A wonderful good cop turned vigilante series, very well done throughout, especially by Warren Brown in the lead role. Some plot loopholes as usual but it ends after 4 episodes and i was really looking forward to the 5th episode which was never made. I can only assume they made the last episode expecting to make a second series but it was cancelled and so the series never really ends at all. So,
very frustrating at the end but still worth watching a really good series.
22 Reviews
Good Cop
joekellyapex26 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Constable John Paul Rocksavage is an ordinary police constable whose life changes forever when his best friend and colleague is attacked in a savage ambush after a phone call sends the two to a dilapidated house where the two are ambushed by a gang, whilst the two police officers are searching the house, one officer is savagely beaten. This life changing event then leads Rocksavage in very dark place that of which begins to tear himself apart.
This drama follows the life of a normal police officer based in the city of Liverpool. The drama shows the gritty life of working on the 'force' and how events that may take part in our life can change a person into something 'disturbing'
This drama follows the life of a normal police officer based in the city of Liverpool. The drama shows the gritty life of working on the 'force' and how events that may take part in our life can change a person into something 'disturbing'
Great Series...had it been allowed to finish...
madcatwomanofbedford27 January 2022
Seriously amazing series with some of the UK's finest actors. Warren Brown and Stephen Graham are mesmerising in it, with a very early promising cameo from Jodie Comer too. Would have been more critically acclaimed if it had been allowed to finish and maybe a 2nd series commissioned. But due to real life events at the time, they sadly pulled the plug on showing the last episode, leaving us the viewers hanging and deeply disappointed. Surely now 10 years on this could be repeated or available to watch including the final episode at least? Would've been a 10* rating had I been able to finish watching the whole series.
Great story with no ending
ashleylduke18 March 2023
I almost turned it off so hard the first few episodes.. then I remembered how I was treated as a new female within the US military. Just like this, lots worse, and imagine what they said behind my back.. like the officers do within the show? Probably lots worse. And this is why I will only watch British police procedurals. They're feminist in a non overt way. Here it's beautifully and horrifically done. Women are strong enough to be soldiers and police officers and do blue collar work. But we must fear men because they're the ones doing the majority of crime. We need strong men like the male lead in this to just have our backs. Anyway.. Really wish it had a clean closing.
Good Cop
evo3011197730 January 2023
Really can't believe they only did 4 episodes. Never heard of this before, I always miss bbc series until years later. But I've watched all 4 and I enjoyed it very much, a lot of unanswered questions that could have been filled in with the extra episodes if required. It's a shame really. Could have been an excellent show. But overall I did enjoy the drama, good cop trying his best but doing bad things at night!! Watch out criminals coz you could be on his death list if you carry on. Watched it as I remember the lad from Luther, so thought I'd give it a try, think I'm only ten years late watching this.
Good while it lasts, but incomplete
LCShackley21 November 2018
We watched this show with our Britbox subscription. The first two parts were each 100 minutes. Britbox wanted to charge a fee to watch the 3rd and 4th episodes (each only 50 minutes), but the descriptions matched things we'd already seen. If you are a Britbox subscriber, don't get caught up in this show because you will be seriously let down by plot threads that are unresolved.
I gave this a 7 based on what we saw, but I almost gave it a 2 based on the frustration of an unfinished story. The trivia says that the BBC pulled the plug on the last installment...really? It would have had to be "in the can" since they were running on successive weeks. So what happened to the conclusion? I guess we'll never know.
I gave this a 7 based on what we saw, but I almost gave it a 2 based on the frustration of an unfinished story. The trivia says that the BBC pulled the plug on the last installment...really? It would have had to be "in the can" since they were running on successive weeks. So what happened to the conclusion? I guess we'll never know.
Great ride, no destination
scottwooledge19 April 2023
It's a well told tale of a Liverpool cop's journey from lawman to vigilante. And Warren Brown's understated but effective performance makes this an easy ride but alas the destination is desolate. They leave so many plot lines dangling that when it ended I thought Brit Box just forgot to upload the final episode. Will he get caught? Should he? Will he sort his complicated family life? Alas we'll never know. I guess they assumed there would be a second series and there was not.
So, if you need closure and resolution it might not be for you. The rest of us will enjoy the excellent episodes they did produce and have to let our imaginations finish the story.
So, if you need closure and resolution it might not be for you. The rest of us will enjoy the excellent episodes they did produce and have to let our imaginations finish the story.
GOOD COP, SERIES FINALE EXPLAINED
nicolaiox-3778927 June 2023
GOOD COP, SERIES FINALE, BBC ONE Vigilante policeman reaps karmic whirlwind in delayed conclusion
It was tough luck for Good Cop that the real-life killing of two female police officers in Manchester prompted the BBC to postpone its fourth and final episode, judging that its plotline of rookie cop Amanda Morgan acting as bait for a couple of knife-wielding thugs who preyed on women was too near the knuckle. This intrusion of headline events into the progress of the drama was also somewhat paradoxical, since while Good Cop presented some of the common symptoms of the mainstream policier, these were blended with an unusual mixture of morality play and psychological speculation.
