Take three girls
Watched the end of Scott and Bailey last night, the best series yet, IMO. I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. And yet . . .
I read something a few days ago which argued that it is the most sexist show on current television. The writer may have a point, for there isn’t a single male in the series who isn’t either a murderer, an adulterer, a cuckold, or an idiot, with the exception of the one black character in the show, who seems to be the token male good guy, and maybe also the new sergeant, but he hasn’t been around long enough to reveal his character flaws.
The thing that saves it for me is the fact that it doesn’t spare its women either. Janet’s marriage broke up, thanks to her having it away with a colleague. Rachel’s went the same way for the same reason, plus she appears to be a functioning alcoholic. Gill, the DCI, mate one minute and martinet the next, has a cop ex-husband around too, with an eye for the female officers. And then there’s Rachel’s mother, of whom the less said the better. Even the ultimate villain in the current series was female, Helen, played by the magnificent Nicola Walker. It’s as well she was killed off in the end; too much competition for the big three.
Whatever, roll on next year.
Quintin Jardine's blog 
Mitch is ok, isn’t he? But your point is true enough about the rest of the men and Rachel’s mother would have been better left out altogether; she would not have been missed. Helen was not a villain to my mind, but a victim. Her ultimate suicide was unexpected and almost an anti-climax, but more tragic even than a shoot-out at the end. Gill’s weakness, and need for support from her colleagues after her ordeal, illustrates the loneliness of the Team Leader in the work situation. To see her alone, in the midst of the party, apart from the company of the gin bottle, makes me think she had been left to “get on with it” by her superiors, but I hope that was not the case.
She’d been left to get on with it by her inadequate drunken ex-man, while he got on with falling over.
Thanks Q – still have the last two episodes to watch. The second in the series I found confusing as it appeared to be all flashbacks but it did get better. The problem with this series of S&B and Broadchurch is getting to grips with really radical thinking I their planning. By the way I assume you noticed that Last Tango….did well in the awards ceremony.
Last Tango passed me by, Joy. If you saw the opening scene of the first show in the S&B series, and even the pre-series trailer, surely you must have worked out who had kidnapped the DCI?