The first five minutes of Rebus set the tone for the entire show quite neatly. A police officer is critical at the scene of a car accident. And burning with righteous fury, detective John Rebus sneaks into an ambulance where the suspect is being held and attempts to suffocate him then and there.
As that opening suggests, the BBC’s newest six-part series is an unrelentingly bleak show that does not pull its punches – not a surprise, considering the material it’s based on: Ian Rankin’s dark Inspector Rebus books. And like the Rebus novels, the show manages to be both twisty and gripping.
