" Everyone thinks you're a knobhead " Our best moments of S2 EP1

 Our weekly blogs about our favourite moments of the episodes, are naturally a bit one sided:)

In the end this is a blog about Martin Freeman.

But we are not so shallow to miss the opportunity to acknowledge what an amazing cast this show has to offer, and of course we will pick up on that, and show you each week our favourite non Carson moments as well.

So Ladies first, because or non related Carson moments belong to the two leading Ladies of the episode: DI Barnes and Rachel Hargreaves.

We know both women from the first season, and we thought we knew them.

We couldn't have been more wrong, but on the other hand, most of us are not that one dimensional , especially not when life throw obstacles our way.

People we thought we knew, could react completely different to what we might have expected they would.

Rachel is the complete opposite to the enthusiastic and ambitious woman, she had been before she crossed path with Carson, Mullen and her boyfriend.

Now she is nothing more than a shadow of said woman, and there is one scene from a lot of sad and yet equally great scenes where we can see how much Rachel is captured in her own thoughts.

  Alone, desperate, and self torturing while lying in bed in an empty flat, in an empty bed.

Rachel gives in to her desperation, and sadness, and you feel and see her downfall.

It is a heartbreaking moment, because six months are not that long,but long enough to turn her into another person.

A person who changed from hopeful into frustrated, and a person who actually thinks about the fact how awful touching a hot iron can really be? 

Sometimes physical pain is nothing compared to the pain inside your mind.

Absolute brilliant and very layered performance by the hugely talented Adelayo Adedayo! 

DI Barnes...

My favorite female character from season one.

I liked her loyalty, her respect she kept towards Chris when anyone else turned their backs on him.

I wa secretly hoping she would come back for season two,but I most definitely did not expect her to change into a blackmailing and very calculated boss.

I am disappointed ?  Yes! No!

Yes, on the fact that I wished for Chris to have at least one person he could rely on, and no because I am not watching the Responder because I enjoy people walking on rose tinted clouds.

I watch the Responder because I love a deep and with rough edges filled drama.

And Debs offers exactly this.

She turns out to have enormous problems, but her problems are suddenly Chris problems as well.

And that is not really what we want for our favorite broken hero.

Or maybe it is exactly what we want to see...

Debs had my sympathies, and I can't say that she has lost them all.

Besides the fact that I feel sorry for Chris, and just another person who uses him for own advantages, but I know all too well how easily we get dragged of the right road into a corner with the back at the wall, and then we are able to fight back with all we have left.

Now it's about time to show you our favorite Carson moments of episode one.

The first one broke my heart! 

Chris Carson, a man who tries so incredibly hard to get his life back.

He goes to therapy, tries to take care of his daughter, does everything to make her smile. even it goes way over his head, and wants nothing more than a day job to stop the never ending circle of night shifts and exhaustion.

We see him clearly nervous putting the application in the hands of the man responsible for the job assignment, and afterwards he is so relieved and maybe even a bit proud, that he was able to leave his shell, and try for a better life-

Only to get an emotional hit in the head a second later.

His boss thinks Chris "deserve " honesty and tells him right into his face that he will never get the job because...

Everyone thinks you're a knobhead 

My spontaneous reaction: " Fuck you"

I am all in for an honest word, but I am also an advocate for responsibilities on the job, and as a so called boss this kind of behavior is simply disgusting.

And once more my  heart is breaking all over...again.

The heaviness of the scene is one and only held by Freeman, who shows us a man who wants nothing more than a way out, and then shifted from anticipation mixed with tiny little bit of pride because he finally took matters in his own hands, to disappointment and frustration.

Every moment of Chris Carson on screen is a feast for his audience.

Mr. Freeman brings a presence to each scene, and once again Carson's tension is noticeable and vibrant as always, but the real highlights are the expressions and their stories.

Martin Freeman is a master of expressions, and is able to break our hearts without even letting hear one syllable.

Watching him is a masterclass in acting, and turns The Responder into a character study at its best!

Like I already said in our recap from episode one read here if you like  for me the absolute highlights of the episode are the scenes between Chris and his father Tom.

Again the passing of Bernard Hill was such a shock, I adored him for many years, and I was so thrilled learning he would be part of the new season.

I secretly hoped he would be playing the father of Chris, because I could totally see him in this role, and my dream came true.

So sad that Tom had been his last role, but I am glad we are able to see him one more time.

The moments between Tom and Chris are exactly as tense and difficult as I expected, and truly hoped they would be.

We got a huge gift seeing these two exceptionally great actors together!

Every second is a treasure, a masterfully exchange of nuanced and drawn to perfection moments of  haunting memories and new accusations.

The split second Tom tells him " I loved you " you hold your breath because you know there is either a reconciliation or a hurricane on the way.

Hurricane it is...

 Within a heartbeat all the bottled up or not so bottled up feelings storms to the surface, and Chris is back in a world where his mind is filled with rage, and memories he tried so hard to restrain over the years.

After telling his father off he leaves and we are quite sure there is nothing more to say.

Although we hope...for more!

Simply because these two heavyweights are the best on screen duo in a long time.

We get more, and here comes the hardest part ever, and I can't even tell you why this is hitting me so hard, but the last scene killed me.

Chris comes indeed back to kind of apologise to his Dad, who is visible pleased to see him.

Well as much as a Carson man is able to be visible pleased.

But after the offer to make tea coming from his son, he tells him there is cake.

I suppose that is as emotional as it gets at this point, but it's a start, and we rooting for them.

Yes both men are not innocent, and Tom had for sure an enormous impact on Chris and his path, but for a moment we believe that these two men will find a way..somehow.

A way that allows both of them a minimum of peace and forgiveness.

What we see instead is Chris Carson searching his father's kitchen for money.

And somehow that scene was more than I could bear.

I had seen Chris dealing, misappropriate money and drugs, getting involved in all kid of shit, but him standing there filching his Dad's cash like a little boy, and even put a bit of it back in the sugar basin to pretend that makes it more bearable is one of the hardest scenes I have ever watched.

I can't even explain why, because my rational thinking says its the logical thing to do, to pay Tilly's dress, and nothing is more important than the happiness of his daughter, and Tom had done worse in his time for sure, so it really shouldn't matter.

But it does matter to me, and I blame Martin Freeman and Tony Schumacher.

And at the same moment I thank them from the bottom of my heart for witnessing such excellence.

Freeman gives the moment such innocent self evidence, that you want to grab his hands and offer him help instead.

He leaves moral ground more than ever, even the "crime" itself is nothing compared to what he has already done.

Bu this little boy, in the form of a desperate man broke my heart in a way not many fictional characters had done before.

Why, thank you!