A Mind to Kill
Fans of A Mind to Kill: Series 1 may not recognize it as the same program in A Mind to Kill: Series 2. DCI Bain (Philip Madoc) undergoes an evolution that is not at all pretty--forget his decency and compassion, he’s spent too much time watching Bad Lieutenant (both versions).
This collection is--at best--uneven. One or two of the episodes are quite good, several are bizarre, and one or two defy description. For example, in “Game Plan” Bain is forced to go undercover despite the fact that he’s not particularly skilled at doing so. He ends up in a seaside town where there’s been--surprise!--a murder. The inhabitants of the town are too Lynchian to be ignored--they are odd for the sake of being odd. Bain, under an alias, has a liaison with a woman who is not Margaret. The story gets more and more unbelievable as daughter Hannah arrives, followed by Bain’s crew, who go about the business of pretending they don’t know him. Of course, Margaret is there, too, complicating things. The story itself is poorly paced, it takes an inordinate amount of time to build up to a murder that the audience knows will happen.
Somehow the humor that was so evident in Series 1 has been abandoned. DCI Bain has turned dark and sour, and by the last episode, “Green Wounds,” totally unraveled. Bain is put on leave due to stress, Margaret is acting like an immature harpy (it’s hard to believe that she wouldn’t have confronted him about--we assume--his infidelity or insensitivity), and Hannah has picked up a stalker who was just released from another episode, um...excuse me....prison. A drunk driver gets off easy, igniting memories of Bain’s wife, who was hit by a drunk driver. There are three stories here: 1) Bain is intent on getting revenge on the man who killed his wife twelve years ago; 2) Hannah is being stalked by someone intent on getting revenge on her father; and 3) the son of the dead man is intent on getting revenge on the drunk driver who got off easy (and who is thoroughly despicable).
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