THE FIXER 2.6
Indian hitman "Supari" (Ace Bhatti) has been hired to assassinate a 10-month-old baby and rightful heir to a family fortune, by a ruthless relative. John (Andrew Buchan), Calum (Jody Latham) and Rose (Tamzin Outhwaite) are again assigned by Lenny (Peter Mullan) to thwart the hit, resulting in a hitman-vs-hitman scenario as the gang try to protect the child from harm. Later, insincere pen-pusher Symmonds (Elliot Cowan) realizes he needs to up his game if he's to persuade Lenny to let him pull his strings, so assigns his own "fixer" to plant a bug at John and Calum's flat, hoping to use any audio evidence of wrongdoing as leverage for a takeover bid. Unfortunately, despite Symmonds' efforts to ensure the coast was clear, he didn't predict that Calum's wife Manuela (Elisa Terren) would find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time...
There was undoubtedly something compelling about a hitman targeting an innocent baby, but this story was mainly an excuse for three action sequences (surveillance at St. Pancreas train station, a mansion shootout, and an attack in an Indian clothing shop) where director Paul Whittington started to show some creativity. The story wasn't especially engaging, beyond the natural hope of the audience in wanting John to successfully protect an infant and eliminate its threat. Indeed, that story was sewn up by the 40-minute mark, leaving the final 20 to focus on Symmond's goon breaking into John's flat, discovering a frightened Manuela with a handgun trying to protect herself, and taking a sick pleasure in slitting her throat.
It was an act of murder that crushes Calum upon discovering her body (the pair had spent this series occasionally debating parenthood, in-between making a go of their sham marriage), but also horrifies Symmonds enough for Lenny to guilt-trip him into keeping away from his team in future. It all ended on a depressing note, with an impromptu burial in an unmarked grave for poor Manuela, and John marching off to avenge her death – despite the fact Lenny had promised Symmonds safety from any retribution.
There was enough bleakness and a half-decent shock death to keep this episode from stalling, but it felt like an hour of cheap tricks masking a lack of plot, devoid of any emotional investment in proceedings until Manuela's murder. The same could probably be said of other Fixer episodes; the stories and characters are rarely as creative or memorable as you'd like them to be, unfortunately.
The problems were just a lot more noticeable in this finale, and the broiling threat of Symmonds throughout the six episode didn't end anywhere interesting. I'd have liked him to successfully takeover Lenny's in some way, but that wasn't to be. If The Fixer does get another series (but there's no guarantee, as ratings slid from 4.22m to 2.82m), I hope series 3's premiere does something to revitalize the show's premise. As Symmonds himself said to Rose, "you can't run around like tabloid-sponsored vigilantes forever..."
6 October 2009
ITV1, 9pm
written by: James Dormer directed by: Paul Whittington starring: Andrew Buchan (John Mercer), Tamzin Outhwaite (Rose Chamberlain), Jody Latham (Calum McKenzie), Peter Mullan (Lenny Douglas), Elliot Cowan (Matthew Symmonds), Elisa Terren (Manuela), Paul Bhattacharjee (Chavan), Ace Bhatti (Supari), Anjali Jay (Madulika), Raji James (Vijay), Mark Flitton (Ashby), Sheena Bhattessa (Young Girl) & Adetomiwa Edun (Young Guy)