This lent the piece a broody and philosophical air, in which the nuts and bolts of policing in Liverpool (the daily station routines, banter between officers, friction between the uniformed and detective branches etc) frequently faded into the background as we zoomed in on the internal conflicts of the protagonist, John Paul Rocksavage. Perhaps giving him a name like that, which is at least one syllable too long and sounds like a hatstand for all sorts of metaphorical baggage, was writer Stephen Butchard's way of telling us that Rocksavage wasn't one Good Cop so much as a device for addressing a portfolio of questions about what the police are for and what we expect from them.
Rocksavage, played with skill and soulfulness by Warren Brown, certainly had plenty on his plate. He was looking after his terminally ill dad at home (played with Ringo Starr-esque Scouse laconicness by Michael Angelis), while catastrophically failing to come to terms with the collapse of his relationship with the ominously-named Cassandra (Aisling Loftus, pictured above). His Good Cop attributes had earned him several professional commendations - he was efficient, brave and showed plenty of initiative - but the brutal killing of his partner Andy by a bunch of low-lifes led by the loathsome Finch (a genuinely scary performance from Stephen Graham) had tipped him from being a diligent public servant into Merseyside's Dirty Harry, exacting vigilante vengeance with a gun because lumbering police bureaucracy was proving utterly unfit for the purpose of reeling in the perps.
Boosted by a cast displaying impressive strength in depth, from Kevin Harvey's Sergeant Middleton and Mark Womack's abrasive DCI Costello to Kerry Hayes's Amanda and Christine Tremarco as Rocksavage's part-time lover Justine, Good Cop lured you into feeling twinges of sympathy for Rocksavage, even if it became increasingly incredible that Costello & co still hadn't worked out that he was the one bumping off his partner's killers. Similarly implausible was the way Rocksavage smoothly juggled the frankly incompatible demands of being both an implacable assassin and a dependable form-filling copper duty-bound to follow procedure, though the strain began to tell as the body count rose.
In this concluding instalment, police regulations meant that he was ordered give up on his high-speed pursuit of the women-attackers on their motorbike just when he was about to nudge them into a fatal accident. "What's the fucking point?" raged Rocksavage, who, aided by a tipoff from loveable car thief Kyle (Shaun Mason), duly popped out with his pistol to finish the job properly. However, this time the karmic backlash caught him at full blast as he accidentally shot the hapless Kyle, who'd blundered into his sights at precisely the wrong moment. A cynic might argue that the story had merely boiled down to the bathetic moral that murdering people, even if they are evil bastards, is a Bad Thing with dire consequences. Possibly, but a fistful of subtle performances and richly evocative use of melancholy Merseyside landscapes made Good Cop feel more substantial than that.
It was tough luck for Good Cop that the real-life killing of two female police officers in Manchester prompted the BBC to postpone its fourth and final episode, judging that its plotline of rookie cop Amanda Morgan acting as bait for a couple of knife-wielding thugs who preyed on women was too near the knuckle. This intrusion of headline events into the progress of the drama was also somewhat paradoxical, since while Good Cop presented some of the common symptoms of the mainstream policier, these were blended with an unusual mixture of morality play and psychological speculation.
This lent the piece a broody and philosophical air, in which the nuts and bolts of policing in Liverpool (the daily station routines, banter between officers, friction between the uniformed and detective branches etc) frequently faded into the background as we zoomed in on the internal conflicts of the protagonist, John Paul Rocksavage. Perhaps giving him a name like that, which is at least one syllable too long and sounds like a hatstand for all sorts of metaphorical baggage, was writer Stephen Butchard's way of telling us that Rocksavage wasn't one Good Cop so much as a device for addressing a portfolio of questions about what the police are for and what we expect from them.
Rocksavage, played with skill and soulfulness by Warren Brown, certainly had plenty on his plate. He was looking after his terminally ill dad at home (played with Ringo Starr-esque Scouse laconicness by Michael Angelis), while catastrophically failing to come to terms with the collapse of his relationship with the ominously-named Cassandra (Aisling Loftus, pictured above). His Good Cop attributes had earned him several professional commendations - he was efficient, brave and showed plenty of initiative - but the brutal killing of his partner Andy by a bunch of low-lifes led by the loathsome Finch (a genuinely scary performance from Stephen Graham) had tipped him from being a diligent public servant into Merseyside's Dirty Harry, exacting vigilante vengeance with a gun because lumbering police bureaucracy was proving utterly unfit for the purpose of reeling in the perps.
