As the first episode of The Responder begins, Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) visits a counselor who learns he wants to talk about things. He claims he can’t because he is wrapped up in his own head. He wants to believe in her although he can’t. He has a full week ahead and it is stressing him out. Chris goes on to say he wants to be a good bobby who does good things. Before we see Chris driving a police vehicle, he tells the counselor that he wants to be normal. He drives fast with his lights on as the dispatcher tries to find someone to respond to another call. Chris arrives at an apartment complex, gets out, and walks around before we jump to him waking up in bed. He immediately grabs the pill bottle next to his bed and likely takes some. Once he gets out of bed and opens the curtains, he sees Kate (MyAnna Buring) and Tilly Carson (Romi Hyland-Rylands) arriving outside. Chris has breakfast with his wife and daughter as they joke about Tilly turning into a sausage.

Kate gets a call or message on her phone which she blames on work. Then, she tells him about the door upstairs causing him to quickly say he is sorry. In Tilly’s bedroom, Chris reads her a book. He says it is rubbish, but she wants him to read it anyway. Kate walks up the stairs in time to hear Chris telling her daughter about the Giant and Jack who he describes as a bit of a coward. Later, Chris brushes his teeth and looks at the bathroom door which has a hole in the middle of it. Next, we return to night one as Chris makes his way across the apartment complex to confront an arguing couple. Once he gets closer, he hears Mary (Sylvie Gatrill) calling Trevor (Victor McGuire) a pedophile who plays with himself and plays his computer every day. Chris admits he doesn’t care if Trevor wanks on his computer all day. He gets angry and tells Mary to keep her voice down and get the dog inside before he throws it over the ledge.

Once she walks away, Chris asks Trevor why he keeps doing this to him since he has been here multiple times recently. He has a mental lapse, grabs Trevor’s head, and threatens to kill him if he does this one more time. We return to the therapy session where Chris says he came here to get fixed and they both know he isn’t fixed. She tells Chris to support himself and be kind to himself because that will help, but Chris feels like she is dropping him off and driving away. He doesn’t think he can keep going on like this because he gets blood on his boots and spit on his face every night. The counselor believes he is doing important work although Chris isn’t sure about that. He can’t remember the last time he did something good. Back at work, Chris receives a call from Carl Sweeney (Ian Hart) who wants to know if he has seen Casey (Emily Fairn). Although Chris doesn’t want to help, Carl asks him to pick up Casey for him. Carl eventually admits Casey owes him money.

Chris says he isn’t a debt collector and that isn’t their thing. When the call ends, Jodie (Faye McKeever) complains about Carl letting Lexie (Lois Cringle) watch all that killing on television. In his defense, he says it isn’t real killing. Carl says he needs to go out so Jodie tells him to be careful. Chris tracks down Marco (Josh Finan) and repeatedly tells him to give up his weed although Marco claims not to have any. Marco empties his pockets as ordered. He asks why Chris doesn’t believe him about the weed. Chris says he is a liar and that is what he does. He smacks Marco on the back of the head while asking how he got the money. Marco says he isn’t going to tell him so Chris smacks him again. Marco screams for him to stop hitting him. Chris asks if he knows Casey. Since Marco does, Chris wants him to help him find her. Chris offers to let him sit in the front seat, but that would look bad so Marco jumps in the back. When Marco asks about his bike, Chris lifts it up and tosses it over the fence.

As they drive away, Chris tries to find out how Marco got a hundred quid. He claims he hasn’t been dealing and instead helped a man out with a favor. Marco admits to setting up a guy with some gear although Chris says he has never heard of the guy in question. As for the gear, he claims it was clothes, tracksuits, and stuff. After Marco offers to get Chris one, he is asked what he wants to do with his life and what his plan is. Chris believes what he is doing is pointless. Marco says he is being rude and he is one of the rudest people he knows. Everyone says it because Chris is rude to everyone out there. Marco reveals he has a kid despite being 18. Chris encourages him to go see his kid although Marco says he doesn’t have time to. Marcus learns about Chris’s kid and the fact he lives with his wife still.

Chris gets another call from Carl who is shown running around looking for Casey. Marco takes Chris to the place where Casey has been staying. Chris goes inside the dark, derelict building and finds Casey trying to sleep. As Chris leads her out of the building, Marco screams that Chris made him do it while she calls him a grass. Chris tries to get her to empty her pockets, but Casey says she wants a woman to search her. Chris takes Marco’s money while saying he’ll pay him back. He uses the money to buy drugs from Casey before asking if she has fallen out with someone. She says no and claims nothing happened. Chris asks what is going on because he might be able to sort it out. She says he is chatting to the wrong people before running off saying she has places to be and people to see. Chris yells for her to be careful. Then, Chris leaves Marco to walk back to his place. As Chris drives away, he notices he has two missed calls from Carl before hearing a radio call about retrieving body parts.

