BBC’s Guilt winds up three seasons of top-tier TV

Review by C.J. Bunce

Not many series get better with each season. Recall Grimm almost did it. Resident Alien is on the right track. But BBC’s Guilt may be the first British TV series we’ve reviewed to pull it off and also tie up all the plot threads by its series finale. The third season of the suspense-thriller Guilt is now streaming on PBS Passport in the States alongside the previous two seasons. In only four episodes it proves that good, tight writing and top actors really can deliver a satisfying season of TV. It’s a fun and funny series, despite being about a guy who cannot win, no matter what. Mark Bonnar’s Max McCall started out all right, but he became his own worst enemy, from a well-adjusted lawyer, scheming and in too deep with the local mob, writing himself a ticket to jail, and then this season, stepping up to the cliff ready for the mob to deliver the final, blunt force blow. Bonnar has another banner year here, and another banner series, but not without an incredible cast, including co-star Jamie Sives as hapless brother Jake. Bonnar and Sives are simply the best draws in British TV right now, and together they pack a powerful punch.

Guilt has won top honors in Scotland for its darkly funny and thrilling story from creator Neil Forsyth. And no wonder. If Season 1 was a “just desserts” story about Max, and Season 2 “Max’s revenge,” then Season 3 is about balancing the scales in Max’s world. If you pay attention in Season 3 you’ll find that only one character is incorruptible. In other shows it might seem ludicrous. Here, the characters and situations make sense. They characters feel real. So who is the incorruptible one?

Is it Emun Elliott’s Kenny, the poor sap private eye Max continues to use as part of his plots to hide money and take down the current mob head in Leith? Is it his girlfriend Yvonne the cop, played this season by Isaura Barbé-Brown? Or his niece Skye (Amelia Isaac Jones), who has a romantic relationship with Anders Hayward’s Danny, who just killed Skye’s dad? Danny is of course under the thumb of the Big Bad, Phyllis Logan’s Maggie Lynch, wife of the former Big Bad–Roy–who is dead. She’s in cahoots with Sir Jim Sturrock, as corrupt a politician as you’ll ever see, played by Euan Macnaughton. Maybe the lone good guy is Maggie’s henchman Teddy, played by Greg McHugh, who really ups his game this season, forging one of the year’s best supporting performances on TV? And Ellie Haddington is back as Max’s old glaring, nosy neighbor Sheila. What is she plotting?

We already know the year’s character without reproach can’t be bent cop Stevie Malone, played by Henry Pettigrew–but wait–this season he looks like he’s trying to make up for his past. Is it Jake’s girlfriend Angie, played again by Ruth Bradley? Or Max’s former girlfriend Erin, the daughter of kingpin Maggie, played by Sara Vickers? Wait–there’s one more key to The End: Tamsin Topolski arrives to play Aliza Hillerby, an American lawyer arriving to complete due diligence on a bank financing for Sir Sturrock’s bank. Hillerby delivers a realistic portrayal of actual lawyering–something that rarely makes it to TV in the UK or the U.S. As with the use of legal work conducted by Max and Kenny, Guilt is one of the best series ever to include realistic lawyering as part of its suspenseful storytelling.

That greatest of tropes is tapped and re-tapped this round: enemies must become friends against to take on a common foe. Is there anything in a crime story more fun? Again, revenge is a dish best served by Mark Bonnar, but it’s even better when Bonnar must work with his enemies to get there, a la “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The third season is even funnier and more explosive than the second. Has any TV writer used trust circles so effectively in a twisty tale? Along with another finely woven season-long plot, Neil Forsyth’s riveting story has the year’s–and series’–most satisfying ending. Patrick Harkins returned as director this season, and he remains one to watch. The ending is simply perfect. As a bonus we get to see David Hayman as the McCall boys’ long-lost father, in a story tangent along the lines of James Bond’s Skyfall.

Top tier writing and performances by Bonnar, Sives, Elliott, Logan, Vickers, McHugh, Barbé-Brown, Haddington, Pettigrew, and Topolski cinch Guilt′s position in our British TV Top 10, up there with Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, The Hour, The Gentlemen, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including Van Der Valk, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Professor T, and the first season of Sherlock, plus Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The One, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession. If you’re logging the best dramas of 2024, Guilt should be on your list with The Gentlemen.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include police procedurals Luther and Case Histories, fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and “cozy mysteries” Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch).