Laura Brick
Right now, Jed Mercurio could be forgiven for feeling rather pleased with himself. After all, he is the brain behind the two most watched drama series’ of the twenty-first century; the finales of Line of Duty and Bodyguard attracted 12.8 million and 11 million viewers respectively. This makes the sixth series of Line of Duty the most watched drama series of the 21st century, and Bodyguard the second most watched.
On the face of it, these two series’ are quite different: one is a police procedural, and the other is a political thriller. They both portray complex characters that are often difficult to like, but who the audience can sympathise with. In both cases, Mercurio encourages the audience to become the investigators, to consider the characters’ motives and to expect the unexpected; few screenwriters would have the audacity to kill off one of the main characters halfway through the series, as Mercurio did in ‘Bodyguard’, or in the first episode, as he did in series three of ‘Line of Duty’.
“During lockdown, binge-viewing has been particularly popular”
Mercurios’ writing is undoubtedly brilliant. But is there more to the success of these two dramas?
I suspect that one of the key ingredients to the success of both these BBC dramas is that the episodes were aired on a weekly basis. They were not released in one go, as they are on Netflix, which would allow viewers to binge-watch the series.
During lockdown, binge-viewing has been particularly popular, and doubtless made the ordeal of the pandemic that little more bearable for millions of people; I know it did for me. And, the popularity of Netflix is in itself a testament to the success of the binging revolution.
The sixth series of ‘Line of Duty’ aired in the UK in the very last weeks of the lockdown, and it was a huge success (even if the final episode divided viewers). The fact that the episodes were released week by week, in contrast with the binge-viewing that people had become used to, may have made the series more gripping than it might otherwise have been.
“Making the audience become detectives themselves is part of the experience”
I’m as impatient as the next person. I was itching to find out who ‘H’ was for a solid six weeks, and a part of me would have loved to have watched the series all in one go. But I also realise that the experience would not have been the same.
The thing about waiting is that it forces you think about what you have just watched. It works particularly well with police procedurals and thrillers like Line of Duty and Bodyguard. It make us consider all the crazy theories and possibilities as to who ‘H’ was, or who killed Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). People discussed it with their friends and work colleagues. If we had been able to find out straight away, as we would on a Netflix, we would not have put nearly the same level of thought into it. Thinking about it and, to some extent, making the audience become detectives themselves, is part of the experience. And, it seems to have had a positive effect on ratings.
“I can’t see binging ending anytime soon.”
The new BBC drama Vigil (which, like Bodyguard and Line of Duty was made by World Productions) was the BBC’s most watched new drama series of 2021 (an average of nine million people watched Vigil each week). Like Line of Duty and Bodyguard, it benefitted from a high-quality cast, starring the likes of Suranne Jones and Martin Compston, and each episode ended with an unbearable cliff-hanger; this then makes the audience wait a week, a sure way of getting them to tune in to the next episode.
I can’t see binging ending anytime soon. If anything, the lockdown experience will have popularised it, and made people accustomed to it. But producers, screenwriters, and platforms like Netflix may want to consider whether this is really a recipe for success. The Netflix series Behind Her Eyes, which was released earlier this year, had mixed to negative reviews. This was partly because of the bizarre ending (although that should be blamed on the book upon which the series is based rather than Netflix). But the series was gripping and left you wanting to know what happens next. I suspect that Behind Her Eyes would have been more successful if it had not been released in one binge-drop. The series does make us reflect on the characters and their motives; in the first few episodes, it was very difficult to discern whether it was David (Tom Bateman) or his wife Adele (Eve Hewson) was the true villain, which is part of what kept me and other viewers watching. But we only had to wait a few hours rather than a few weeks to find out. I think Behind her Eyes, and other Netflix series’ would have benefited from making people wait, rather than allowing them to speed through every episode in one go.
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