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Anna Friel has been busy recently hasn’t she? Fresh from an awful lot of crying in ITV1’s Without You, she was back on our screens in Public Enemies, playing Paula, a parole officer just returning to work after 3 months on suspension. Her first case was that of Eddie Mottram (Daniel Mays), who had just been released from a 10-year prison sentence for murder, and it wasn’t long before he began to protest his innocence. And so came 3 nights of compulsive viewing.
Public Enemies was firm proof that TV can hold the attention without exploding cars/buildings/trains/heads in order to make for arresting television. It was certainly an intense experience, thanks to some suitably grim lighting and, of course, star turns from Friel and, especially, Mays. (Though has Mays ever given a below-par performance? Nobody does cockney quite so well.) Their interviews together were quite simply the highlights of the series; they weren’t quite up there with Hannibal and Clarice’s encounters, but the tension on both sides of the table was palpable, and the juxtaposition of their emotional displays (Mays all forthright and Friel all silent sufferer) was compelling to watch.
And let’s face it, you can’t beat a good ‘Yeah, he says he hasn’t done it, but does that mean he actually hasn’t done it?’ scenario. There was a worrying time when I thought we weren’t going to find out whodunit, with just 10 minutes left and no signs of a confession any time soon. Thankfully, the all-important revelation arrived at the eleventh hour, and a believable one it was too. Quite proudly, I can say that I’d worked it out half an hour before the end. You probably did too, but this was a big achievement for me, especially after, earlier in the week, only managing to solve the excellent Endeavour half a minute before the big reveal.
However, despite giving us that final answer (and not leaving us with a 50:50), the ending did serve to lower the overall quality. As the story progressed, was I alone in feeling an abject sense of impending doom? I was waiting for that final punch that would leave me floored and rabbiting on about it for weeks to come, but, unless I’ve suddenly got a lot tougher, it never came. Furthermore, in a drama that had me utterly convinced in all other aspects, I didn’t buy that Paula would fall in love with Eddie, and vice versa. They needed each other, yes, but the proof of his innocence fulfilled both of their needs, enabling them to get on with their lives. Separately.
It just all goes to show how the ending really is the most important part of any piece of fiction. It wasn’t a travesty, it was just that the events that had built up to it had considerably more power. That aside, overall, Public Enemies offered two top-notch performances, and enough food for thought to leave it lingering in the memory for some time, just not as long as I had envisaged.
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