llywela | (no subject)

Ooh. Bomb in a box of chocolates – that's sinister! I object to 'fat old men like chocolate', though, on the grounds that the chocolate is, I'm assuming, intended for the Judge, who isn't fat.

This was a strong episode, first of a two-parter. The highly political subject matter felt uncomfortably plausible and highly topical – a British soldier in the middle of a highly fraught gun-battle in Iraq ends up shooting a bunch of civilians, including children, and ends up on trial at the Hague being made an example of. No one is really in the right and no one is really in the wrong, it's enormously, devastatingly messy, too many people on just about every side imaginable are placing too much importance on the outcome of the case, which is far more political than it is legal in nature, and the Judge finds himself at the centre of the storm as one of the three judges presiding over the case.

Found myself disproportionately delighted at the sight of John, Joe and Monty all sitting on the Appellate Bench together. I enjoy the banter between the judges more than I probably should – it's kind of a unique relationship they have, as 'brother' judges, bound together by situation whether they actually like or agree with each other or not.

John's relationship with Jo remains as frustrating now as it has been for too many series' now. They never seem to make any actual progress – or any progress that seems to be made at the end of one series is immediately cancelled out at the start of the next. I suppose that's the point, really – that they love each other too much to not be intimately entangled in one another's lives, and yet they really don't work as a couple, never have and possibly never will. At the end of the last series Jo jilted Mark at the altar for John's sake, and yet here we see them back to square one once more. I'd hoped that we might see them actually making a real go of their relationship for once, but it seems nothing in either of their lives can be that simple.

Jo throwing in with these radical lawyers…she seems to be getting increasingly disillusioned with the system as a whole, giving up on her ambition to become a judge someday and turning her attention toward different goals entirely. Her relationship with John, destructive as it tends to be for both of them, has to play a large part in that mind-frame she now finds herself in. But the long-term consequences for her career could be significant.

I missed George and Charlie. I hope we see them next week, even if they aren't in the second half of this story.

Looking forward to the second part to find out how the story ends!