Review of Ripper Street ‘What Use Our Work?’ By Neela Debnath Arts (THE INDEPENDENT)

SPOILERS: Do not read this if you have not seen episode 8 of ‘Ripper Street’

As the curtain fell on our heroes of the East End, these past two months have offered an interesting insight into this faux, hyper-real Victoriana version of Whitechapel, complete with its cockney geezers and top hats.

This week saw the resolution of Jackson’s storyline whereby he cleared his name using forensics to rightly prove that Goodnight framed him as the Ripper. There was also a subplot involving date rape and human trafficking, with Rose getting caught up in something that required Drake to rescue her yet again. On top of that the audience learnt the whole story of the night Reid lost his daughter Matilda.

The three simultaneous stories which were interwoven into the episode created a thrilling finale. It was a race against the clock to save Rose and also the girl thought to be Matilda but who turned out to be a street urchin.

It was a fantastic red herring thrown in there in amongst all the other things that were going on. There was the hope that finally Reid might find some peace and closure instead this dark shadow will always be there in his life. The sense of guilt will hang over him, the same guilt which caused a rift in marriage and led him to stray from his wife. As a rule all detectives need to remain workaholics, driven deeper into their work by the guilt of a dark and hunting past, Reid is no different in this respect. It would just be plain wrong if we saw him strolling jauntily through the streets of the East End, whistling a tune. If police officers are to be brilliant then they must remain troubled and either be alcoholics or philanderers or both.

What Use Our Work? was a strong finale to the series and by the last scene it felt like the trio were ready for more. Hobbs was not forgotten either which was a really nice touch and really honoured the character. The scene where Artherton, the officer with the great big bushy ginger beard who usually communicates only through his eyes, belted out a tune in the pub to mark the passing of the young officer was wonderfully poignant. All in all, it worked with a usual mixture of action, intrigue and drama, along with nasty little violent or visceral moments that pepper the series.

Ripper Street is a great Sunday night cop show, it’s engaging with three really interesting leads. Yes, there are a multitude of anachronisms but it is still good fun and essentially a police procedural in the Victorian age, i.e. CSI: Whitechapel. It is also worth mentioning that it has been beautifully shot. It may not have the same sweeping sets of other production but it manages to look like the east end of London, even if it is filmed in Ireland, most notably in Kilmainham Gaol with its Panopticon building and a car park outside Dublin Castle.


READ MORE: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/24/review-of-ripper-street-what-use-our-work/