Must Watch review Unforgotten series 5
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review ‘Unforgotten series 5’.
When a severed leg is discovered inside a chimney, the team get to work identifying the victim - meanwhile, Cassie's replacement has a rocky start with Sunny.
Scott says, ‘The show has always managed to feel very distinctive. I love the attention to detail.’
Scott says, “There is a new character joining the show, DI Jessica James by Sinead Keenan. I dropped out from watching the last series, but judging from what I saw for this new episode, I am hooked.
“I think the show has always managed to feel very distinctive. It takes the normal crime drama genre and spins it in a different direction, but also a very caring direction.
They actually really do care about these stories, all about people who may have been forgotten about, or maybe a historical crime from decades earlier. I love the attention to detail where it feels very grounded.”
Scott says, ‘You see there being a bit of a rift, a bit of frustration, so I like the fact that it goes against the grain.’
“I won’t reveal what happened to Nicola Walker’s character in case you’re not up to date, but I like the fact that with Sinead’s character, they are purposefully taking it into a different direction than Nicola Walker’s.”
“As a result, DI Sunny Khan, played by Sanjeev Bhaskar, they don’t immediately get on, and I think that is an interesting dynamic, because normally in crime double-headers with two people who end up working together, they always generally seem to get on and that’s the whole idea – you like their working relationship. Here there’s a bit of a rift, a bit of frustration, so I like the fact that it goes against the grain and I now cannot wait for Hayley to disagree on every single word I’ve just said.”
Hayley says, ‘What this season makes clear is that Nicola Walker really was the beating heart of this show and without her it just feels, for me, a little cold and dead.’
“I was disappointed by this but I was sort of expecting it. The thing about Unforgotten is that it was always a bit of ‘ITV crime nonsense’ but Nicola Walker elevated it to something else. Without her it feels like it’s just another basic ITV crime show. The rest of the cast is great - we’ve still got Sanjeev Bhaskar as her former sidekick - and they’re exploring a lot to do with grief and how the past plays into the future, which is what the show was always about, but now even more so because they’re all grieving.”
“I really think this show should have ended with the last season. I know a lot of fans are still recovering from the big, brutal finale. It was a neat end and, to me, this continuation feels unneeded. It’s unfair to say it’s the fault of the new casting, because it’s not – although I don’t think I could ever get behind a new detective who has her husband on her phone under the name ‘My Gorgeous Hubby’.”
“I think what this season makes clear is that Nicola Walker really was the beating heart of this show and without her it just feels, for me, a little cold and dead.”
