coe

Steve's in trouble again, after a suspect dies during a pursuit and no one else arrives on time to witness what happened.

This is one of those eps where the half hour format doesn't really do it justice - and this storyline would be done better a bit later with John Boulton - but this episode doesn't really approach it as a case of 'did he do it?'. The audience sees what happens, it more the reaction of everyone else that the episode focuses on.

Which means this is one of the few eps to really give Paul Stritch a chance to shine - both in his conflict with Andrew and they're attitudes towards current managerial objectives, and as a senior officer in his own right. The targets that he's been enforcing are are what comes to Steve's rescue, and it's nice to see Stritch being smart enough to realise they can be used despite the problems they've been causing up til now.

So I will admit, right away, that the inclusion of this one on my list is a little cheeky as it is very blatantly only here for the Smithy/Callum fight, which is also why it's the only ep on this list which is here independent of the multi-parter it's from. I should also point out that I do think Conviction in overall the weakest of the three Big Smithy Arcs, and neither Witness or Gun Runner appear on this list either. That said, there's a lot I do love about it, and most of the things I don't love about it stem from the issues imposed by the fact that parts of this arc had to be quickly rewritten to account for the changes coming in the reboot, and that is unfortunately done in a way that actively undermines the story that was already there.

So we're here in the middle of the Devlin investigation - Smithy is struggling with his assault on Devlin and Rachel is struggling to assert her authority over the troops, and Callum is not especially making things easier for either of them, though he is... sort of trying ?? with Smithy. He's just bad at it, because their moral values don't particularly align.

Luckily, Callum's inability to deal with emotions in a healthy and productive fashion ABSOLUTELY aligns with Smithy's, so we get to see Smithy lead Callum off into a quiet alley so they can punch each other about it. Absolutely crisp character work, 10/10. It's also one of the better edited and choregraphed fight scenes the show has ever managed. The overuse of steadicam makes sense here and while it does make giffing or capping the fight harder, it's the right choice for the visual experience. It's also a very messy fight, lots of slapping and pulling, and it feels wonderfully realistic for two men that are not strangers to violence but also not trained martial artists.

We also see Stevie trying to help Smithy and failing an integrity test in the process, but since Smithy doesn't fuck it up, she does get away with it. I really enjoyed the Smithy/Stevie pairing, and I liked where they ended up as friends with this enchanced closeness bubbling away behind it, it's just a shame that the reboot pretty much benches Stevie entirely (despite promoting her🙃) and we see their dynamic appear in the whole of, like, one episode after this.

I also like Neil being so instantly 100% behind Smithy (even though he's wrong) given that Neil returned to Sun Hill because he couldn't stay impartial during Smithy's murder trail. Jack's scepticism is fine for the most part, and for a long time viewer it makes sense given how much nonsense had flown past Jack in the past, it just.... he's known Smithy ten years at this point, it doesn't feel right that he feels so disconnected from the outcome - it just feels like Jack is there to offer counter dialogue to Neil, rather than it being written as based on the character's personality and history. The writers also don't really take advantage of the fact that Smithy is - this time - truly and 100% guilty of committing GBH, but I do have a review of the reboot as a whole in the works so I'll expand on that then.

The Rachel storyline is fine on paper, and Claire does fine with the material, it just... never has a chance to land properly and that's in part because of the fact she leaves immediately afterwards. It also doesn't help that while Rachel's storyline is concerned with the fact she's struggling to be the most authorative voice in the same room as her two incredibly strong-willed male sergeants, Smithy and Callum are not engaged with her part of the story at all as they are completely distracted by the Devlin thing and rolling around on top of each other, so Rachel's 'growth' just... never actually materialises on screen in any meaningful way. And then she leaves.

The Conviction arc ends with the main clear out of cast ahead of the reboot, and this episode in particular sets up John and Rachel's exit, and honestly it's just weird to see a character who's made little discernible impact and spent this episode in particular struggling with her position be head hunted for a task squad like this. It just feels so flimsy, though it is still miles better than next episode's 'oh btw stuart and kezia are coming as well'.