Through the highs and lows, the action and introspection, it’s Dornan who is the beating heart of the show. The hunky lead is thoroughly believable as someone wrestling with his (lack of) identity, conflicted by the appalling actions he can’t remember doing, but also someone who is funny, dry with lowkey charisma that makes this so watchable.
The support cast round it out brilliantly. Macdonald brings the same warmth to the second series as she did in the first, and the return of her terrible former boyfriend Ethan is inspired. He is brilliantly played by Greg Larsen as a character who appears to be trying to grapplw with his own toxicity and mend his ways but comes across as even more hilariously boorish and flawed as the series progresses.
There’s the addition of Olwen Fouere as a crime gang matriarch, who is by turns tender and homicidal. Detective Ruairi Slater is also a new recruit, played by Conor MacNeill – previously in The Sixth Commandment and Industry – who once again plays a weedy character somewhat overwhelmed by events, though this time, he clearly has some deeper issues going on at home.