He joins them as another office picks up a severed hand. One officer is emotional while Chris is emotionless. A bit later, Chris receives a call from his wife Kate who asks if they can talk. They briefly talk about Tilly’s sleeping schedule before the conversation turns to Chris’s therapy. Since his sessions end this week, Kate thinks it might be a good idea to ask for more and even suggests going together. When Chris says they won’t give him more, Kate says they can go to a private therapist. He isn’t interested and feels like he is wasting his time and his therapist’s time. She asks him to talk to her then because he is disappearing these past couple of months. Kate goes on to say he won’t take her hand when she is trying to pull him back. Chris gets a call on the radio so he tells his wife he has to go. Kate climbs into bed with her daughter. By the time Chris arrives at his next job, he is stressed out. He learns that something has happened to Mrs. Robinson (Pat Winker) so he goes inside to check on her.

As he enters the building, he gets a call from Carl and ignores it. He finds the woman dead on her couch and checks her pulse to be sure. He takes her tobacco before checking out the mail envelopes nearby. Chris goes upstairs while telling the dispatcher about the deceased elderly woman. He looks through a nightstand and takes some pills out of the woman’s pill bottle. Casey talks to someone on the phone. She begins freaking out as she asks a stranger for a spare cigarette. When the man says no, she runs across the street. Marco calls Carl to see if he will give him a lift, but Carl says no since he is busy. During the call, Carl learns that Marco was just seen Casey, but Chris let her go. Meanwhile, Chris talks to Mrs. Robinson’s grandson who is 16. The boy says his mom is coming over so Chris offers to do this later. He says it is okay though. Chris’s phone rings several times until he can no longer ignore it. When he answers, he tells Carl he isn’t in the mood for this.

Carl tells him to get in the mood before asking about Casey. Although Chris says he doesn’t know where Casey is, Carl suggests otherwise since Marco told him he found her and let her go. Carlo can’t believe he is lying to him after all these years and after he gave him free money. Chris doesn’t think it is free money though. He goes on to say he has done his part and he isn’t Dog the Bounty Hunter. While Chris says he should just leave the kid alone, Carl can’t figure out what the problem is between them now. Carl asks if it is the mental thing. He doesn’t want to say it, but he tells Chris that he doesn’t have a choice. Carl wants him to bring Casey to him without making any excuses this time. After Chris says he heard him, Carl says they can put this to bed once he finds her.

The call ends and Chris returns to the grandson who asks if he is okay. Chris says yes and thanks for asking before the boy says he wants to be a copper. He asks the boy about his nan being unwell. She had cancer and had been feeling bad for the past week or so. The boy was bringing her soup when he found her. He begins crying and saying he could’ve saved her if he had arrived sooner. Chris says otherwise because people get old and die. After that, Chris sits with Mrs. Robinson’s body while flipping through the options on her television. Doctor Sutherland (Paul Campion) arrives to check the body and learns she was 81. He finds that Chris has been sitting around, watching TV, and eating soup. The doctor asks if that is appropriate. Chris responds by saying he thinks it is homemade. Once Chris leaves, he begins calling around in hopes of tracking down Casey.

He ignores a call from Carl while calling others to see if they’ve heard from Casey. Cops, Phil and Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo), pull up next to him to see how everything is going. Chris tells them about the death and his mother. Once they drive away, Chris gets a call from someone who has seen Casey. In exchange for information, he agrees to them a tenner. Once the caller tells Chris where to find her, he promises to be there in five minutes. Meanwhile, Rachel talks to her partner about Chris who she calls weird and rude. She tells Phil (Dave Hart) that she heard stories about Chris. He says part of the job is working with people you wouldn’t be friends with in real life. Although some fellas have it out for him, he was a good bobby and sergeant back in the day. When she asks what happened, Phil says it is complicated. Chris picks up Casey from the restaurant and hauls her out to his squad car. As they drive, Casey says she isn’t going to shag him.

Once he says he doesn’t want sex, she begins to worry he is going to take her to Carl who wants to kick her head in. Chris reminds her he is a copper while promising nothing will happen. She has known him for four years and he thinks she knows him well enough by now. Casey admits everyone said Carl owned a copper so she should’ve known it was Chris. She begins laughing at him for crying when someone jumped off a ledge and broke their leg instead of dying, but Chris says he isn’t who she thinks. Then, Casey says he has to do what he has to do although she knows Carl is going to batter her. As they get closer to the meeting spot, Casey says she is screwed because she robbed Carl’s cocaine. She goes into greater detail saying she took it all and uses her hands to show Chris how much as he immediately stops the squad car. As Carl approaches the car, Casey confesses she can’t give it back because someone stole it from her and she doesn’t know who. Chris calls Casey a nightmare and liability while turning the car around and speeding away from Carl and his gang.

