The Gambler – As this episode of Showtrial begins, Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) struggles to sleep. He reads about Indifference Kills. He also reads Marcus’s book and looks at pictures of Claudia and her partner. Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha) walks around in his cell. Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) speaks to Sam outside court. They argue briefly. PC Kyle Jones (Daniel Kendrick) points out to Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie) that the activists have spray-painted his car. PC Becky Hollis (Kerrie Hayes) offers to take Miles where he needs to go. Miles reveals they’ve suspended PC Taylor so he suspects the officers sprayed his car. Leila talks to Adrian Gilligan (John Light) about paint chips being found on the pedal and the fact that Sandra won’t return. Adrian wants the case to be airtight.

Justin tells Sam that Sandra is coming back with the car. He asks Sam whether he’s married, but Sam doesn’t want to talk about it. Sam asks about D4. Justin claims it was guys talking about DIY and Nicky Taylor (Frankie Wilson) drifts in and out of the group. Justin says Nicky called someone who ended up warning him. He doesn’t like that because it makes him look suspicious. Leila and Miles get ready for another press conference. In private, Miles tells Leila that the paint flecks on the pedal don’t match the sample because of a mix-up with the manufacturer sending the wrong color. During the neighbor dispute, both officers had their cameras switched off. Miles will speak to Norris to get his account of the events. Then, he tells the press what they believe at this point. Felix Owusu (Fisayo Akinade) asks if Justin Mitchell and Nicky Taylor were part of the group of officers calling itself D4.

Miles won’t say anything about that or the head cam footage. DI Iain Packham (Tom Padley) is told they found something. It’s video from the gym of Sandra hitting another vehicle with the car. Iain wants to speak to the other driver. Helen McGuire (Zoe Telford) speaks to Leila and Felix after the press conference. Leila believes Indifference Kills is Felix’s blog. She asks him not to make their job more difficult. Becky agrees to drive Miles to see Patrick Norris (Aidan McArdle). Miles talks to her about D4. Becky doesn’t want to talk about it. He goes on forever about his hobbies. Sam tells Justin they need to look into people who wanted to harm Marcus. Justin tells him about Patrick Norris who owns the vineyard next door. He says cop haters always call them out and Marcus was the same. Marcus reported Patrick for violating a tree protection order. Patch got a hefty fine. Justin admits he stayed in touch with Patrick. He knows him and her.

Miles confronts Elena Norris (Monica Lopera) who says her husband is working at the moment. She gets upset but agrees to call him. While they wait, Becky tells Miles that D4 really was just a bunch of mates. She says anyone can say something meant to be shocking and that’s why it’s funny. When you look at it later, it just seems horrible. Becky says it’d be a shame if Nicky took the whole rap. She won’t say who should take it though. When Patrick arrives, he says PC Mitchell dealt with the matter with complete neutrality. Patrick can prove he wasn’t at the crash site and instead was at his gun club, Danver House. He says he drove the Jaguar. Miles asks about UK wine production being a beneficiary of climate change. Patrick believes the Calderwoods of the world are making a living out of selling fear. He thinks they’ll solve it all with technology.

When Miles returns to the car, Becky shows him a video of a possible sex pest being attacked. She hopes he’s dead. Claudia Wood (Nina Toussaint-White) and Sam joke about the current conspiracy theories surrounding Marcus’s death. Sam asks her boy the Dark Web before mentioning her visit to a swanky gallery. He admits to looking at her profile because he needed something to do when he couldn’t sleep. Kyle and Becky joke about her having to drive Miles around and other things. Leila finds Becky in the bathroom and asks her about going to the Norris property. They talk about Miles. Becky likes that he doesn’t make everything a joke. Leila tries to get information from Becky who doesn’t think Nick Taylor should take the blame. Becky says Nick called another officer to ask what he should do. She won’t say who he called.

She would be looking at someone close to Justin who would turn his bodycam off during a visit. Sam tells Mani (Ali Khan) what happened later that night. Mani says Helena was nice and it was good she came out. He shows Sam a message he received about his dad defending the cop who killed Marcus. Sam thinks it’s strange they picked up on his mom being Jewish. Mani is proud of every part of Emanuel Malik-Cohen. Tamara tells Leila to never come near her, her house, or her children again. She also left a record Leila got her for her birthday and other items. Sam struggles to sleep again. Lennie Haleton (Desmond Edwards) tells Justin that they’ve got Nicky in again. Justin believes he’s the weakest link. Iain grills Nicky who says he’s not a grass. Miles brings Becky an olive tree. He thanks her for picking him up. In the car, Becky says she always keeps receipts of anything she deletes from her phone or computer.

