DI Tom Thornes (David Morrissey) is haunted by an incident years ago. He investigates victim Alison Willetts who has been left with locked-in syndrome. She was attacked and injected in the back of the neck. She is aware but unable to communicate or move. She is being treated by Dr. Anne Coburn (Natascha McElhone). There has actually been three previous victims. Kevin Tughan (Eddie Marsan) is Thornes' disbelieving boss and pathologist Phil Hendricks (Aidan Gillen) is suspicious.The locked-in syndrome is pretty interesting. I like Alison's interior dialog. It's more compelling than expected. David Morrissey is a great actor. The biggest problem for me is the convenient reveal and connection to Thornes' problem from years ago. It's all too connected and I don't like it. There is no real reason for the connection other than it serves the writing.

The cops in this British drama don't act like professional policemen but more like mentally deranged teenagers with anger management issues. The main character, DI Thorne (David Morrissey), is not in control of his emotions. His volatility and rage seem to infect the other members of the cast so that in total what we have here is a virtual feeding frenzy of scenery chewing. Cops yell at other cops and cops and medical doctors yell at each other. In one scene one character becomes enraged and punches another character repeatedly in the face for no reason that was apparent to me. DI Thorne seems to believe that he can communicate with a woman in a vegetative state by shouting at her. Other times he seems depressed and on the verge of suicide. The plot is senseless and contrived. Nobody appears to behave rationally. A woman doctor, when she finds out that her daughter has been kidnapped, just freaks out and starts screaming uncontrollably and Thorne freaks out too, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. So who's minding the store?I don't generally like procedurals that feature serial killers, and especially serial killers with weird and perverted MOs, and especially serial killers who have an obsession with the primary investigator, sending him taunting messages. These are tired, boring clichés. That's my prejudice. But I must admit that genre could be done well in the right hands. This one is just awful. Don't waste your time.

Forgettable performance by the main characters of a London crime unit in the investigation of two serial killer cases; plots, hats off to the writer Mark Billingham, were complex and wonderful but often mangled in a choppy pace with one too many tired social drama or work place politics. Thorne came across as an insensitive self-centered bully in the first case and a sophomoric know-it-all copper in the second. No wonder it got only 1.5% viewer share per Wikipedia:"Running on a Sunday evening in the prime 2100 slot on satellite against strong terrestrial competition from the popular Julian Fellowes' period drama series Downton Abbey, the first episode of four-part drama Single Father starring David Tennant, and a reshowing of the Dan Brown thriller The Da Vinci Code, the show drew 402,000 viewers and 1.5% audience share, according to preliminary BARB figures."

There is a reason that Mark Billingham's original novel Sleepyhead was such a huge Bestseller when it came out. Watching the TV show version you would be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about. The novel was an ripping edge-of-the-seat page turner with twists and turns that would make your head spin. This is the most unfaithful adaptation imaginable, with terrible writing and clichéd characters and a completely re- written and boring plot. The book does make brief mention of one of DI Thorne's previous cases, a gay serial killer. The TV show decides to expand this mention while simultaneously reducing the story from the book to virtually nothing. The resulting story is a deeply confusing hotchpotch of incongruous ideas and fumbled attempts at carving a new direction. TV SHOW ENDING SPOILER: The killer from the book is completely different to the show with a genius MO missing from the show version. I have little doubt that author Billingham would be mortified at what has been done to his brilliant book and beloved characters.