Carl screams you’re dead. Soon, Carl calls to explain he needs that girl. Chris says this isn’t what they do. Carl admits he is in a tough spot because he went all in and now can’t pay what he owes. Chris doesn’t think that is his problem although Carl suggests otherwise. When the call ends, Chris asks Casey if there is somewhere she can go. She can go to her aunt’s out of town. However, she already spent the money Chris gave her earlier tonight. Chris takes her to the train and gives her enough money for a ticket. She asks for money for food and says she is starving. He gives her money for that too. When they get out of the car, he tells her to care for herself, support herself, and be kind to herself. She laughs and calls that bollocks. Then, she recommends coming with her since Carl isn’t going to stop, but Chris isn’t worried. Chris gets a radio call about sounds of screaming and possible knife although he says he was about to clock off.

As he drives back to the apartment complex, Carl calls again causing Chris to scream for him to leave him alone. Once he arrives and runs into Mary, he learns she is worried about her dog. She is hysterical and won’t say whether Trevor has a knife. Things worsen as Mary keeps coming out of her flat and Carl keeps calling while Chris tries to deal with Trevor. When Trevor finally opens the door, Chris storms inside and begins beating Trevor. He falls to the ground, looks over, and sees the dog sitting on the toilet lid. Rachel and Phil arrive and find out what has happened. Phil tells him he needs to sort this crap out. He joins them outside to say Trevor kicked off so he had to drop him. Rachel asks why he isn’t under arrest then. Rachel calls him a mess and continues arguing with him before walking again. Again, Phil tells him to sort himself out. Chris goes inside and sits with Trevor while wondering what he is going to do. Trevor agrees not to say anything about Chris hitting him if he doesn’t arrest him.

He also confesses to telling Mary he had a knife. He did have a knife, but it was for his beans. Next, we return to a session with Chris and his therapist who asks how he is doing. He admits it is still right there while poking his head. She asks what it is before we jump back. Once Rachel gets back into the car with her partner, she complains about him shutting her down, but he says time and place. Phil asks she wants him to lose his job. Rachel doesn’t think Chris should be in the job though. She argues that Phil isn’t teaching her how to do the job properly when he urges her to save her complaints with a fellow officer until she gets back to the nick. Raymond (Warren Brown) arrives at the school to drop off his son as Kate drops off her daughter. She catches up with him and asks what he is doing texting her at tea time. Raymond says he just wanted to chat. He believes she is just as fed up as he is, but Kate says she loves her husband.

Chris goes to the retirement home to see his mother, June (Rita Tushingham), and get the invoice. He tells her it was a late night. She asks if he should go so Kate and Tilly can see him before school. He responds that they’ll know where he is. June reveals they visited yesterday and brought flowers before telling her son he looks shattered and needs more sleep. He says he’ll sleep when she does. June is afraid of going to sleep since she might not wake up. When she asks about his night, Chris admits he did a good thing for someone who normally doesn’t matter. He explains she was in a hole and he drug her out as June begins coughing loudly. He rolls a cigarette. When Chris tells her she doesn’t have to worry about him, she says she does because he doesn’t worry about himself. He begins talking to her about rolling his father’s cigarettes and dropping his bag of tobacco. She claims she doesn’t remember that.

Back in the therapy session, Chris says he knows what kind of damage living with a monster does. She says he isn’t a monster and instead that was his father. He asks if she is sure about that. The doctor recommends talking to his wife about that although he says he can’t show them the stuff in his head because he loves them too much. He listens to his messages from Clark who tells him he made a bad mistake and it is going to cost him bad. Casey calls someone to try to sell 10 grand’s worth of cocaine. Before the episode ends, Chris sits in his car and cries.

 

The Responder Review

The Responder seems to be a stylish police drama with a capable cast and a unique story, but it is not without flaws. Those looking for precision authenticity will have to look elsewhere because the story could easily be discredited and disproved. There was really a lot jammed into the first episode including Chris’s therapy sessions, several emergency calls, the whole ordeal with Carl and Cassie, Kate possibly having an affair, and Chris’s visit to his mother. If that seems like a lot to take in that’s because it was.

It was nice to see some relatively new faces such as Josh Finan and Emily Fairn mixed with veterans Martin Freeman, MyAnna Buring, and Ian Hart. Some of the characters are more interesting than others, but few of them can be sympathized with and that could become a problem later on. Chris’s behavior will either lead to recovery or rock bottom. I wouldn’t be surprised if the character ends up in a casket before the series is over.

I am looking forward to seeing more of Marco and Casey since they were the two most interesting characters. Several others just seemed pointless to be honest. Phil was arguably too passive to be a police officer, but Rachel really took the cake. Chris Carson is a reckless, mean SOB and his actions are the primary focus of the show. The writers expect us to accept Chris and all his flaws. If that is the case, I don’t think we needed an annoying goody-two-shoes character like Rachel.

Her involvement really brought down the flow of the series. This reminded me of a Jason Statham action movie that pushed the boundaries and you just didn’t care if it was believable, absurd, or rude so there was no need to try to ground it with Rachel’s character. At this point, I am not blown away, yet I am eager to see what happens next. It is just too early to judge the series as a whole, but the first episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Responder will be available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by clicking on this link.