Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Jing Lusi, Lesley Sharp, Jemma Moore, Martin Compston, Nicholas Rowe, Jonathan Aris, Trevor White, Tom Forbes, Richard Armitage, Robert Gilbert, Hannah Steele, Tom Ashley, Steph Lacey.

It is with surprise that the second series of Red Eye seems to have learned the lessons presented by its initial series and produced a far more intriguing situation to be investigated by D.S Lee and one that releases the damaging limitations that shrouded Jinh Lusi in the lead role and which reinforces a truth that the world at large is not only caught in the crossfire of ideology, but that at its very core it suffers from the best laid plans of those we might consider to be serving our own best interests.

Whilst the first series allowed itself the limiting aspect of placing almost all its action with the confines of a plane, of reducing the interaction between characters due to the process of claustrophobic intentions, the way that the second series opens up its vision and the operation at large by placing the action almost firmly within the open offices of the U.S. Embassy in London is, at the least, a fascinating delivery of espionage and lies, of corruption and lies that perhaps might have served well as a tighter film rather than a serial but still captures the tension well.

This widening of the narrative fleshes out the characters, returning and original, in such a way that even though the series still suffers from reliability, it no longer is one that is caught off guard by the lack of relatable background personality; and it is to this that frames the relationships between Jing Lusi and Martin Compston’s Clay Brody, and Lesley Sharp’s Madeline Delaney and Jonathan Aris’ John Tennant to the point of extreme recognition, and this is made possible by including the sense of economical lies and political ambition to the mix, that in such drastic times strange bedfellows are created.

Whilst the original series was focused almost entirely on the premise of the wrong man being hunted, the second outing for Red Eye determines that there is always a villain hiding in plain sight, and it works well.

A decent series that has improved from its initial foray into the world of detective drama, and by embracing a larger political angle, has grown in strength for a watchable encounter.

Ian D. Hall