Identity (TV series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Yet another police drama, aired on ITV between 5/7/2010 and 9/8/2010. A six-part series, it is not currently[when?] clear whether it will get a second season.

The focus of the series was the new Identity Unit set up at Scotland Yard to target identity crimes. Or as the series redefined it, "any case where making an identification is a significant part of solving the crime". So a lot of crimes then. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations of this new unit which founder DSI Martha Lawson, played by experienced copper Keeley Hawes who hasn't shed her 80s make-up yet, has fought for and now needs to prove is worth the budget. It focusses on the main character DI John Bloom, an agent who spent 15 years undercover and is struggling to leave the life of Brendan Shea behind him.

Tropes used in Identity (TV series) include:
  • Anti-Hero: Bloom.
  • Benevolent Boss: Martha, she has her moments of "I am in charge!" but has a soft spot for one man in particular...
  • British Brevity: six one hour episodes
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Whenever John Bloom is being John Bloom, he wears a black leather jacket and dark jeans, whenever he's being Brendan Shea, he prances round in a white suite (see Man in White below).
  • Convicted by Public Opinion: Amy Quilan in the third episode "Pariah". Leads to a Witch Hunt which kicks off the episode.
  • Cowboy Cop: Bloom is regularly reprimanded for not turning up to work, going off to investigate on his own, stabbing people in the leg...
  • Detective Mole: Bloom in the final episode
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending: At a really bad joke that this troper didn't really realise was a joke. What finally convinces Bloom he wants to be John Bloom and not Brendan Shea. Though perhaps it was more to do with someone being an irritatingly pretty laugher.
  • The Exotic Detective: Bloom is said to be the 'secret weapon' of the identity unit as when he was undercover he "had to pretend to be other people, sometimes for months on end" (ooh dramatic). However he doesn't appear to bring anything special to the table apart from apparently forgetting that normal people go to work on a regular basis and policemen don't go around hiding bodies in their fridge.
    • He does often get to the bottom of the cases before the others, but this is more because he always gets sent off on his own and doesn't tell anyone else what he found out / the other characters are being unbelievably slow / the other characters are not prepared to stab innocent people up to get information.
  • Faux Action Girl: Martha's only role in the first episode is to be right behind Bloom in the grasping of the plot, make half hearted attempts to assert her authority and then run after a murderer in heels and a skirt and get pushed into a bookcase. She is also irritatingly naive and oblivious to any allegations against Bloom, be they from her own team or from exterior authorities. It's implied this is because of her emotional attachment, but come on, she's a Detective Superintendent, is she really going to be that unprofessional?
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: The casting directors sure wanted to smack us round the head that its a cop show. Meet;
  • I Choose to Stay: Bloom likes his policeman life so much he leaves the woman he has apparently been in love with for the past two years and with whom he was planning to elope with the night before.
  • Jurisdiction Friction: Bloom and co. often muscle in on cases which could easily be handled by other departments, see witness relocation in episode three and ordinary CID in episode six.
  • Last-Name Basis: This seems to only apply to Bloom. Everyone calls Martha Martha, Tessa Tessa, Anthony Anthony, and poor DC Jose Rodriguez has such little screen time this troper doesn't remember him being called anything.
  • Love Epiphany: Maybe. I should think so anyway, all it takes is a slow-mo clip of a certain pretty face to convince Bloom to desert his fiancee. If its not love then its certainly ungentlemanly.
    • What do you mean you thought Bloom genuinely was in love with Adile and that all those Longing Looks between him and Martha were simply due to the fact of her being there? And how can you say that Bloom gave you the impression of being indifferent causing you to Narm everytime Martha chased after him?
  • Man in White: Up to no good indeed Mr Shea.
  • Magical Computer: Including examples of;
  • Might as Well Not Be in Prison At All: Adile's brother. He 'finds out' who put him in prison, gets his sister beaten up and manipulates a police officer into covering up a murderer.
  • The Mole: Bloom prior to all the series taking place, however investigations are ongoing which could prove deadly for him. It is also played with throughout as to whether Bloom will do a Face Heel Turn, shoot Atif and then run away in his mole Secret Identity. he doesn't
  • My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Martha. Episode one.

Bloom: I get it, this unit is the baby you never had.
Martha: For your information I've got plenty of time to have babies.

  • Non-Action Guy: Bloom. Kinda lame seeing as how he plays up the badass all the time, but when ordered to kill Atif, Bloom lets him live, only to have Atif attack him. He loses the gun and Adile has to do the business. As Adile says "Are you a killer now then Brendan?"
    • Also in the final episode when Anthony confronts him about his involvement in Atif's murder. He even gets the gun out but settles for taking the car and making Anthony walk back to HQ.
  • Police Brutality: Bloom. Who else does anything in this? His character varies hugely being one moment unable to kill anyone and another being the most ruthless character in the show. During one of the spells as the latter, he blockades himself, a murderess with family values, and her father (an innocent bystander and partial victim), into a room. In a last ditch attempt to convince said murderess to confess the location of her latest victim he promptly stabs her father in the leg severing an artery and refusing to get help until she gives him the information. This causes both those inside and outside of the room to erupt into screaming, but when Bloom finally lets the paramedics in he brushes it all off as a big mistake. And everyone turns a blind eye.
  • Secret Identity: A non-superhero example. The police conveniently forget to take back any of the fake passports they gave Bloom, or to relocate him to a safe distance away from the criminal organisation he infiltrated who will not hesitate to kill him if they find out he is in fact a police officer who sent their boss to jail. As a result he runs back and forth between his two lives waiting for the moment when they inevitably collide.
  • Shout-Out: In the penultimate episode, an old copper comes out of retirement to help put an old case to bed. Cue Keeley Hawes' character with this line. Ashes to Ashes anyone?

The man's a dinosaur. Give him a few days he'll be asking me to make the tea.

    • In episode 1, A shout out to Keeley's other day job as spokeswoman for Boots No7:

Waring: "You can't find that in Boots."
Lawson: "No you can't."

  • Third Person Person: Its not a full time thing, but the exchange at the end of the final episode between Martha and Bloom deserves a special mention. "I think that John Bloom has been the victim of an identity theft." "Poor guy.". The over-earnestness of Martha and her sudden forgiveness of this man who had been about to walk out of her life without a backwards glance and had caused her to be tortured and kill another human being coupled with Bloom's grating, emotionless monotone and expression of pure awkwardness, not to mention the appalling script writing made this troper Narm right through the scene.
  • Witch Hunt: Starts the third episode "Pariah".
  • Woman Scorned: Adile in the final episode. As she put it "I don't give up without a fight."
  • UST: Martha and Bloom
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Identity_(TV_series)?oldid=1490832"