Antidisturbios

There has been so much good stuff from Spain recently. This is one of the better cop series and one of the best I have seen in any language.

I'd imagined that the story would focus on the everyday tasks of the riot squad and their interactions both amongst themselves and with the public. Indeed, the first episode, masterfully shot almost in documentary style, plunged us immediately into their work, this time to evict a family from a decaying building. As the storyline states, things go wrong and a man dies.

From here on in, Internal Affairs has a large part to play in the story and the narrative mainly switches from the squad's job as a reserve against disorder to how the investigation affects the members and their solidarity.

Despite their being plot twists, they are not easy to predict, although I got who was one of the secret baddies at the end of episode four (we know who most of the others are).

I liked the opening scene of the first episode which established Laia as a person who would take no nonsense and would insist on the truth whatever the cost. That's in a family situation and she is no less direct at work. However, she is not immune to making a deal with the devil to get her case solved.

I guess there will be a second season and I shall, on the strength of this, be watching it.