to lessen his creepiness.

The Tower has been dismantled all week and could still catch fire. This opener had solved his mumbled dialogue problem, but trudged along with all the urgency of a donut-mocking cop counting the days to retirement. The fact that the crimes happened off-camera didn’t help. Presumably, we’ll see them in flashback later. Will viewers stay that long?