And so here we are again.
Having impressed audiences and critics last year with its debut series, BBC1's Belfast police drama 'Blue Lights' is back with a new set of challenges for the officers of Blackthorn Police Station.
(SPOILERS ALERT!)
The last series ended with John Lynch's dissident republican criminal gang leader James McIntyre being put behind bars, as he was abandoned by his military intelligence handler.
Jonathan Harden's Inspector David 'Jonty' Johnson was left disgraced after it was revealed he had put the activities of the same handler above the welfare of his own officers.
Jonty's extramarital affair with Hannah McClean's Constable Jen Robinson also came to light as she quit the force.
Even more devastatingly, the officers of 'Blue Lights' had to contend with the killing of a larger than life colleague, Richard Dormer's Constable Gerry Cliff.
Series One ended with the officers of Blackthorn adjusting to life without Gerry.
Series Two begins with Martin McCann's Constable Stevie Neil, Sian Brooke's Constable Grace Ellis, Katherine Devlin's Constable Annie Conlon and Nathan Braniff's Constable Tommy Foster in a Land Rover facing a riot situation.
Hemmed in by a burning wheelie bin and rioters brandishing and hurling petrol bombs, the situation looks dire until we realise it's actually a training exercise supervised by Niall Kerry's perennially grumpy Sergeant McCloskey.
As the quartet go for a debrief, McCloskey relishes berating them for their many mistakes.
Things really kick off in the series, though, when Grace and Stevie are back on the streets and called to Belfast city centre where the body of a heroin addict is found.
An ex-soldier, Ian 'Soupy' Campbell's address appears to be The Loyal Pub on the loyalist Mount Eden estate which is run by Seana Kerslake's Mags Thompson.
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Her brother, Seamus O'Hara's Lee Thompson is a former Army comrade of Soupy's who served with him in Afghanistan.
However Lee is also on his own little mission to make Mount Eden great again by wrestling control of the estate from two rival loyalist paramilitary gang leaders, Chris Corrigan's Jim Dixon and Tony Flynn's Davy Hamill.
A taxi driver by trade, Lee uses former British Army comrades to purge Mount Eden of both loyalist leaders and improve the lives of those they exploited on the estate.
But he also takes control over their drug dealing enterprises, working with James McIntyre's ex wife, Abigail McGibbon's Tina and her Dublin crime gang associate, Charlie Maher's Fogerty.
When Lee's right hand man, Craig McGinlay's Scotsman Craig McQuarrie assassinates Dixon, the police wrongfully assume Hamill is responsible and that a loyalist feud has erupted on the Mount Eden estate.
Andrea Irvine's Chief Superintendent Nicola Robinson demands answers from Joanne Crawford's Inspector Helen McNally and Des Eastwood's arrogant DS Murray Canning from the Paramilitary Taskforce about why they did not anticipate Dixon's murder.
Now based in Blackthorn, DS Canning struts around the station like he owns the place and winds Helen up by running his own operations using officers like Tommy Foster.
Boasting he has a policy of containment when it comes to paramilitary gangs, his nose is seriously put out of joint when Dixon is murdered and his own handpicked recruit, Frank Blake's Shane Bradley seems more interested in bedding Annie Conlon than in gathering intelligence on Mount Eden.
Leaning on Frank to deploy more heavy handed tactics to discover what is actually going on, his undercover operations risk an officer's life.
With Jonty also returning to duty in Blackthorn because of his previous experience as a community police officer in Mount Eden, tensions rise over the course of the six episodes over Canning's activities and Lee Thompson's ability to run rings around those investigating him.
Will Lee's grip on the community in Mount Eden be broken?
Or will he continue to thwart police efforts to prove he's a gangster?
With episodes in the second series written by 'Blue Lights' creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, as well as Bronagh Taggart and Noel McCann, there are a number of challenges facing the show.
How will they manage to make the Belfast cop drama feel fresh the second time around?
How will they compensate for the loss of the debut series' strongest and most loved character, Gerry Cliff?
How will they continue to navigate for audiences outside of Northern Ireland the complexities of policing a society still scarred by sectarian division and a conflict that ended nearly 30 years ago?
The answer is with varying degrees of success.
Having focused exclusively on criminal activity in a republican neighbourhood in series one, Series Two broadens the picture by focusing on criminal gangs in the loyalist community.
But as they do this, Lawn and Patterson are smart enough to weave in and out of the narrative figures like Tina McIntyre from the previous series.
This enriches the show, keeping it relevant to the realities of post conflict Belfast where drug dealing and its consequences have further complicated policing a divided society.
Admirers of David Simon's 'The Wire,' you can see how Patterson and Lawn may be building a complex portrait of their city in much the same vein as the HBO show did with Baltimore, by focusing on different aspects of crime and threading in characters from previous series.
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With 'Blue Lights' commissioned for at least two more series, it will become more evident if that really is their plan.
However it will also become clear how well that plan is being executed.
But while fans of Series One will feel that Series Two has a lot going for it, it is also evident that 'Blue Lights' has some flaws that need addressed.
In the offices of Blackthorn Police Station, the richest roles belong to the older officers.
In the absence of Gerry, Sian Brooke and Martin McCann's Grace Ellis and Stevie Neil emerge in Series Two 'Blue Lights' strongest cards, with the audience invested in their adventures and their obvious attraction to each other.
Both actors ooze real charisma and relish whatever the writing team throws at them.
