THE FIXER 2.5

[SPOILERS] I've never been convinced Andrew Buchan is the ideal actor to play The Fixer's lead -- John Mercer, an ex-soldier who murdered his aunt and uncle when he discovered they'd been abusing his insipid sister. The character's actions are largely sympathetic, but we're supposed to believe John has something dark lurking inside him that makes him an ideal hitman/vigilante for the government. Trouble is, in Buchan's hands, I've never really felt John's anywhere near as interesting as he could be -- he's too compassionate, too moral, too cuddly. He can brood and he can kill the occasional scumbag convincingly, but he's been missing a sense of raw danger that could overspill. Until now...

This penultimate episode wasn't a complete transformation of John's character, but it was the first time we saw his rage at the injustices of the world boil over into psychotic behaviour. The target this week was Sean O'Driscoll (David Schofield), a London criminal back from overseas to mastermind a gold bullion robbery, whose cover is a cage-fighting club he runs with his reptilian son Connor (Sam Spruell).

Lenny (Peter Mullan) wants John to find Sean (whose physical identity is a mystery thanks to regular cosmetic surgeries), by earning his son's trust to get close to him, and then eliminate him at close quarters. Rose (Tamzin Outhwaite) poses as a PR woman interested in working with Connor's beautiful trophy girlfriend Sadie (Gemma Price), with John playing her arrogant ex-military boyfriend who baits Connor by equating cage-fighters to "dancing bears." It's all part of a plan to get John into the inner circle of Connor's club, as he's slowly indoctrinated into the skuzzy world of cage-fighting, growing closer to meeting Sean O'Driscoll himself -- the tipping point coming when Calum (Jody Latham) poses as a gun-toting troublemaker John disarms, rewarded with free cage-fighting lessons and an offer to make some money as part of Sean's gang.

There were two tiny subplots to take the edge off the testosterone The Fixer was sweating profusely: first, Calum contemplated fatherhood when his wife Manuela (Elisa Terren) revealed her period is late, although it turned out to be false alarm and Calum was left clutching some baby clothes he'd bought in secret excitement; second, Lenny again had to fend off Symmonds (Elliot Cowan) -- who is still insisting that letting him control his unit is the best course of action for his covert operation -- but Lenny's refusal to accept the two-faced civil servant's help appears to have pushed Symmonds into sending his own hitman to destroy Lenny's operation (as a set-up for next week's finale.)

By far the standout moments of episode 5 were contained in its turbulent conclusion, with Connor murdering his girlfriend by throttling her against a chirping fruit machine, and John's being viciously assaulted by Sean's gang and thrown into a cage for a grudge match with Connor. It was here that we finally saw the animal that's supposed to lurk behind John's calm veneer, ready to explode to the surface when innocent people become collateral damage.

Fuelled by a rage that sweet Sadie had been needlessly murdered, John pounded Connor's face into the mat, speckling his own features with blood through an insane stare that so freaked-out Sean and his cronies that they beat a hasty retreat. A bare-chested John then ripped through the club, finally landing his hands on Sean and shooting him dead in seconds, before turning calmly to the unsettled gaze of Rose to request a napkin to daub away the blood from his kills. These were great edge-of-your-seat moments -- bolstered by that great reaction from Rose immediately after John's ruckus, if sadly let down by the fact the immediate denouement that found a Rose flirting with John back at the flat. I'd have preferred it of Rose continued to feel numbed and scared about how far John can go sometimes...

Overall, this penultimate episode was very good and had plenty to recommend it. The plot wasn't anything special or plausible at times (Rose was trusted because "she has a website"?), it was again quite clichéd in its characterizations and general set-up, but many scenes gave us the shot of adrenaline The Fixer doesn't always deliver (great directing of the brutal fights by Paul Whittington and choreography), and the plot did its job in keeping you gripped till the end. And I continue to delight in Mullan's croaky performance, which turns the tiniest scenes into little gems (like his café chat to a scumbag.) In fact, it's about time we had an episode that focused on Lenny exclusively -- it would be great if a flashback revealed he used to be a "fixer" like John, once upon a time...


29 September 2009
ITV1, 9pm

written by: Ben Richards directed by: Paul Whittington starring: Andrew Buchan (John Mercer), Tamzin Outhwaite (Rose Chamberlain), Jody Latham (Calum McKenzie), Peter Mullan (Lenny Douglas), Elliot Cowan (Matthew Symmonds), Elisa Terren (Manuela), David Schofield (Sean O'Driscoll), Sam Spruell (Connor O'Driscoll), Sadie Pickering (Gemma Price), David Legeno (Marty), Rupert Farley (Woody) & Mark Flitton (Ashby)