Blind Spot

Love Vera and the whole plot, narrative etc . I've one gripe, not just Vera. Broadchurch, Silent Witness.. it's the extras, the non speaking players who look on gormlessly without a thing to say. So unrealistic. The worst is the "solicitor/lawyer" who sits mute, taking notes or looking a bit angry but says nothing at all. Vera's producers are one of the biggest employers for these type of extras and whilst it's great they are employing people at a few quid a day ( and I understand if they get a line they get more money) . It just irritates, whilst not necessarily integral to the plot, sometimes an odd "my client does not need to answer that" would be welcomed. Other than that, faultless drama!

It's so hard to believe that Vera is now in its ninth series, time flies. If I'm honest I wasn't overly impressed with Series 8, I thought some of the writing had let it down, fortunately with Blind Spot, the show was definitely back on track. The change in personnel gave it a nice fresh feel, bring in Paul Kaye as the new mortician was a terrific move, an awesome actor, he and Blethyn shared some excellent scenes.

The mystery was excellent, very engaging, cleverly crafted, it really did feel like a whodunit. Some fine performances too, Adrian Lukis and Peter Davison in particular were excellent, appearing together again since Too good to be true, another ITV drama from a few years ago. You really were kept guessing until the very end.

Blethyn and Doughty were terrific once again, hoping the remainder of the series will be of this quality.

9/10, an excellent start.

In this episode Vera is trying to tie an old murder to a new one and as a result we're trying to figure out what not one but two dead people were like when they were living, and we have a double set of persons of interest revolving around two murders so there are an above average number of characters involved. Around Vera goes uncovering everyone's secrets or more accurately she asks a question or two and everyone can't help but spill their entire guilty confession to her.

That's been the trouble with the great show Vera lately is they used to at least pretend that she found some evidence and the perps figured they were screwed anyway before they confessed. Now it's just the slightest provocation from Vera without evidence even presented, just that 'she knows' and out it all comes in a big confession. There's always some suspension of disbelief in these shows and that's fine so long as it's a consistent level but this episode really pushed the line.

The mute counselors who just sit there and take notes as Vera coerces a full confession from their clients doesn't help either. I don't care if it's actual legal procedure, just take the ghost litigators out of the room if they are never going to speak, it's so distracting and annoying that they do absolutely nothing to defend their clients.

Anyway I have a hard time rating any Vera episode less than 7 because it still maintains a high floor and the acting and cinematography are always good. This one was just grinding my gears on messy plot and lazy resolution so I couldn't rate more than a 7.

Vera returns for another series and I keep on thinking how has she managed to avoid retirement?

In Blind Spot the body of a young trainee forensic psychologist. Joanne Caswell working for the prison service is found in a landfill site. She was stabbed several times and it seems her body was dumped there but she was killed elsewhere.

Vera's investigations discovered that Joanne had been looking at a possible miscarriage of justice of a football coach who confessed to the murder of a teenager.

However the way the episode was structured, every guest star was a suspect. There was a moment for everybody in the shifty spotlight be it her parents, boss, girlfriend or anyone else Joanne came into contact with.

I did reckon there would be several twists involved in this story.

Paul Kaye added a bit of spikiness as the new pathologist.

I see that most of the reviews here were written around the time of the initial screening so many fans were keen to see the return of the show after 12 months giving it a positive response while negative ratings seemed to come from those looking at it from PC-perspective. Personally, I am now 82.5% of the way through binge-watching the 40 shows screened to date over a 10 day period. The show had dipped in seasons 6 and 7 but had improved in season 8 so I was disappointed with episode, particularly as a season opener. There seemed to be too many characters for my liking, it was very wordy and the best episodes tend to be the ones with little known actors in them so seeing the lead character The Last Detective (such a shame it didn't last too long) and a former Doctor Who was a bit off-putting. I know I have seen this episode before but, like my previous viewing of it, it proved instantly forgettable. Not a classic.