An impressive cast does its best with contrived material in this diverting British police procedural. Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham are Joe and Chrissie Fairburn, the least convincing fraternal pairing since Schwarzenegger and DeVito. Their Dad (Brian Cox) was a feared police chief, and both boys have followed in his footsteps. When a 12-year-old girl is murdered, the brothers think they’ve found the killer – but appearances can be deceptive.
Perhaps it’s the moody seaside setting or the overly deliberate plot crammed with blindingly obvious foreshadowing, or simply the idea of sitting through yet another angsty cop drama kicked off by the death of a pre-teen girl, but there’s something tired about ‘Blood’. The pace is well maintained and there are a handful of solid performances: Mark Strong is imposing and tightlipped as the Ellroy-esque straight arrow Robert; and gloomy ‘Game of Thrones’ alumnus Ben Crompton is suitably slippery as the suspected killer. But there’s really nothing here we haven’t seen before, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that ‘Blood’ would be more at home in a Sunday night BBC4 slot.