jc-osms A taut and exciting mini-series, the better for being condensed to just three as opposed to the more usual six, eight or ten episodes with Manchester-based detective John Simm out to prove his innocence after his wife and child are murdered at their home. Behind it all is a nefarious insider plot framing him for the deed, involving his so-called best friend (played by Craig "Dot Cotton" Parkinson) and a trusted senior colleague but after a spectacularly staged escape from a police van, Simm goes on the run to uncover the truth and clear his name.There was little that was original in the plotting, but with sharp, pacy direction and good acting throughout, while it may not have outdone say, "Line of Duty" or "Happy Valley", this was a superior TV thriller. As usual I found some of the background characterisations, particularly that of chasing cop Rosie Cavallero to be superfluous and surplus to requirements, but when it concentrated on Simm's character's relentless chase for the truth, it was very good indeed.Naturally he gets to run about a lot just one step ahead of the pursuing police pack, meaning hand-camera location shots a-plenty and the body-count grows wherever he goes but allowing the usual dramatic licence for coincidence, few actors can do haunted and hunted better than Simm or devious and deceptive like Parkinson. Some of the supporting cast I was less convinced by (especially a miscast Adrian Edmundson as a senior officer) but between these two, plus Cavallero and Anastasia Hille as his trusted former boss, this made for good viewing all round.

lougarry33 ***SPOILERS AHEAD***Oh dear, BasicLogic, you do seem to have misunderstood a lot. I just saw this tonight and it seemed pretty straightforward.I agree the inexperienced acting SIO, Reinhardt, was too quick to condemn Farrow - and she later acknowledged this herself - but otherwise most of your "plot holes" are nothing of the sort.When Farrow identified the body found in a shallow grave on the moor he discovered that the victim's name had come up in an old enquiry, so he retrieved the relevant floppy disks from archived records to look through. He had been invited to spend the evening at his ex- wife's house (which he had once shared with her) to spend time with his children and whilst there he got his old desktop PC with a floppy disk drive down from the loft to go through the disks. Lomax's name came up on the disks. He then had an argument with his ex-wife over her dating, punched the wall and left the house in a rage, leaving the disks behind him. He returned to the house to retrieve the disks later. Given the circumstances, he would hardly have called ahead as she would have told him to stay away. After receiving no response to his knock he let himself in with his key to find his ex-wife dying.There was no plan to kill Farrow's family. Dale Lomax broke in only to retrieve the floppy disks. The child, Max's, death was an accident - he fell down the stairs when he ran from the intruder. Abi saw his body and Dale and began screaming and Dale's attack on her was an unplanned response. As to where Finn was - that I can't remember. Possibly on the top bunk with headphones on. Everyone thought Farrow had killed Abi, and Finn had heard them arguing and seen Farrow lose his temper earlier in the day so it's unsurprising that he too thought his father may be responsible.The floppy disks contained details of corrupt dealings between Farrow's partner/friend, Devlin, boss, McKenzie, Lomax and the dead man.Devlin, the friend/partner, wasn't Abi's new boyfriend, but had had a fling with her years previously. Farrow didn't go to Devlin's house: he went to Topher Lomax's to try to track down the floppy disks. (When he and Devlin questioned Lomax, whose name cropped up in the old casefile, Topher threatened his family so was an obvious first suspect in Farrow's investigation.) Devlin then turned up there too. Not sure why he didn't realise the front door had been forced - maybe he just assumed it was always left unlocked.Sadly, it does seem that at least one viewer was indeed a moron. That'd be you, dude. For Pete's sake don't try watching anything with a complex plot, mate.

zotwot I only recently caught up with Prey which starred the excellent John Simm. It was a three part series which was a whodunnit drama with a twist. As he is charged with the murder of his wife and child Farrow, who is a detective himself, manages to escape and then goes to investigate the case whilst being on the run from the police at the same time.The mystery was quite clever because it seemed like it was really complicated but in the end turned out to be really simple. The twist of being on the run at the same time was great and there was some really clever scenes where Farrow escaped in some excellent ways. It had fantastic characterisation and although John Simm is excellent in every role he plays I really thought this was one of the best. A great drama and it is nice to see ITV being able to now compete with the BBC with high-quality dramas.

BasicLogic stupid screenplay with lot of unforgiven holes big enough to drive through a semi container truck! very highly unlikely scenarios and plots with illogical twists, so conveniently arranged for the development of the storyline. stupid female detective captain, stupid police organization, so easily to condemn a brother detective of their own. guy went to his ex-wife's home at night without calling first was against normal behavior any normal divorced husband would do, albeit a police detective. survived kid so readily to believe his father killed his mother, and his kid brother was killed in the same house while he was just spared? so where he hid himself in the small house? if the killer already targeted the ex-wife's family, he should have known there were 3 persons in the house, would he just killed two and left? the reason to kill this stupid cop's family was even shady without any explanation. did this guy hold some important, critical, dangerous information that might endanger the crime boss? if so, what was it? if the kids and other people in this stupid series already used iPhones, how could it possible that their desktops were still equipped with the obsolete floppy disk device and even the police still using the floppy disks? and if those disks held the important and deadly evidence and secret that would convict the accused, how could he brought them to his ex-wife's home. where was this stupid detective's actually lived? did he had his own living quarter? when he was transported to the prison, the other criminal just attacked him so easily with a ball pen with free hands without cuffs? after he ran away from the accident scene, he went to his ex-wife's new boy friend who's also a colleague and partner, he kicked open the front door, it should have seriously damaged the door and the door frame, so why his partner didn't find out there might be an intruder in his home and he was a detective! he won't detect his front door was heavily damaged? and still could use his key to open the damaged front door? on and on, this stupid mini-series played on and treated the viewers like morons. that' absolutely unacceptable, dude.