Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Line of Duty Season 6 Finale reflects how I'm traumatised by 2020


 "When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?"

- Line of Duty Season 6 

Sometimes I feel I'm so traumatised by 2020 - the deaths, government corruption and suffering that I can't face the news. There is no end in sight yet. There is no real solution or heroes. That is what Jed Mecurio's record breaking tv series Line of Duty Season 6 represents. 

I came to the Line of Duty party late. It's been running for 10 years. I've watched all six seasons on BBC iplayer in the last few months, mostly watching one season within one or two days - a rare accomplishment for anything to hold my attention in this way. 

It is a show about power, the real life loneliness in this world and our imperfections, dramatised in a fictional police anti corruption high speed chase versus corporate document evidentiary lense. 

This is reality - one minute we're high and the next we are inundated with the tedium but necessary world of offices, bureaucrcacy, regulations and incompetence. 

Season 6 of Line of Duty centred on the death of a journalist, the coverup and the possible demise of Anti-Corruption Unit 12. Now have a think about the media and journalists in the last 12 months. Also think about the coverups and demise of so many things we are living with. 

I immerse myself in nature, beautiful images and frivolity to balance all the ugliness of this world. 

It's the only way I can resume as a creative person, to write and continue when at times I cannot understand what has happened, why it is happening and not feel like everything is disintegrating into a bleak dystopia. 

To say I'm traumatised by 2020 seems a bit melodramatic. Yet the thing is, I was, am and everyone was and is too. 

Line of Duty provided an escape and keeps the cracks from growing too wide. It makes you want to believe there are honest people fighting for what is right despite all that is thrown at them. 

It also reminds me that it is the journey that matters, not a single monent, or season end. 2020 is just one episode of my life. 2021 is a new season of challenges and stories. 

I want to focus on the positives that have developed. I want to see a brighter future. I want the glass is half full. Whoever's job it is to fix our broken democracy must stop being incompetent and get on with it. 

Was Line of Duty's season 6 finale a success? 

A writer and artist is brave to step away from crowd pleasing and formulas. To stay true to a story, characters and the fictional world is golden. To make a statement with greater deeper messages and provoke us to think is genius. 

The final hour might not deliver the neat tidy bow, nor the explosive dramatic action, but it does reveal more and still keeps the audience hanging. People are talking about the show and will watch a season 7. If that's not success, then what is? 

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