Boosted by a cast displaying impressive strength in depth, from Kevin Harvey's Sergeant Middleton and Mark Womack's abrasive DCI Costello to Kerry Hayes's Amanda and Christine Tremarco as Rocksavage's part-time lover Justine, Good Cop lured you into feeling twinges of sympathy for Rocksavage, even if it became increasingly incredible that Costello & co still hadn't worked out that he was the one bumping off his partner's killers. Similarly implausible was the way Rocksavage smoothly juggled the frankly incompatible demands of being both an implacable assassin and a dependable form-filling copper duty-bound to follow procedure, though the strain began to tell as the body count rose.
In this concluding instalment, police regulations meant that he was ordered give up on his high-speed pursuit of the women-attackers on their motorbike just when he was about to nudge them into a fatal accident. "What's the fucking point?" raged Rocksavage, who, aided by a tipoff from loveable car thief Kyle (Shaun Mason), duly popped out with his pistol to finish the job properly. However, this time the karmic backlash caught him at full blast as he accidentally shot the hapless Kyle, who'd blundered into his sights at precisely the wrong moment. A cynic might argue that the story had merely boiled down to the bathetic moral that murdering people, even if they are evil bastards, is a Bad Thing with dire consequences. Possibly, but a fistful of subtle performances and richly evocative use of melancholy Merseyside landscapes made Good Cop feel more substantial than that.
Decent 4 episodes
gallagherkellie31 August 2020
Never ending story
philipsands20 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This was a great thriller with great acting and armchair gripping scenes, but was cancelled before the fourth and final episode by the BBC because of the tragic shooting of two female police officers in Manchester just before the final episode was due to air. The episode must be in the archives but has never been screened because of the similarities in the plot and real life happenings that week. Whether it will be ever released is anyone's guess, until it is there is no closure in this series. Britbox and the BBC need to release the final episode to alleviate the frustration of many many people including myself who watched this in 2012 and were left in limbo waiting for the climax to the thrilling previous three weeks.
DONT START THIS
iainmcleod_80013 November 2021
It has no end. The last episode never aired, so you never get an ending. First 4 episodes r good but without an ending whats the point.
Why would a channel re-show a show with no ending and not show the ending 10 years later?
Why would a channel re-show a show with no ending and not show the ending 10 years later?
Good cop
gwynjames-5838427 November 2021
Left hanging since 2012
stuartb-230 December 2021
Huh?
IdgeE2 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I'm on Episode 1 and not sure if I should continue! I realize the premise is that one cop dies after an attack, but that was the most idiotic scenario. How could John Paul NOT call for help until AFTER he watches his partner get brutally beaten? All the while screaming "Andy"? Why didn't he call for help immediately and protect HIMSELF from being yanked in and beaten as well? He just assumed that the bullies would leave the premises? That scene was dumb. In reality, I wonder if he'd be brought up on charges.
I decided to continue watching because I actually like the lead actor, want to see what is acting range is in this series.
I decided to continue watching because I actually like the lead actor, want to see what is acting range is in this series.
Cancelled before final episode !!!
adrianeadesae14 December 2021
What was the point of airing this not to show the 4th and final episode???? At least warn people the final episode was cancelled. Watched this on catch-up on Sky so they should have removed the series before people waste time watching an incomplete story!!!
No one to cheer for.
cathywelshwalsh13 May 2023
This story should be shelved. Waste of time. Incomplete and deservedly so. Unsympathetic lead. Much violence directed against women. Gratuitous violence.
Britbox should remove this as a choice. The only positive side is that I did not have to suffer through any more of this tortured drama. The story line was predictable but I kept hoping it would surprise me.
There were a few brief good performances, but overall there was not enough to keep you interested in what would happen. Not even the relationship with the father could make the story lead any more sympathetic. Overall, it was painful to watch.
Britbox should remove this as a choice. The only positive side is that I did not have to suffer through any more of this tortured drama. The story line was predictable but I kept hoping it would surprise me.
There were a few brief good performances, but overall there was not enough to keep you interested in what would happen. Not even the relationship with the father could make the story lead any more sympathetic. Overall, it was painful to watch.
Pointless and incomplete!
qui_j28 July 2022
As others have said, do not start this. There is no ending and since the story has many subplots, the viewer will be seriously disappointed in the fact that there is no satisfactory ending to complete the story arc! This is totally pointless and incomplete, and should be removed from the streaming platform. It's a total "wind up" and complete "rip-off"!
Big Holes
gadamo-3373431 December 2018
Good cast and well acted. Plot plausible. Unfortunately holes in investigative process make CID look like dumb and dumber. Not taking an I witness, especially a uniformed officer, as evidence enough to hold a murder suspect is rediculous, even by British standards of evidence. It is also clear there were thoughts of continuing the series by not giving complete closure.
Another British not so good drama.
chriskoczka-6447324 January 2019
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