Cracker - Series 2

"To Be a Somebody" begins where series 1 left off. Fitz and his wife, Judith (Barbara Flynn), and two kids are living together again, but the rotund profiler--still juggling multiple addictions to booze, gambling, nicotine, and overall self-destructiveness--is on a new, downward spiral. His name is also mud with Detective Chief Inspector Bilborough (Christopher Eccleston) and would-be lover and police detective Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville). But a series of class-anger killings by a psychotic welder-turned-skinhead pulls Fitz into a case so disastrous that every major and minor character is profoundly affected. Portraying the murderer, Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) is brilliant, as terrifying and sympathetic as Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle.

The emotional and dramatic fallout of "To Be Somebody" carries over to "The Big Crunch," in which Fitz's relationship with Jane intensifies while he pursues a religious cult that may be responsible for a girl's abduction. The final story, "Men Should Weep," concerns an investigation into an unnerving string of rapes by a masked, mutilated cab driver. More startling is a link between these crimes and eruptive events in the lives of Fitz, Judith, Jane, and thickheaded, thorn-in-the-side copper Jimmy Beck (Lorcan Cranitch). A breathtaking climax and shocking, cliffhanger ending make "Men Should Weep" a must-see for thriller fans. --Tom Keogh