The Jetty ★★★½
BritBox

At first glance, this British crime drama has a familiar feel: the opening theme is an anodyne electronic pop song; the action takes place along a foreboding body of water (a lake in Lancashire); and a building is burning in the first scene. But while the flames pass, the fire persists in Detective Constable Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman). A lifelong local possessed of dry retorts and a “no backward steps taken” attitude, Manning is a telling protagonist for a show that undercuts expectations.

It’s easy to gender-flip archetypes. The female antihero police detective can be as obsessive and flawed as any man, but The Jetty’s creator, Cat Jones, makes Manning’s gender crucial to her life and work. The character is acutely aware of power imbalances, and even as she’s officially investigating the arson attack on the boat club, she’s also unofficially querying whether a pregnant 16-year-old, Miranda Ashby (Shannon Watson), was having sex as an underage girl with older local men.

The possible exploitation of teenage girls riles Manning. It feels like the ugly flipside to misogynistic attitudes that persist. A high school principal discounts problems with a group of male students as being due to “hormones”, while Manning’s junior partner, Simon Hitchson (Archie Renaux), is more bemused than alarmed. But Manning also can’t deny her own past: she had her daughter, 15-year-old Hannah (Ruby Stokes), at the age of 17, and her late husband, a year gone due to testicular cancer, was also older.

When Riz Samuel (Weruche Opia), a podcaster who covers crimes against women, comes to town, the long-dormant case of a missing local girl feeds into the plot, with the story of Amy Knightly (Bo Bragason) unfolding in flashback as shortcomings in the cold case worry Manning. Samuel’s arch audio links are heard as narration, and they’re indicative of Jones’ approach. At first, Samuel sounds like a performer, but there’s a grim truth to her ripe sentences. Steadily, against her own wishes, Manning comes to a similar realisation.

With just four episodes, The Jetty has a torrid, jangled pace. The more Manning pursues the interlaced cases, the more she risks herself. Jenna Coleman, masterful in The Cry, is first-rate here, as Manning is forced to reassess her own decisions and her husband’s legacy. Manning’s scenes with her wayward mother Sylvia (Amelia Bullmore) are notably sharp-edged. The show is ambitious and sometimes too keen on proclamations, but the uncomfortable realities make their mark. “Do you think truth and justice are always the same thing,” Manning is asked. She has no easy answer.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist ★★½
Binge

Sometimes an excess of period detail can be a crutch a show doesn’t need. With its Blaxploitation nods and 1970s signifiers – big afros, pimp fits, vintage rides and funk tunes – this slyly comic crime thriller spends too long making itself comfortably familiar to the audience. With Kevin Hart as a bit player aiming for underworld glory who is double-crossed, Fight Night should have momentum to spare. But the excess production design can feel like a drag.