Code of Silence – episode 1
May. 21st, 2025 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessSo far, an ingenious crime thriller – I don’t know what Deaf/deaf or hard of hearing people will make of it. Rose Ayling-Ellis plays the lead, as Alison, who works in the police canteen, but is asked to lip read on a case involving surveillence and a gang because the regular(s) aren’t available. There’s a bit of an amateur getting in on the action – they tell her it’s dangerous, she nods, but the audience can tell it hasn’t sunk in.
We also follow her home, where she lives with her mum after a break-up, (reasons for the split unknown) and to her night job at a pub, where the manager is a bit prejudiced. They deftly showed how she was constantly battling prejudice and the obstacles of the world, so getting to use her skill on something new that piqued her curiosity, and getting some affirmation for it (different reactions from the three cops she was working with, one of whom is Ghosts’ Charlotte Ritchie, not playing Alison,) was a big deal for her, meaning that she forgot about going to an important residents meeting with her mother, meaning there was no chance of getting a good position to lip read and finding out what was planned. They presumed the rent was going up.
The show was clever about pulling us into Alison’s world, sometimes fading the sound to a background murmur, and then using subtitles that kept shifting to reflect the process of lip reading. From my perspective it was effective (don’t know if that’s true of actual lip readers, but they had Ayling-Ellis and other deaf actors to consult with, at least.) Quite reasonably, Alison kept asking to get closer. On the one hand, the surveillence officers were dealing with a super paranoid criminal gang, but on the other, they seemed to get terrible angles.
A new chap, possibly a computer whizz, was being introduced to the regulars, given the OTT nicknames of Cruella, Hulk and Wolf. The cops were calling him Hoodie, Alison could inform them that he was called Liam.
Of course, she started investigating on her phone – as she’d said, the more context she had, the easier it was to understand. But some of this, like not only going into a pub with Ashleigh, but going to the bar alone off her own bat so she would be closer, was dangerous. And then she went to another pub associated with Liam, got a (badly needed) job there and started interacting with him. (Flirting a little.) One of the interactions was nearly getting run down by him, and the episode ended with her being pressured to tell the cops what he was saying at a meeting, when she and we knew that he was excusing himself for missing a previous meeting with the gang because he was taking her to hospital to avoid calling for an ambulance and maybe getting on the police’s radar.
Engaging heroine, totally different spin on amateur helps professionals – they were snittily telling her ‘let us do the investigating’ with just a hint of ableism (class was in the mix too), but also, they ARE professionals – as well as the mystery of what the gang are planning.
We also follow her home, where she lives with her mum after a break-up, (reasons for the split unknown) and to her night job at a pub, where the manager is a bit prejudiced. They deftly showed how she was constantly battling prejudice and the obstacles of the world, so getting to use her skill on something new that piqued her curiosity, and getting some affirmation for it (different reactions from the three cops she was working with, one of whom is Ghosts’ Charlotte Ritchie, not playing Alison,) was a big deal for her, meaning that she forgot about going to an important residents meeting with her mother, meaning there was no chance of getting a good position to lip read and finding out what was planned. They presumed the rent was going up.
The show was clever about pulling us into Alison’s world, sometimes fading the sound to a background murmur, and then using subtitles that kept shifting to reflect the process of lip reading. From my perspective it was effective (don’t know if that’s true of actual lip readers, but they had Ayling-Ellis and other deaf actors to consult with, at least.) Quite reasonably, Alison kept asking to get closer. On the one hand, the surveillence officers were dealing with a super paranoid criminal gang, but on the other, they seemed to get terrible angles.
A new chap, possibly a computer whizz, was being introduced to the regulars, given the OTT nicknames of Cruella, Hulk and Wolf. The cops were calling him Hoodie, Alison could inform them that he was called Liam.
Of course, she started investigating on her phone – as she’d said, the more context she had, the easier it was to understand. But some of this, like not only going into a pub with Ashleigh, but going to the bar alone off her own bat so she would be closer, was dangerous. And then she went to another pub associated with Liam, got a (badly needed) job there and started interacting with him. (Flirting a little.) One of the interactions was nearly getting run down by him, and the episode ended with her being pressured to tell the cops what he was saying at a meeting, when she and we knew that he was excusing himself for missing a previous meeting with the gang because he was taking her to hospital to avoid calling for an ambulance and maybe getting on the police’s radar.
Engaging heroine, totally different spin on amateur helps professionals – they were snittily telling her ‘let us do the investigating’ with just a hint of ableism (class was in the mix too), but also, they ARE professionals – as well as the mystery of what the gang are planning.
