Silent Witness on BBC America

[gategrrl]

Now that I've found BBC America on the huge list of cable stations, it's on my favorites list.  One of the shows I've been recording (although not having the time to necessarily watch every week) is Silent Witness.

It's not as outrageous as CSI and its spin-offs with the spiffy magical science, although they have that too. And I've only seen one episode from season 8 (Wiki is so handy) - and I have a question for SW fans over the pond:

Was Sam's son ever mentioned before? Was this issue ever an "issue" before that episode? For a brief recap, two bodies have been uncovered somewhere in Ireland. They are two males; and Sam Ryan, the lead pathologist who seems to not lead her team extremely well, suspects that one of the bodies might well be her the body of her father who disappeared (presumeably murdered) by the IRA oh so many years ago. 

It was right around here that I kept thinking, I've heard this before, where have I heard this before? And realized I had just watched the third episode of the second series of Life on Mars, in which SAM, from THAT show, is convinced that the IRA didn't make and trigger the bombs that were central in that storyline.

Anyhow: Sam Ryan of SW is told about her son, who's going into trial for some infraction or other. It's the first time she's met him since he was an infant - I don't know the backstory (if, indeed, there is one) for this, but I assume she got pregnant at the start of her career/schooling, and let the child go for adoption. Her son has issues with mommy, he's thirty, and I have to say, after behaving like a total asswipe for most of the show, I thought the actor did a decent job at the end of showing how needy his character is, how deslolate from the abandonment - his dialogue was spot on for me, and it made Sam's turnaround make more sense. She might be thirty years late, but she's got a son who very willing to let her back into his life, who *needs* her.

Meantime, it's discovered that the bodies aren't directly connected with her father - meaning, he's not one of them. Nope, BUT, one of the bodies has the impression of a police badge in his palm (preservation under Irish bogs near the coastline is amazing). Through machinations of the plot that I didn't entirely understand  because I kept falling asleep on the couch and had to rewind several times, and then finish watching it the next day, it turns out that her father had been murdered by the police-guy in Ireland that was an old family friend. Sam's father was about to turn this other cop in for murdering those two poors sods under the ... sod, when he was murdered. We never find out where Sam's father's body was stashed, because the bad cop offs himself in the tub,  making for a very nasty discovery and clean-up by his very upset wife who had just found out what her husband had done so many decades earlier.

With the mystery of her father's murder/disappearance solved, Sam decideds to stay in Ireland with her son, whom she drops off at the prison gates. He didn't escape the guilty verdict, but, he and his mother have come to terms and although he's afraid he'll be beaten and raped in prison (not just an American prison pastime, I guess) he's at peace, she's at peace, and they're together once he gets out.

Now, this was a pretty decent, if convoluted story; it's very possible previous episodes told some of the backstory I'm not aware of - but was this every alluded to in earlier series?

What are other opinions of Silent Witness?

Comments

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

I can't answer you, sorry, but thanks for reminding me that I have BBC on my Dish and keep forgetting to check it out!

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, don't forget about BBC America: if you're boycotting SciFi Channel, and you're into the new Dr Who, they are showing the new Dr Who, and some other weird science fiction shows, including one that looks like its supposed to be a comedy, but isn't catching my attention.