The Level

This Brit crime drama TV series takes the sort of extreme gun and drug violence found in American classics like The Wire and Homicide and attempts to believably transpose this bullet-riddled environment into peaceful, leafy rural Sussex and middle-class bohemian Brighton. Detective Nancy Devlin (Karla Crome) is assigned to the case of a murdered Sussex drug czar because she's from the area, but her employers have no clue that she has conflict-of-interest nonprofessional ties to one of the mid-level drug smugglers who gets bumped off during a clandestine meeting in the woods—a murder that Devlin unfortunately witnesses. While Devlin knows the faceless mobsters who killed her dodgy acquaintance will soon be coming after her and her friends, she also can't let the department know about her personal involvement. Crome's approach to her character isn't that imaginative: she clearly means to portray crime-solving Devlin as deadly serious, determined, and dedicated to her work, but her demeanor rarely suggests anything beyond aggravation, annoyance, or hopeless resignation (which isn't a particularly wide emotional palette). However, as in a good Agatha Christie murder mystery, The Level excels at keeping the viewer guessing about who's doing the killing and who will be plugged next. Compiling all six episodes from 2016, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. (M. Sandlin)