Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I enjoyed the first two stories more in this four-story series. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the first story rushed. I thought the pacing was good. It was pretty obvious what had happened to Helen and Linda in the past, so it isn't exactly a big reveal. However, I didn't think that the flashbacks added much to the story - perhaps there were just too many of them and neither of the young actress resembled the older ones much. I liked that the resolution at the end included the historic case being reported, though.I'm not sure that there was much original in the first case - one police officer has to convince another that the wrong person has been charged etc - we've seen this many times before, but I liked the dynamic of having an established couple working together rather than a romantic tension cliche. I thought Ben Batt was really convincing as an excited prospective father, it was interesting that Helen Weeks isn't an entirely likeable character and I thought Matt King's character added quite a lot.You have to suspend belief a little in the second story - as if a woman about to give birth would rush around investigating a case. The character dynamic also completely changes. I must say, I really wasn't really that interested by the gang-member story and I didn't feel sorry enough for the new gang member's situation. Those parts felt like a distraction or padding.Some things didn't make sense - why does the criminal Frank take the action he does in light of the information he gives to Helen at the end? He may have made assumptions initially, but his henchman seems to get the full story but the course of action continues. Also, an item is stolen, we can eventually guess who by or, at least, who had arranged it, but why isn't it mentioned during the resolution? The ending was a little flat: you've kind of worked out some of it by then, I didn't buy the blackmail part and Helen's disgust didn't feel real enough. It was all over in five minutes with an off-camera confession.I felt a bit "cheated" by that!I thought Matt King was underused in the second story and the David Leon character was woefully underdeveloped. Still, I'd watch it were a second series made but it would be a different programme out of necessity.

I'll not go into any detail but a distinctly average northern cop drama, and in episodes 3 and 4 a quite ludicrous and unbelievable plot.One question though. I maybe thick and blind, or both, but the newborn baby at the end was black, or am I imagining this? If so, who was the father then?

This review concentrates on the first two episodes but the lack of quality can easily be directed to the second two episodes Dreadful Acting, implausible plot line and a lack of continuity that was, quite frankly, breathtaking.The flashbacks, the way people spoke to each other - a detective to her boss - blimey.As for the cars - different number plates from one scene to the next - people travelling in the back of the car had a window behind them when the camera was in the car (like an estate car) and yet there was no window on the outside as they got out of the car. Abandoning cars in the middle of the village and a supposedly heavily pregnant police officer, getting and involved with a case outside of her force, barking orders and getting into fightsComplete and utter rubbish

'In the Dark' is a strange kind of television series: well-acted (MyAnna Buring stands out in the lead role), and with interesting themes, but marred by a broadly implausible premise (female detective brings criminals to justice while nine-and-a-half month's pregnant) and sudden plot leaps. Danny Brockelhurst is an experienced writer, and to be fair, here he is adapting books and not writing from a clean slate, but the script is definitely uneven, and the result falls between fast and taut, and something lengthier and deeper which might have told a more coherent tale.