Vicky McClure<\/a>) arrives on the scene, she discovers that there is also a mysterious passenger, and a note bearing the slogan \u201cCONFESS OR DIE\u201d. After finding the car is rigged with chemical weapons, the police realise that they are \u2013 once again \u2013 on the trail of a serial bomber. But who is he, and what is his grievance with the victims? Quickly, the trail spreads and historic wrongs are brought to the surface. \u201cLet justice be done,\u201d the shadowy perpetrator (played by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels\u2019s Jason Flemyng) hisses. \u201cLet the truth come out.\u201d<\/p>\nThat\u2019s also the theme of this series, which follows hot on the heels from the traumatic conclusion to series two (which quickly succeeded the traumatic conclusion to series one). Everyone is struggling and lying about it: Lana is facing psychological re-evaluation and has become apparently addicted to over-the-counter painkillers. Yet she is reluctant to step away from her difficult, dangerous but intoxicating work. \u201cI am actually good at my job,\u201d she tells her colleagues. \u201cIt\u2019s the only place where I can function properly.\u201d But repeatedly staring down death \u2013 or seeing colleagues exploded in action \u2013 takes a psychological toll. \u201cI suppose if we told the truth, none of us would be working,\u201d admits new EXPO Rich (Mark Rowley, the actor, not the Met commissioner).<\/p>\n
![\"Vicky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/trigger_point_series_3_02.jpeg\")
Vicky McClure in ‘Trigger Point’ (ITV)<\/p>\n
This is a necessary conversation for the show to have, not because PTSD from explosions is endemic in our society, but because otherwise Trigger Point\u2019s internal logic would dissolve. This is the third mass bombing campaign that Lana and the EXPO team have had to tackle in the past few years. She has lost colleagues and relatives in the process; the mental health impact would be terrible. But, at the same time, Trigger Point has to take us on its, now familiar, game of cat-and-mouse. So Flemyng\u2019s righteous bomber obliges with a string of booby-trapped garages and warehouses, ingenious pressure sensors, and macabre catch-22 situations that are ripped straight from the Saw franchise.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as effective a formula as ever. Better still, Trigger Point\u2019s third season is less coquettish, giving its attractions straight up rather than relying on so many cliffhangers and twists. This third instalment feels inspired by Neil Cross\u2019s Luther (itself a refashioning of Columbo), as it offers viewers a better glimpse of its hand. It keeps things just about the right side of plausible, even if McClure\u2019s world-weary shtick is starting to feel tired. \u201cIt\u2019s who I am,\u201d she whispers, \u201cit\u2019s all I know.\u201d And yet, the show might benefit from a Line of Duty-style regeneration, where other offices \u2013 different bomb disposal whizzkids \u2013 take centre stage. Nabil Elouahabi\u2019s Hass, for example, or Eric Shango\u2019s Danny, could be given more to do. Instead, the show remains reliant on McClure\u2019s charisma and recognition, even as the character feels increasingly dead-eyed.<\/p>\n
But as primetime potboilers go, Trigger Point is the best of the current batch. The premise \u2013 which was always dumb \u2013 has been stretched to breaking point, yet somehow remains intact. If there is a kill switch for the show\u2019s tension, it still hasn\u2019t been activated. There\u2019s little new about this third chapter, but, then again, Trigger Point has never been about breaking ground. It would rather just blow it to smithereens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-242387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}