Roush Review: ‘Line of Duty’s Fifth Season Is Must-Finish-Now TV

Good cop, bad cop — in this taut series from the creator of last year’s sensational crime thriller Bodyguard, it’s often hard to tell the difference.

Now in its fifth season, the British hit Line of Duty offers up its most electrifying dirty-cop candidate yet: John Corbett, a volatile undercover operative who’s gone off the grid, played as a fiery bolt of tightly wound fury by Stephen Graham (best known as Boardwalk Empire‘s Al Capone).

Related

Roush Review: The Relentlessly Twisty 'Dead to Me' Is Made Palatable by an Expert Cast

Corbett’s infiltration of a dangerous organized-crime group has gone so deep, he may have crossed the line into actual criminal behavior, resulting in the murders of several officers.

Sounds like a job for the anti-corruption AC-12 unit. But as detectives Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) and Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) get closer to their target — whose original mission was to find links between gangsters and high-ranking police — they begin to doubt the integrity of their own boss, Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar).

Much like in Bodyguard, a jolting twist at the season’s midpoint changes everything, and what initially seemed like a solid and smartly done procedural becomes urgent, must-finish-now TV.

Line of Duty, Season Premiere, Monday, May 13, Acorn TV