Law & Order: UK – Answering the burning question

Take a good look at the above picture. That was the superlative original cast of Law & Order: UK. Over the last two series, we’ve now lost half of them.

Welcome to series six, episode one — the beginning of the post-Matt Devlin era and perhaps the end of the entire show. (As it has yet to be renewed for a seventh run.) It’s our introduction to new copper Sam Casey (Paul Nicholls), but more importantly, it’s our forty-odd minute long mourning period for Matt.

I certainly need a grieving space. As I wrote last week when reviewing “Deal,” I loved Matt. I fell in love with him, and our relationship got us both through a lot of things over five seasons. I don’t want to just get over him. I don’t even really want to think about a complicated story this week. I want to cry, and rage, and kind of dislike the new guy for not being the one I’m used to.

That’s where “Survivor’s Guilt” is genius. It’s an episode that doesn’t cater to the mechanics of the show, but to the emotional and intellectual needs of the audience. Firstly, Emilia di Girolamo finishes her own two-parter — she started us on this difficult road and she gets us to the very end. She doesn’t ask us to ponder any difficult questions or try to keep up with a twisty whodunit. She knows we’re not up for that, and she shows both the character of Matt Devlin and actor Jamie Bamber respect by not pushing past them.

Instead, her part two focuses on letting Matt’s loved ones — and by extension the audience — mourn his loss and begin to cope with his absence. As his partner Ronnie Brooks (masterfully played by Bradley Walsh, who has never seemed more world-weary or more perfect for this part) gets his emotions out, so do we. As he begins his journey without his partner, we’re there with him. And while we can’t be in the fictional LOUK world to do all the things that we’d do after losing someone we care for, Ronnie does them for all of us, whether it’s comforting Matt’s sister or taking care of his cat. One look at that cat in Matt’s now-empty apartment and I was a goner.

It’s Ronnie’s interactions with Sam that are the most telling. He doesn’t like Sam straight away, and vice versa — and that’s as it should be, because we don’t necessarily want to like him, either. Having Ronnie react adversely to Sam at first is not only human, it’s proper for both the character and the audience. We both have to get to a place where we’re ready to accept someone new. When the two coppers exchange nods of acknowledgment at episode’s end, that’s all we need. The show isn’t asking us to love him, or even like him. It’s just asking us to give him a chance, and he’s earned one by helping to ensure that justice is done for his predecessor.

Allow me to climb on my soapbox for a moment: ten years ago this October, I buried my childhood best friend. He was also taken out of this world by somebody else. Losing him broke me down and changed me fundamentally. I mention that because I still recall very well what I went through in my time of loss, and I felt the same emotions watching this episode. To me, this was painfully real, to the point where it got difficult to watch.

Maybe that was appropriate. Matt Devlin is fictional, but there was an attachment to him that formed amongst us all. I wanted to mourn him in a significant way. This episode gave me the chance to go through that process and not to do so alone — to do it with Ronnie, my fellow fans, and the writers. We all got to say goodbye to our beloved Detective-Sergeant Devlin.

Now I can hear the inevitable voices: “The show will never be the same without him. Bring him back!” Well, we can’t. We must remember that it was Jamie Bamber’s choice to leave, and respect that by letting him go, and not taking our disappointment out on the show. We must give it a fair chance in his absence.

But it shouldn’t be the same show without Matt. That would be selling him short.

And looking at what’s on the table — at the fact that half of the original cast is gone, that one of the show’s fantastic writers has already left (we still miss you, Terry Cafolla!), and that the head writer will be moving on after series six — I can’t help but wonder if it’s time to break the Law & Order franchise formula. To put the characters ahead of the show for once, and let the series end gracefully, now that the people who made it so great have begun to move on. I don’t want to see the day when Ronnie or Alesha (Freema Agyeman) walk out that proverbial door.

I’m still sitting here in my corner, a little choked up, having a hard time saying my last words about Matt Devlin. I don’t know how to sum up how much I enjoyed him as a character, or how talented Jamie Bamber was to get me to embrace him so well. All I know is that I miss the bloke. Let’s hope he’s proud of how it all turns out next.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Sep 29, 2011 @ 00:18 EST5EDT