Trial & Retribution is another gritty British detective show that pits DCS Mike Walker (David Hayman; Sid & Nancy) and DCI Roisin Connor (Victoria Smurfit; About A Boy) against criminals whose crimes unfold with complexity. It takes the resources of the department and the duo’s street smarts and legal smarts to break cases wide open, sometimes even to protect themselves and their own.

In this installment, a collection of the shows final episodes, we get four intriguing episodes that hit you hard and, as is tradition with most British crime shows, keeps you guessing until the very end. Be it a crime family whose influence and power has zeroed in on a badge or the accidental death of a young girl at an amusement park, Walker and Connor get the job done.

Tracks is the first episode in the collection which has the team discovering the body of a young girl in a chalk pit. The investigation leads the team to Ray Harper, a troubled man whose sons were at the pit the previous night at around the same time the girl was murdered. The boys deny the accusations but evidence soon pops up that links them with the victim.

Siren is the next episode which has an ambulance forced off the road and the patient inside shot and killed. The patient was not just anyone, he was the fiancé of a tabloid queen. Most of it seemed a bit of a filler episode to me. I know that shows like this like to pull their stories from the headlines or create stories around headlines that seem like they could be good reality but this one was a bit of a yawner. Maybe it was my bias for tabloid media or simply for celebrities, I just couldn’t get into it.

Ghost Train is the next episode and it was good but all to familiar. A young girl falls from a ferris wheel at a local fair and dies. At first it’s deemed an accident but later, after a fortune teller comes forward to report that strange things are afoot at the local fair, another body turns up. This is the oldest story set up in the world but it’s nonetheless effective and interesting to watch unfold.

In the last episode, Shooter, a notorious crime family is silencing witness to a murder and one of those witnesses happens to be a detective inspector. When the DI’s family goes missing it’s a race against time to find them before they are murdered and to find them before the DI goes out looking to rescue them himself, leaving in his wake a blood bath or his own demise. It very loosely reminded me of the Joseph D. Pistone novel Mobbed Up in which his persona of Donnie Brasco is forced to race against the clock to find his kidnapped daughter. There is only a slight resemblance between the stories but just the same. It was a suspenseful and engaging episode that closed out the show on a high note.

Trial & Retribution is a dark show that some people might stray away from, but if you’re a fan of the British detective show you’ll probably like this. The entire series is available to Amazon Prime members on stream, so if you’re a Prime member check it out. If not, it’s worth a rental. Enjoy.