A Hackneyed and Aggravating Trope

I was just reading some more rave reviews and comments about Prime’s new cop show, Ballard. For those who don’t know, Ballard is a female detective who was introduced on the final season of Bosch. 

Since Bosch was pretty good for an American mystery, we watched Ballard and give it a thumbs up as well. Neither series was grimy and sleazy with bad language and silly sex, which are both sometimes quite gratuitous in some American series. I don’t say this to diss things American, but we generally prefer the less edgy and usually more thoughtful British mysteries. For example, we recently switched off a series that had two major brawls and a brutal death and lots of language in the first five minutes.

But . . . but …whether American or British, it is amazing how many series …   

…   beware this will be a wee bit of a spoiler but one that won't really detract from the program since it has nothing to do with the main plot…   

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The final episode ended with an accusation of the protagonist and she was dragged away in handcuffs. It’s a tiring trope that I've seen used all too often in detective series, even British ones. It’s supposed to hook us for the next series, but this season was good enough that we don’t need the hook. It’s weak and frustrating and unnecessary element. I roll my eyes and think, "I’ve seen this trope repeated too many times already."

By all means, watch Ballard. It’s just the last minute of the ten episodes than grinds my gears, and I doubt that it will play a big part in the next season. 

Then . . .  (and this was ↓ was not part of the original post)

After writing the above about Ballard, I am quite annoyed that they have done it again in Lincoln Lawyer, which we had watched since I wrote about Ballard (but didn't get around to posting until now).

Both were ten-part series that were done quite well. I think they were produced by the same folks, and both followed characters from Michael Connolly's novels. Unfortunately,. Lincoln Lawyer ended the same way as Ballard. After a satisfying conclusion that should have left us with contented thoughts while we waited for another year, they did the same sort of twist ending with the protagonist getting into a heap of trouble. That was both unnecessary and deeply unsatisfying.

Seriously, if you can put together a pretty good 10-part series, you could also find a non-ridiculous conclusion.

The protagonist being accused of murder is a hackneyed trope. We deserve better.