As readers of my previous Lynley reviews will know, I’ve not exactly been swept away by this reboot. It’s often felt cheap and lightweight, and – most damaging of all – I’ve struggled to buy into the chemistry between the two leads. For a show that lives or dies on the push and pull of its central partnership, that’s a fairly fundamental problem. But credit where it’s due: this third, penultimate episode is comfortably the best of the run so far, edging the series into what I’d call solid, if still unremarkable, territory.
The episode opens strongly with an unsettling sequence at a riverside party. A group of youths loiter around a fire, drinking and smoking, when a distressed young woman arrives and confronts one of the lads. She smashes a bottle and deliberately harms herself in front of him, which immediately gives the episode a darker emotional register than anything we’ve seen so far.
The following morning, Lynley is out running when he discovers the body of a teenage boy in the river – the same lad from the party. A conveniently placed local photographer helps raise the alarm, although it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at Lynley’s decision to leave the body and an unsecured crime scene to go hunting for clues downstream. Still, once the mechanics of the plot kick in, the episode settles into a confident rhythm. We learn more about the troubled girl from the opening scene, her wealthy family with plans to redevelop part of the Broads into a golf club and spa, and the victim’s parents, who run a nearby hotel.
Yes, there are plenty of familiar crime-drama tropes along the way (not least the angry, grieving father who can’t resist taking matters into his own hands), but they’re handled with enough care to remain effective. There’s a melancholy underpinning the story that gives it emotional weight, and the series’s core theme of class division finally feels properly integrated. This time, it plays out through the customs and unspoken rules of the local village where the victim lived, adding texture and a sense of place that’s been missing elsewhere.
Is it amazing? No. The show still isn’t firing on all cylinders, and the broader issues with tone and character haven’t magically disappeared. But this is a watchable, interesting hour of television, and for the first time since the reboot began, Lynley feels like it’s approaching something half-decent.
Paul Hirons
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW
Lynley is broadcast in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer