Here's my problem with Vexed in a nutshell: it wants to have a compelling will-they-won't-they flavour amid the sleuthing, but Jack (Toby Stephens) and Kate (Lucy Punch) have no real chemistry, and Jack's such a massive prick that you're hoping he gets transferred somewhere far away. Sure, ginger cheeseball Jack's preferable to Kate's loathsome hubbie Dan (Rory Kinnear), but that's not a good enough reason to want to see Jack and Kate become an item... and that's a major flaw for a series aiming for a Moonlighting-esque romance.The final part of this mercifully brief series was an improvement over the inept second episode, but not quite as strong as the mediocre premiere. The investigation revolved around the disappearance of Gemma G (Scarlett Rose Patterson), lead singer of girl group "Candy Crew", who has apparently been kidnapped for ransom. Suspicion fell on known "super-fan" John-Paul (Dylan Brown), who was struck off the list of suspects because he's in a wheelchair, as everyone at home contemplated the obvious "twist" that the group's manager Richard (Del Synnott) has staged Gemma's abduction for the free publicity. Fortunately, Jack made the same deductive leap shortly after everyone at home, and the script appeared to end that clichéd line of enquiry. However, just when you thought the story was now free to move into unpredictable realms, it instead reversed to reveal how disabled John-Paul was indeed the culprit, coerced by Candy Crew's manager into keeping Gemma G for longer than planned to boost record sales (the latter part of his plan inspired by Jack's initially mistaken theory).
But is anyone watching Vexed for its plots? They barely fill the hour and neither victim or perpetrator are of any concern. The show is more interested in giving Jack and Kate various situations to handle during their investigation, but nine of that's as much fun as it should be. They're just not funny characters -- individually, or together. Stephens has misjudged the tone completely and made Jack into an exasperating, incompetent twerp. Punch is more likeable, but her "blonde Katherine Parkinson" shtick wears thin and her character's so wet it's hard to care about her.
It's hard to see what Howard Overman was doing with Vexed, which has one of TV's most well-trodden premises (mismatched detectives who would be perfect as lovers, but don't realize it), and failed to put an interesting slant on it. It's not very funny, it's not very dramatic, it falls between two stools and can't get up. There are sporadic moments where you titter over a sight gag or a phrase, but the show builds such a thick atmosphere of tedium that you're just not in the mood to laugh. The only thing that grabbed my interest was seeing Lucy Punch sprint around the woods in some tiny lycra running shorts, hate to say it.
Overall, I can't imagine Vexed being re-commissioned by the BBC (not least because the production company Greenlit has gone into administration). It felt like it was thrown into the summer schedule because the BBC knew they had a turkey on their hands, and despite the fact I like the actors and writer's previous work, none of it gelled on-screen. It really was a limp, disappointing detective series, and I don't think too many people will care if this is the last we see of it.
WRITER: Howard Overman
DIRECTOR: Matt Lipsey
GUEST CAST: Rory Kinnear, Roger Griffiths, Ronny Jhutti, Del Synnott, Dylan Brown, Marcy Oni, Jayne Wisener, Jenny Jules, Scarlett Rose Patterson, Jumayn Hunter & Tony Gardner
TRANSMISSION: 29 August 2010 - BBC2/HD, 9PM
