The Irish police drama Blue Lights has been one of the biggest surprises on BritBox, and Season 3 is no exception. While it once again balances the private and professional lives of its officers, this go-around feels more painfully personal. And with another six-episode season, the show is still incredibly addictive.

Three seasons in, these characters can no longer be classed as rookie cops—a fact that gets mentioned repeatedly by the characters themselves. That changes the tone of the show just enough. Yes, there’s still plenty of banter, sometimes in awkward places; the very first scene of the season is about cupcakes. But when it’s time to get serious, things feel a little more serious, a little more deliberate. Even the actors feel like they’ve stepped into their roles just a little bit further.

The painful part comes from Constable Grace Ellis having a personal connection to the crime plot of the season. Season 3 is the best one yet for actor Siân Brooke. Viewers get to see more of how Grace’s past applies to her present, and that also puts strain on her relationship with Stevie (played by Martin McCann). Grace leads with her heart for very understandable reasons, and Brooke often feels like the driving force pushing forward, especially in the early going.

That’s not to say this is a one-woman show. All of the core characters have something going. Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff) and Shane Bradley (Frank Blake) butt heads in ways that sometimes make Tommy look like the senior partner. Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) starts to question her place. Blue Lights wades into the messy personal waters that every procedural does, but with rare exception, it never overdoes this element. So many series wind up feeling like soap operas where whatever the characters do is an afterthought. Blue Lights creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, who co-wrote four of the six hours, never forget that there’s supposed to be policing going on.

Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters, Alien: Earth) joins the cast in Season 3 as DCI Paul Collins. Collins has a past with Helen McNally and he’s a real heavyweight, running the operation that forms the backbone of the season. The tension between the detectives and the uniforms adds another layer to the season, although sometimes it works well and in other moments, not so much. But the overall plot of Season 3, with its combination of gritty drug dealing and an upper-crust members’ club, is classic crime drama. It’s the contrast between the haves and the have nots, the secrets of the rich and powerful—taking reliable story elements, putting them into a blender, and seeing what happens.

Blue Lights Season 3 feels like an evolution for the BritBox show, in a good way. It’s the next step forward for the characters, where they have to grow up in a sense, and because of that the series has to grow with them. There are some growing pains—sometimes a joke is in the wrong spot, or goes on too long, or a story beat doesn’t quite work. But it’s a pleasure to see these actors continuing to gel together, and seeing how each character reacts to this new place in their lives. And it’s also a great argument for the short-season model the UK has perfected: the plot goes on just long enough. Anyone looking for a crime drama to sink their teeth into during the network TV break ought to turn directly to BritBox.

Blue Lights streams Thursdays on BritBox. Photo Credit: Peter Marley/Courtesy of BritBox.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.