Criminal Justice - Series Two [DVD]

The first series was a hard act to follow. This series is not as good as the first, but watchable all the same. The subject matter in this particular series was depressing but probably gave an accurate account of the issue. The ending has a twist that will leave you perplexed but it will probably only last until the credits end.

Criminal Justice Series 2

It's now just over a week since the final episode of Criminal Justice 2 was broadcast on BBC1, and, one of my reasons for writing this review is simply to get it out of my head. You may take this as a good or a bad sign, but how long is it since a TV drama kept you awake for the best part of 2 nights and led to an hour long discussion with your brother?

I'll agree with every other reviewer who has, or will, express the opinion that there's some high class acting here, but that doesn't seem to be the point to me. I'll also endorse the view that suspension of disbelief is essential at times and admit that getting my husband to watch the second episode took persuasion. However, I think the messiness of loose ends, whether intentional or not, made the drama greater than its parts. Life is messy after all.

There's so much outside the frame. For instance, I couldn't help wondering why Juliet hadn't left her husband before he turned her into a nervous wreck, but more pertinent questions arose at the end. How many other marriages would break up on account of the case and how many police careers laid on the line? Above all, what on earth was going to happen to the 13 year old daughter, Ella?

One of the things you can do when flummoxed by a drama is to put the characters in order according to the sympathy they engender. But here again things are tricky because the characters are in the main flawed, a mixture of good and bad. Added to that, the straits are dire. There is no baddie to get caught so we can go to bed assured everything's fine. That being said, I would challenge anyone not to take to Jack, the eccentric solicitor, played by Sophie Okonedo. Also the idealistic junior social worker and Ange, Juliet's cellmate, who wants to do a stretch as a break from her abusive partner and sees to it that Juliet is "done up" for her daughter's visit. In addition, there's goodish cop, played by Denis Lawson.

This drama is a slow burn right but to the end, when it becomes electric, but it's obviously not just about Juliet's fate and the fallout for others swept up in her case. It's called Criminal Justice and that's what it's about: an individual up against the massy wheel of the state. Personally, I don't think it's a polemic against the imprisonment of mothers with children. Indeed, considering the attitude - my child first - displayed by the doctor's wife, the grass and Juliet herself, I can imagine feminist feathers being ruffled. Like the bad cop and the good cop, the senior social worker and the judge, the mothers in the play also had their priorities set when push came to shove.

I have read the previous reviews, and the majority of them are very positive. I completely agree with them.
Some reviews put a question mark on the the fact that more questions than answers are left at the end, or that the credibility of some parts is questionable.
I am not an expert in legal procedures or in how things should be carried on in such cases, but I can tell you one sure thing: for people experiencing even only a small part of the abuses descripted here, this is an open and enlightning book, and instead of looking slow, every single line is essential to understand not only the world of abuse, but also the world we are continuously living in our everyday life, if you take for example the type of mobbing inside the police force or in the legal offices, which happens in every office, whatever kind it is...
It's been great to see how women in particular can take their own decisions and directions here, even if very painful sometimes. I wish it could happen more in real life and encourage everyone to face this reality.
Coming to the acting, Maxine Peak as Juliet Miller is simply superb, and Matthew Macfadyen as Joe Miller is both this incumbent presence on Juliet's life throughout all the drama, and at the same time capable to play in a very realistic way the part of the very much agreeable husband and father - what woman wouldn't like to be married to Matthew Macfadyen ? He has got quite a dark part in this, and he ended up with a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor !
I have been impressed a lot also by the performance of Sophie Okonedo, as the solicitor helping Juliet Miller to find her way out of the nightmare she is living in.
So at the end I have only one recommendation to the approaching audience: just be very open minded, allow doubts to work in you and even if you're lucky not to have experienced anything of this, please give a chance to the fact that other people do have...unfortunately, and it's all so terribly true.