{"id":391223,"date":"2026-01-26T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391223\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:57:10","slug":"review-lynley-s1-e3-4-the-killing-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391223\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Lynley (S1 E3\/4) | The Killing Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As readers of my previous Lynley reviews will know, I\u2019ve not exactly been swept away by this reboot. It\u2019s often felt cheap and lightweight, and \u2013 most damaging of all \u2013 I\u2019ve 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\u2019s a fairly fundamental problem. But credit where it\u2019s due: this third, penultimate episode is comfortably the best of the run so far, edging the series into what I\u2019d call solid, if still unremarkable, territory.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

The following morning, Lynley is out running when he discovers the body of a teenage boy in the river \u2013 the same lad from the party. A conveniently placed local photographer helps raise the alarm, although it\u2019s hard not to raise an eyebrow at Lynley\u2019s 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\u2019s parents, who run a nearby hotel.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are plenty of familiar crime-drama tropes along the way (not least the angry, grieving father who can\u2019t resist taking matters into his own hands), but they\u2019re handled with enough care to remain effective. There\u2019s a melancholy underpinning the story that gives it emotional weight, and the series\u2019s 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\u2019s been missing elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Is it amazing? No. The show still isn\u2019t firing on all cylinders, and the broader issues with tone and character haven\u2019t magically disappeared. But this is a watchable, interesting hour of television, and for the first time since the reboot began, Lynley feels like it\u2019s approaching something half-decent.<\/p>\n

Paul Hirons<\/p>\n

\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50<\/p>\n

Rating: 3 out of 5.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW<\/a><\/p>\n

Lynley is broadcast in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As readers of my previous Lynley reviews will know, I\u2019ve not exactly been swept away by this reboot.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-391223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}