D.I. Ray

This was a bostin’ return for one of my favourite police procedurals on TV. DI Ray has a lot more to say than just “not all brown people speak Hindi” – and it’s well worth watching

Low key in tone and atmosphere, DI Ray, cop and show, that is, deserves to be a success. Mercurio ticks another box.

Nagra’s performance is convincing and nuanced, even if DI Ray annoyingly wades into situations she is not supposed to. .... The turf war gangster story is less engaging (but then I do find gangster/drugs plots meh), yet it’s warming up. It had an extra boost from the endlessly watchable Michael Socha as the gang kingpin’s son Dave Chapman.

[Rachita] may not be quite the conduit into South Asian culture that the department is seeking, but she does have an innate skepticism about the presumed guilty. That gives something of a kick to "D.I. Ray," even if its principal agenda seems more about resentment than detection.

Ray is a good character who could have a long television life, but she deserves better scripts and plots than this.

Despite the wealth of material writer Maya Sondhi (best known for playing police constable Maneet Bindra in Jed Mercurio’s Line of Duty) doubtless has at her disposal, it is used in the service of giving us a police procedural with a fresh perspective rather than didactically. It lends heft to a story that at times moves a bit too slowly.

The issues drag everything else down. If you want viewers to become hooked by a detective series, you need to pour your energies into the crime. Ray has become so mired in misery over her treatment that it distracts from everything else, and also blinds her to the fact that she is deservedly in trouble half the time for ignoring orders and going into dangerous situations without the required back-up.