© BBC
Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley's five part show 'Better' was always going to be measured against Sally Wainwright's show.
However giving it the same slot would have made that assessment a whole lot worse.
Wisely given a Monday night slot, they have come up with a cop show which feels like it might go places but somehow doesn't quite deliver.
© BBC'Better' is basically the story of a corrupt cop who risks exposure in Leeds.
Leila Farzad, who some viewers will know as the former agent in Sky's 'I Hate Suzie,' is DI Lou Slack, a maverick detective (what else?) whose bosses are impressed by her exemplary record.
However Lou has secretly feathered her own nest by collaborating with a crime gang headed by a former informant, Andrew Buchan's Northern Irish charmer Col McHugh.
When she isn't mysteriously disappearing from her office and then appearing to solve crimes, Lou is taking phone calls from Col and his gang to do their dirty work or dining with him and his family in his plush home.
© BBCShe has a nice house too, with a husband, Samuel Edward-Cook's Ceri Davies who is fully aware she is on the take and a teenage son, Zak Ford-Williams' Owen who is good at comic book sketching but is blissfully unaware.
At the beginning of the opening episode, Lou is entertaining friends of her husband, who is in construction, with her detective tales when the McHugh gang rings and orders her to do their bidding.
Making her excuses she leaves the dinner and heads to a murder scene and tidies it up for Col before forensics arrive.
On her way home she is flagged down by a police officer who recognises her and makes his apologies.
© BBCBut then her life takes an abrupt turn.
Owen is struck down by meningitis and emerges from intensive care with disabilities and while she absorbs the shock, something inside Lou snaps.
Lou is suddenly struck by her conscience.
She turns up at a post office robbery and realises the assailant who assaulted an elderly woman is one of Col's gang.
© BBCWarning Col that Kaya Moore's Noel Wilkes is going to have to be arrested, Lou leads the raid on the suspect's flat despite being warned by the crime boss not to do it.
She talks Noel into surrendering to her police colleagues rather than allowing a tense hostage situation with his cousin to develop.
Noel's arrest and Lou's disobedience arouses suspicions in the McHugh gang, though.
Garry Cooper's old hand Bulgey Donovan and Col's son, Ceallach Spellman's Donal believe her loyalty to the gang should be tested and that she should be closely watched.
© BBCHowever Col seems reluctant to believe a cop he has worked with for years, who he counts as a friend, is betraying him.
By trying to do right while associating with those who do wrong, Lou increasingly realises she is playing a dangerous game and putting others' lives at risk.
She, therefore, seeks the advice of an alcoholic, ex-cop, Anton Lesser's Vernon Marley who was in the force with her dad and was later exposed as being dirty.
Plotting her way through the moral maze with Vernon, her dodgy attempts to avoid a drug war between Col's hoods and a rival gang from Bradford stirs the suspicion of a colleague, Olivia Nakintu's DS Esther Okoye as well.
© BBCCan Lou somehow manage to extricate her and her family from their messy life of corruption without falling out with Col and being exposed publicly as a dirty cop?
With Donal befriending Owen under false pretences, can she protect her family?
With the help of directors Jonathan Brough and Pier Wilkie, Vincent and Brackley have created a pretty average police drama that at least benefits from Farzad's solid central performance as Lou.
However when measured against the likes of Tony Schumacher's 'The Responder,' which also unfolded over five episodes and aired this time on BBC1 last year, it compares unfavourably.
© BBCWith its compelling story of a corrupt officer on the beat, Schumacher's show benefitted from its creator's background as a Merseyside police officer.
It also thrived thanks to Martin Freeman and his fellow cast members' gritty performances and slick direction by Tim Mielantz Fren Troch and Philip Barantini.
'Better' is decently acted but it feels a little too restrained for its own good.
It toys around with some interesting ideas but never quite develops them to their full potential.
© BBCSometimes the writing is also a little too much on the nose, with Lou and her family also finding themselves in situations that increasingly stretch credulity.
While Farzad emerges the strongest of the cast, it has to be said Buchan makes a decent fist at a Northern Ireland accent but he doesn't quite hit the levels of Aidan Gillen style menace that you might wish.
Spellman does a reasonably good job as his feckless son and his scenes with Ford-Williams are effective.
Edward-Cook, though, is a little stiff in the role as Lou's husband - it's as if Blackpool FC's manager Mick McCarthy has been asked to star in the show.
© BBCLesser's corrupt ex-cop also feels a little too low energy to dazzle.
Nakintu, Cooper, Moore, Mark Monero as another gang member Lord, Carolin Stoltz as Col's wife Alma and Lucy Black as DCI Sandy Mosby trot out stock corrupt cop show dialogue but it all feels like it's been heated in a microwave.
None of them can shine because Vincent and Brackley aren't really interested in developing their characters.
As British cop dramas go, 'Better' sits firmly in the middle of the league.
© BBCIt's neither dazzling nor is it dull.
It's just another British cop drama aspiring to be another 'Line of Duty' and it trudges through its plot rather joylessly.
While it is certainly better than the Northern Irish corrupt cop drama 'Bloodlands,' that's hardly a recommendation.
Watching 'Better,' you find yourself willing it to live up to its title but ultimately it ends up being a fruitless exercise.
And that's a shame because Farzad, Buchan and Spellman certainly deserve better.
('Better' was broadcast on BBC1 from February 13-March 13, 2023 with all five episodes available on the BBC iPlayer)
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