The Judge

[llywela]

Mostly what I thought was 'argh!'

This was the final episode of the series, and possibly the last episode ever. So, in a sense, I suppose they succeeded in tying things up satisfactorily. If you consider getting John and Jo back together satisfactory, that is. I'm not convinced, but in terms of the series as a whole, it was a nice visual to round things off on: the two of them embracing in church like that.

Whether it was quite as satifying in storyline terms is another matter entirely, though...

The cases of the week were pretty dry stuff, on the whole, and the resumed Mrs Hussein story from a couple of weeks ago didn't actually have a conclusion. But the cases were really only there as a backdrop to all the intrigues going on behind the scenes, which for me veered back and fore between interesting and boring throughout the episode.

I'm pleased that Morag has developed more dimensions than seemed likely on first appearance, but I still don't like her. Monty continues to delight in this series, now that he's moved across to John's side, rebelling in his own quiet way - Joe Channing had similar development in the last series, and that's continued into this.

Mostly, though, this episode was all about John and Jo - would they or wouldn't they get back together? Last week, Jo had teetered on the brink of leaving Marc, only to get cold feet on seeing Morag at John's apartment. This week, we finally had the chance to sympathise with Marc's position by getting the odd glimpse of the relationship through his eyes. I'm not sure why this was - previous episodes had built up their insuitablity as a couple by building up Marc's unreasonableness. In this episode, however, Jo comes across as the unreasonable one, putting her work ahead of their relationship. Which has, of course, always been true, but their dodgy relationship really hasn't been evenly portrayed at all.

So, ultimately, the conclusion feels rushed. Jo dashes off to her wedding, having been forced to work on the very morning thereof. John wrestles with himself and then rushes off to stop her going through with it (I kept expecting him to get pulled over for speeding in those scenes!). He gets to the church, and Jo's there alone. Marc has called the wedding off. Just like that. It felt rushed, and it felt unsatisfying. Lovely visual of the two of them embracing in church, as I said before, but at the end of the day, I'm left feeling as though we've spent the entire season going round in a big circle, ending up in the exact same place that the last one left off without any of the issues between John and Jo actually being addressed.

If there is a sixth series, they desperately need to actually address those issues instead of playing around like this again. Love the show still, but the formula is stale and needs freshening up.