Joanne Crawford's Inspector Helen McNally, Jonathan Harden's Jonty and Andi Osho's Sandra Cliff also develop into more rounded characters.
Jonty's on a redemption arc in this series while Helen wrestles with office politics and Sandra flirts with the notion of leaving a police station where she once worked alongside her sorely missed husband.
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With parts as rich as theirs, those actors thrive.
By way of contrast, the younger members of the cast are saddled with more soapy plotlines.
Annie's chaotic love life and her impetuousness come back to bite her in this series, while Tommy flirts with Canning's brash style of policing and starts to date Dearbhaile McKinney's Derry girl Aisling who he met in the first series during a test in the police training centre.
These storylines, however, feel slight and distracting and they undoubtedly detract from the efforts of the actors portraying them - particularly Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff.
Kenneth Branagh lookalike, Frank Blake's Shane Bradley is a good addition to the show and there are hints that a darker side to him could be exploited in future series if the writers are prepared to go there.
Andrea Irvine turns in another solid performance as Chief Superintendent Nicola Robinson, while Des Eastwood comfortably slots into the role of Blackthorn's office villain - the arrogant and dangerously cocky DS Murray Canning.
There's no doubt, though, that the absence of Gerry Cliff remains a big issue for the show.
While Patterson, Lawn and their fellow writers are wise in this series not to try and replicate him, the show still struggles to find a way of filling the gap his murder left.
Outside Blackthorn, there are pluses and minuses too.
The casting of Seamus O'Hara as the wily and complex Lee Thompson proves to be a shrewd move as he emerges as one of the most fascinating figures in the show.
Lee has a bit of a saviour complex about his role in Mount Eden but it's also a bit warped.
This makes him an intriguing character as he ducks and weaves his way round the police and into the hearts of his Mount Eden neighbours.
With the often reliable Seana Kerslake of 'Ballywalter' fame cast as his sister Mags, you expect sparks to fly.
However they never materialise and Kerslake's talent feels like it is being wasted in the role of a young mum and barmaid who pretty much plays second fiddle to Lee throughout the series.
Dan Gordon turns in a decent performance as Rab McKendry, a jaded ex-paramilitary prisoner who benefitted from early release under the Good Friday Agreement - although he doesn't really get to cut loose until the final episode.
Craig McGinlay, Chris Corrigan and Tony Flynn turn in solid supporting performances as Lee's right hand man Craig McQuarrie and the rival loyalist gang leaders Jim Dixon and Davy Hamill.
Alfie Lawless makes a good impression as Lee's young nephew Henry Thompson who has a pivotal moment in the series' big cliffhanger.
While it is good to see Abigail McGibbon pop up again as Tina McIntyre and Paddy Jenkin as the damaged Troubles survivor Happy Kelly, the show stumbles a bit in it attempt to address another aspect of Northern Ireland life that haunts policing - confronting the truth about the past.
With Hannah McClean's Jen Robinson no longer a police officer and now forging a new career as a solicitor, she becomes embroiled in a personal crusade to help Happy Kelly find the truth about the 1978 chip shop bombing that killed members of his family and left him traumatised.
This brings Derek Thompson's disillusioned former RUC Special Branch officer Robin Graham into her orbit.
However, despite its noble intentions, this subplot soon begins to stretch credibility as the writers try to put a more positive spin on what is a lingering and testing issue for Northern Irish society.
None of this does McClean or Thompson any favours.
Indeed the tendency of the writers to try and please audiences in other ways also proves problematic for 'Blue Lights' in this series and could be more problematic in the long run.
While the writers have demonstrated in the previous series that they are capable of delivering a dark storyline and a shock, Lawn and Patterson and their writers don't go there often enough.
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Yet this is what great cop shows like 'The Wire,' 'Homicide: Life In The Street,' 'Hill Street Blues' or BBC's 'The Cops' or 'The Responder' regularly do.
The writing team's tendency to also sign off with a happy ending - in this series we see the officers gather in a Belfast city centre pub where the up and coming Northern Irish rock band Dea Matrona are playing - gives the show the air of a Shakespearean comedy where all the loose ends that don't need to be tied up are tied up anyway.
Nevertheless it has to be said when they assume directorial duties, Patterson and Lawn and their fellow director Jack Casey do a sterling job in keeping the action rolling.
The drone shots they deploy of Belfast also capture the city's post conflict beauty and vibrancy and the fringe storylines in the show remain some of its strongest moments.
In Series Two, the suspicious death of a gay man in his home, a domestic disturbance involving an alcoholic ex-schoolteacher and a visit to lonely pensioner just looking for company provide some of the most convincing and poignant moments of the show.
It would be churlish not to acknowledge how much 'Blue Lights' has raised the bar for TV drama made in Northern Ireland.
Even with the flaws that have emerged in this series, it's still an entertaining watch and it's head and shoulders above any other show made about Belfast.
But in a golden age for Irish TV drama, the gap between it and 'KIN,' 'The Dry' and 'Bad Sisters' has increased, with it falling behind the pack.
Ultimately, if 'Blue Lights' is to kick on from being a decent cop show to a truly great one, it needs to be much more gritty in its next two series.
It needs to take more risks, jolting its audience out of their comfort zone.
Currently the show's sitting on a B+ and while that's fine, it still has the potential to be among the very best and secure an A.
That's the challenge facing the writing team in the years ahead.
(Series Two of 'Blue Lights" was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK from April 15-May 20, 2024, with all episodes made available on the iPlayer)
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