TV Review: The Bletchley Circle Season 2 (2014)

The Bletchley Circle Season 2 created and written by Guy Burt

The second season of Bletchley Circle has two two-part stories (so four 44-minute episodes). In the first story ("Blood on Their Hands") one of the other women from Bletchley has been convicted of murder and is about to be hanged. The weird thing is she mounted no legal defense at all. Also the victim is a former lover from Bletchley, a famous scientist. The ladies are on the case, though Susan is reluctant, seeing how she was almost killed last season. They promise not to get so involved this time. That falls through pretty quickly, creating interpersonal tension along with the investigative tension.

In the second story ("Uncustomed Goods"), Millie's sideline work selling black market goods has become her main source of income. Unfortunately, her supplier has been playing fast and loose with the money leading both of them into hot water with the Maltese "importers" he's been scamming. They are taken to a secret hotel where Marta, the head of Maltese smugglers, interrogates them. Millie finds out they are importing more than booze, smokes, and perfume--families are paying to smuggle their daughters out from behind the Iron Curtain. Marta promises to set the daughters up with good jobs, but it's clear they are sold as sex slaves. The rest of the Circle try to find out what happened to Millie but as usual the police are not very responsive. So they get to work. Can they get Millie out and bust up the smuggling and sex trafficking ring?

Both stories are good though I found the first story better. The villain in the second story, Marta, was just okay, making the story less compelling. Also, adding a new character in the first story made that character more dramatically expendable; I never thought Millie in the second story would ever not get out of the bad situation. While not as great as the first series, these stories are still good, solid dramas.

TV Review: The Bletchley Circle (2012)

The Bletchley Circle (2012) written by Guy Burt

Bletchley Park was a top-secret code-break office in World War II London. The office had a group of four women who worked well together--Susan could detect patterns, Lucy had a photographic memory, etc. After the war, they signed a secrecy act and went back to normal lives, which meant marriage and two children for Susan. She's not entirely satisfied as a housewife and begins to analyze the news reports about a killer who's abducted his fifth victim. All the victims were women abducted while traveling and found strangled to death in dark cellars. Susan has worked out a pattern to the crimes and has her husband pull a favor with the London police. She gives her deduction of where the latest victim's body has been left but is wrong. The police thank her and bemusedly send her on her way. Rather than let it go, she calls on her three friends from the Bletchley and they get to work. They treat the murders like a code that needs cracking. They gather data on the murders and the victims to find more patterns. They make a lot of headway but the police are interested in evidence, not theory. The police politely ignore their conclusions. The women take the investigation into their own hands. The closer they get to the killer, the more dangerous it becomes.

The plot is engaging and has enough credible twists to ratchet up the tension and accelerate the story. The frustration of the post-war women being moved back into "women's positions" and not being taken seriously in "man's positions" is obvious but not heavy-handed. The situation creates natural set-backs for the women, forcing them to risk their own safety. Believable tension is also found in the lives of the two women who are married. They can't tell their husbands what they are doing which naturally arouses suspicion and creates other problems. The story is engaging from every angle and well worth watching.

I'm sure to watch season two soon!