Line of Duty and Stories within Machines

My most recent televisual obsession has been a rewatch of Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio's tour de force crime drama. For those unaware of the show, it follows AC-12 - an anti-corruption unit that finds itself pressing on the edges of very big crimes as it seeks to root out graft in the thin blue line. I forget where I first read it, but one of Mercurio's big interests as a storyteller is what it's like to be a human in these big bureaucratic machines. As such, it's not a surprise that he picked a police unit that investigates the machine for this story.

Nor is it a surprise that the first we see of our hero Steven Arnott (played by Martin Compston), he's busy in the role of cog in the machine. He's tactical command on an anti-terror operation, which means having somebody else give him orders on the phone, which he then relays to the police going in, all while doing the risk assessment paperwork on the bonnet of his car. When it goes horribly wrong, the machine jumps into action to protect its own. And when Steve objects, he's forced out of his unit and into AC-12 - a cop investigating other coppers.

The first target stuck in front of him by his new commander, the bluff and slightly self-important Ulsterman Ted Hastings (played wonderfully by Adrian Dunbar), is the Officer of the Year no less; Tony Gates (played with scene stealing verve by Lennie James). And really, Line of Duty's first season is all about the clash and contrast between Arnott and Gates. There's a lot in common between Arnott and Gates - working class lads, ladies' men, combative, believers in the police and its purpose and officers - but the crucial difference is their reaction to the machine. Arnott won't go along with it, even when its making life hard for him. Gates makes it work for him. And it's here that Mercurio got everything out of casting Lennie James - a black actor - because Gates' ethnicity in relationship to being in law enforcement gives him an immediate history. We implicitly understand he had to fight the machine to get where he is as well.

At heart, line of duty is a story that excels due to the compelling nature of its confrontations and the way they constantly evolve due to the continuous accretion of small details that change what viewer and character know. The way the characters' stances mirror the plot as a result keeps the shocks and surprises meaningful even as a rewatch. 

It is a particularly smart choice for a story about the machinery of the police, a machine made to gather information and that consumes the lives of its members. The details will be there anyway, because that's what the police do, so use them for all they are. Use them to up the intensity and dynamism of the character relationships in a way that is rarely done to the utmost in police dramas.

The other big benefit that comes from the accretion of small details is that it is easier to deliver shocks that feel dramatically right because the foreshadowing can be found in many little packets rather than one big obvious shape. It's why R+L = J blew so many people's minds the first time they read that theory and it is why Line of Duty is able to deliver so many huge shocks without losing its audience. And the huge shocks are needed as payouts to the audience's patience with the accretion.

And without trying to give away too many details, a lot of how Line of Duty's first season works is the way Arnott and Gates, mirror images of each other, gradually go through journeys that reverse some of their polarity. Arnott starts find a home and mission in AC-12; he ceases raging at the machine and finds his place in it again. Gates, under pressure from AC-12 and mistakes in his own private life, starts going rogue. Getting to see the story from both angles gives us a fuller appreciation of what the machine does to you; the pressure, the camaraderie, the empty hole when it's no longer there.

In its later seasons, Line of Duty moved away from the concentration on the police's internal machinations and more onto the characters' lives, and focused more on characters other than Arnott. In particular Kate Fleming often seems to be the star of the show, insomuch as the star is anyone other than the guest star getting to play the copper under suspicion. It probably made better TV but the first season of Line of Duty is unusual and special. It's like an early Le Carre book in its obsession over dry detail and how an organisational machine is a character in its own right. It is a very hard thing to do right, but when done right the effect is phenomenal. And I think there's lessons in how Line of Duty made it work for all stories dealing with the machines of society.