Blue Lights is a show about making tough choices. Like all the best police dramas, moral ambiguity is what makes this Belfast series tick. What is right and what is legal are not always the same thing. What does justice looks like for a young girl roped into a life of crime and abuse? What does it look like for a high-level drug dealer? Or a local businessman who – other than his penchant for young girls – is a pillar of the community?
In its first, excellent season, Blue Lights explored Belfast’s post-Troubles Catholic Separatist communities. We joined our new recruits to the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as they drove through rough-and-tumble neighborhoods where citizens have about as much love for “peelers” as they do protestant Loyalists. We watched as Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke), Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) and Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff) learned the ropes in one of the most dangerous cities to be a cop in Europe.
Season 2 expanded into West Belfast and its Loyalist communities, paramilitary groups and introduced us and our favorite police squad to all new political tensions.
In Season 3, we don’t exactly leave these groups behind – familiar faces from both seasons show up throughout the new season – but we do explore a new criminal element: the upper middle class. While both the first two seasons dealt primarily with working class people, the PSNI tackles a slightly more posh set of criminals in Season 3, though the lines are ever blurry.
When a young man released from police custody turns up dead, it becomes clear that foul play is involved. They begin searching for the girl he was seen with, worried that she’ll be the next victim of a nefarious drug ring both the local police and intelligence services are working against. Police soon find connections to some of the criminals at the upscale private members club, The Daenery, run by the mysterious Dana Morgan (Cathy Tyson)
Tommy and Shane (Frank Blake) also butt heads after Shane plays fast and loose with due process and brings an internal investigation down on both their heads. Fortunately, outside of the Stevie/Grace conflict, Blue Lights Season 3 maintains a clear grasp on what makes this series work so well: actual police work, whether that’s investigating or responding to crimes, or the kind of quieter, day-to-day police work that makes this show so human.
Season 1 remains the best of the three, with Season 2 a close second. While Season 3 continues with everything I loved about this show in its first two seasons, I’m hoping that we get a bit less of the relationship drama and a bit more of the gritty, on-the-street police work that really makes this show tick in Season 4.
I understand that in order to let characters grow and change, we need these relationships to be tested, but I genuinely think Blue Lights is at its best when our heroes are out on the street dealing with the citizens of Belfast – criminal or otherwise – making tough calls, showing deep compassion and empathy, and dealing with the consequences of their actions and the actions of others. Straying too far into personal drama and romantic conflicts risks taking away precious time from more interesting storylines. This is especially true in the Grace/Stevie conflict that really felt out of place in an otherwise strong season. Hopefully Season 4 course corrects. We only get six episodes per season, after all.
I’d also like to see more new recruits added to the series, so that we can give characters like Grace a chance to take probationary officers under her wing. Grace’s savior complex can only play out so many times, but she’d be a natural leader and trainer of new recruits. These issues aside, Season 3 is another terrific, tense and compelling entry in one of the best police dramas currently streaming. I can’t wait for Season 4.
Blue Lights’ Season 3 finale drops on BritBox next Thursday, December 18. If you haven’t started this series yet, please give it a shot. It’s one of my favorite UK crime shows at the moment, and a genuinely top-notch police drama. Fans of Happy Valley, The Wire and Line of Duty will find a lot to love here.
