By Any Means – 2013 British TV Series

Here is a fun new TV series for the lovers of crime mystery: By Any Means, a BBC One series featuring Warren Brown (playing as Jack Quinn, the team leader), Shelley Conn (playing as Jessica Jones) and Andrew-Lee Potts (playing the geek Thomas “TomTom” Tomkins) as the main protagonists.

They play a group of semi-clandestine police unit, operating in what they call “it’s a gray area” as Warren Brown so eloquently puts it every time he is asked to show his police identification. They trio can use any means necessary to put the bad guys away.

The unit is sanctioned by Gina McKee (playing as Helen Barlow), their boss who gives Jack Quinn their assignments on whom to target next.

The blurb from BBC One says that the series:

“By Any Means follows a clandestine unit living on the edge and playing the criminal elite at their own game, existing in the grey area between the letter of the law and true justice.”

The series is just a new one in a row of cop TV shows spanning across the US and the UK. There is nothing wrong with that if you like cop shows. Personally I never get tired of them (nor of reading cop mystery novels) as long as the show is well done, the actors are playing their part without bringing shame to their craft, and the plot is exciting and suspenseful.

And I think By Any Means did it quite well. Granted, it’s not one of the best shows around, but it did make me forget about the outside world for a full 50 or so minutes (notice how the UK TV series are a few minutes longer than their US equivalent, when you take out the time the commercial run?).

Also the acting was not something extremely special or something to talk about once you’ve watched all the 58 minutes of it, but the guys (and gals) did play well together, and I guess we’ll just see how the next episodes will go on. Which reminds me, this is a mini series of 6 episodes, so it’s not a long season like we’re used to the US shows. But then again, the British TV series are quite short by nature, usually being made of 6 episodes. Not sure why that it, but there we have it.

Now what really made me notice this series in the first place was a particular actor (yeah don’t laugh please!) Andrew-Lee Potts because the first time I’ve ever seen this actor was in the British sci-fi/fantasy series Primeval (and then also having shortly appeared in the Primeval New World, the Canadian follow-up). I truly loved this series and just watching this actor brought back fond memories of Primeval (which doesn’t seem to want to bring us another season!).

I give By Any Means it a 7/10 for a fun entertaining time which didn’t really shake me up, but which didn’t bored me to death either. I think I’ll continue watching the series and see how it develops in the next short few episodes.