Watching the defectives
PLOT-WISE, there’s something quite oldfashioned about ITV’s new four-night police drama DI RAY (9pm), at least on the evidence of this evening’s opening episode. A newly promoted detective is put in charge of a murder investigation, only to find herself at loggerheads with her boss.
The boss is in little doubt as to who carried out the killing.
Our detective, on the other hand, senses something’s not right, that they’re jumping to conclusions, and so she digs her heels in.
At which point, she and the boss, who doesn’t seem too keen on independent thinkers, have a fall-out.And since the boss seems quite horrid and rude, we’re left in no doubt as to whose side we’re meant to take.
Not that there was much doubt to begin with, given that one of these people’s names is also the title of the show.
So you see the point I’m making? This is textbook stuff: the single-minded cop who’s determined to prove the boss wrong, even if it means going out on a limb, ignoring orders etc. It’s a set-up we’ve seen 1,000 times before – a fine detective in an “I’m surrounded by idiots” scenario.
The difference with DI Ray is that these particular idiots, it makes clear from the start, may be more than just idiots.
This is a series which, besides the murder hunt, wants to explore the issue of racism in the workplace, as Detective Inspector Rachita Ray (Parminder Nagra) finds herself not only investigating what’s classified as a Culturally Specific Homicide but also working with a bunch who seem unlikely to be picking up many progressive policing awards anytime soon.
The challenges it sets itself, of course, are those faced by every issue-led drama, however fine its intentions.
For one, can it resist the urge to replace lazy, offensive old stereotypes with lazy, offensive new ones in a clumsy bid to redress the balance?
A couple of early scenes don’t bode well in this respect, but it does seem to settle down once it’s got that out of its system.
Also, when we know a drama has particular points it’s going to make – particularly about certain types of people and the way they behave – does it not risk ruining the vital element of surprise?
DI Ray is executive produced by Jed Mercurio, creator of Line Of Duty, but you don’t get the sense that its characters will be given the scope to be anywhere near as brilliantly, tantalisingly unpredictable as the characters on that programme.
Which is a shame.
It’s not that we ever want the bad guys to win.
But if a drama really wants us on the edge of our seats, it needs to convince us they might.