SPOILER ALERT: The following contains major spoilers for Grace Season 5, Episode 3.

Grace Season 5, Episode 3 is the one Peter James fans have been waiting for—but it never stops feeling slightly off. The BritBox drama goes backwards to “Need You Dead,” the thirteenth book in the Roy Grace series, when the rest of the season has been further ahead. The reason for the shuffle isn’t immediately clear, even as the TV version still hits most of the high notes.

The case of the week starts out relatively slow, and it plays with familiar archetypes for the guest characters. When Hannah Belling is killed, the suspects include her shady ex-husband, the disgruntled employee, her ne’er do well brother and the friend she was having an affair with. The underlying theme of “Need You Dead” seems to be how terrible men are. But there’s enough action to keep viewers interested, and the plot picks up steam when it veers off to a storyline closer to home. The last forty-plus minutes feel like their own separate mystery.

In the early going, there’s one pleasant surprise: the appearance of Gethin Anthony as Marcus O’Sullivan. He’s an incredibly underrated actor (his performance in Manhunt: Deadly Games for Spectrum is one of the hidden gems in the procedural genre), and it’s a real shame that Grace doesn’t utilize him more. His talent deserves a meatier role, yet he does very well with what he’s given.

Because of these relatively stock character types, though, Hannah’s murder never stops feeling like a pathway to a bigger point. Keen-eyed viewers will be able to guess the major reveal of the episode from one awkwardly written scene in the first act, when Grace’s boss and rival Cassian Pewe just happens to show up for a random conversation at the crime scene. The script doesn’t do enough to camouflage that moment, so savvy armchair investigators will have Cassian pegged for some dirty work, even if they don’t guess the full extent of his crimes.

That being said, these kinds of corruption storylines are still great because they provide room for all kinds of emotional reactions. And that’s where Grace Season 5, Episode 3 stumbles a bit. The series as a whole has normally been fairly calm and consistent in its tone; there’s little melodrama, and most of the huge emotional scenes come from victims or their loved ones. But in moments when Grace and company should be upset or livid, they’re pretty muted. In the moment when Grace suspects Nick Nicholl and confronts him, the tone of the scene never rises above quiet disagreement. This is Grace thinking one of his own teammates is a possible murderer. The series doesn’t need to go hugely over the top, but it can do more emotionally.

There’s no real emotional payoff until the final confrontation between Grace and Cassian—which is everything viewers want that to be. It’s a visual spectacle between the Hippodrome setting and the selection of shots, most notably the sequence in which Cassian finds himself literally surrounded by his colleagues. Sam Hoare and John Simm also turn in excellent performances as the bad blood between Cassian and Grace boils over. Anyone who followed the novels knew this was going to happen, and Grace makes those few minutes count. If the whole story had that same level of urgency and spirit, this could have been one of the series’ best episodes.

On a similar note, readers of the Peter James novels may be relieved to know that the TV version of “Need You Dead” sidesteps the book’s idea that something may be wrong with Grace’s son Bruno. That subplot felt almost Dexter-like, and the show is better off without it. “Need You Dead” is not a terrible episode either; it just doesn’t reach the potential it has with such a prominent plotline and another remarkable bit of guest casting.

Grace streams Thursdays on BritBox. Photo Credit: Courtesy of BritBox.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 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.