She can get them. Becky says she didn’t take part much. They call her Silicone Sally. There is nothing there that can get her fired, but she doesn’t want him to think worse of her. Becky gives him a thumb drive with the information. Sam talks to Claudia about what she said about their conversation being inappropriate. Sam admits the insomnia is making him nuts and his therapist won’t give him medication. That’s why he wanted to use Tor. Claudia urges him not to do it. Leila checks Tamara’s social media and finds out that she called their relationship toxic. People are taking up for her including Dame Harriet Kenny. Sam talks to Justin about the D4 wiping the chats. He wants to know if there was any incriminating on it. Justin doesn’t give him a straight answer. Sam believes D4 will be his Achilles heel. Miles looks through the conversations.

Iain shows him a video of PC Kyle Jones on door-cam six doors down from Justin 20 minutes after Nick phoned him. Miles confronts Kyle seconds later. Kyle asks if he needs his federation representative. Miles believes that’d be a good idea and they also want his phone. He tells PC Robert Hyndley (Cailum Carragher) and Becky that they’ll be talking to them later. In an interview room, Kyle is accused of receiving the information from Nicky and passing it to Justin. Helen meets Felix who tells her to relax. He questions whether she’s read the D4 chat transcripts. Felix reveals Patrick’s wife is from a Colombian family with members connected to right-wing paramilitaries. Patrick ran a private security company providing services to oil companies over there. Helen says they have nothing on him. She says Leila wants to charge Mitchell. They won’t want to go back to the magistrate again.

They should know by tonight. Meanwhile, Miles tells Leila that what Becky told her was correct. They’ve nailed Jones who has admitted to it. He’s still standing by justice. They don’t know why they call him Kenny in the group chat. Jones says Justin told him he couldn’t understand why Marcus would name him. Leila tells Miles how to handle Justin in the next interview. Before long, Iain and Miles are in an interview with Justin. Six hours later, everyone waits for a decision. Sam talks to Claudia about the interview. Leila tells Adrian about the delay with the pedal. Adrian asks her to talk him through it. We see the collision again. Sam and Claudia go through the same details. Justin says he went to his sister’s house in High Wycombe before he turned himself in. Sam says they were blindsided by the D4 content without being able to examine the content.

Sam believes they’ll get police bail until the pedal results are in. He admits the transcripts were bad and they may have underestimated DI Southgate. Justin is called Kenny after the Kenny Rogers’s song because he’s a big gambler. Sam wonders how you can defend someone who is enjoying it all. Claudia believes Sam likes Justin who interests him. In the interview, Justin is asked about planning to go to the flat races at Ascot on the day of the accident. Miles says his car was on ANPR that day and his activities are interesting. In the D4 chats, Justin is asked why he isn’t coming. He responded with a giraffe and gun sight emojis. Miles suggests there is a witness who claims Justin called Marcus Calderwood a giraffe multiple times. Justin is asked why he hated Marcus so much. Miles goes on about the trauma and his serious gambling addiction.

Justin says whoever was driving that car deserves a medal and he hopes Daniella is laughing in heaven. Leila tells Adrian they’re running out of time, but he doesn’t think they have enough evidence. Sandra welcomes the dog, Pancho, to his new home. She’s approached by police officers who ask her to step out of the car. Miles and the others learn that Sandra is back. Leila pleads with Adrian to charge Justin before he tampers with the witnesses. Sam gets a call confirming they’re charging Justin with murder. Justin finds out moments later. He tells Miles he’s looking forward to seeing his face when the jury says no guilty.

 

Showtrial Review

The second episode of Showtrial was okay although the series is very slow. It’s also becoming obvious that there is no diversity among British television at the moment. We have the same writers with the same ideas writing the same shows repeatedly. There might be a little tweak here and there, but it’s basically the same things on repeat.

Series two of Showtrial takes that to the extreme by repeating the same topics in 99% of other British shows. Even though these topics don’t even pertain to the story, they’re still inserted to score points with whoever is pulling the strings. For instance, the series has already covered Brexit, sexism, Israel, anti-Semitism, pedophilia, racism, suicide, gambling addiction, and so on.

It doesn’t help that the same scenes are being repeated in each episode. How many times do we have to hear the same evidence? The series could easily have been wrapped up in three episodes because this seems to be going nowhere besides a few tidbits near the end of the episodes. As I said previously, it’s already clear that the ending is not going to be satisfying in the least.

Instead of being entertained, we’re getting a morality lesson in each scene with those scenes being repeated or rehashed in one form or another. That’s a shame considering Michael Socha is putting in great work here while some of the others could be better. It’d be better to just watch episodes one and six because viewers won’t miss anything other than preaching. The episode scores a 4.5 out of 10.

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