Netflix British crime drama better than Line of Duty – viewers say ‘nothing else like it’

The show has a 100% rating and garnered spectacular praise from critics and audiences alike – placing it up there in the ranks of Line of Duty and Broadchurch

The show has a phenomenal 100% rating (Image: BBC / Sister Pictures)

Fans of British crime dramas will be delighted to hear there’s yet another excellent thriller for them to binge watch — and chances are you haven’t heard of the show before.

The show has garnered spectacular praise from critics and audiences alike, placing it right up there in the ranks of Line of Duty and Broadchurch, two shows considered to be the Holy Grail of British crime dramas.

The underrated series first premiered on BBC Two in October 2019, followed by a wider international release on Netflix in January 2020.

A co-production between Netflix and BBC, this crime drama has managed to seriously impress viewers all over the world, and the praise it has garnered reflects just that.

Giri/Haji, Japanese for ‘Duty/Shame’, is a dual-language show streaming on Netflix, written and created by Joe Barton of Black Doves and The Lazarus Project fame.

Featuring an outstanding international ensemble cast including Takehiro Hira, Kelly Macdonald, Will Sharpe, Yōsuke Kubozuka, Justin Long, Masahiro Motoki, Anna Sawai, and Charlie Creed-Miles, the binge-worthy series is set in London and Tokyo and has dialogue in English and Japanese.

The outstanding crime drama stars Takehiro Hira in the lead (Image: BBC / Sister Pictures)

The show’s official plot states: “Translating to Duty/Shame and set in both Tokyo and London, “Giri/Haji” is a thriller about a Tokyo detective named Kenzo Mori, scouring the London underworld to find his allegedly deceased brother, Yuto.

“Yuto was accused of brutally murdering the nephew of a yakuza member, which could lead to the onset of a gang war. Kenzo’s investigation into the disappearance lures him into dangerous elements of the corrupt underworld of London’s criminal circuit.”

Fans were left heartbroken when the series was cancelled by BBC Two and Netflix in September 2020, but not without making an impact on viewers from all over the world first.

Boasting a perfect 100% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Giri/Haji has received high praise from all quarters.

One critic said of the show, “There is simply nothing else like this anywhere on television,” while another, echoing the same sentiment, said, “If you love gangster thrillers, Giri/Haji is unbeatable.”

The show features an excellent international ensemble cast (Image: BBC / Sister Pictures)

A third reviewer gave the show a glowing review: “It’s complex but often deadpan funny, and then deeply serious about family matters. Visually startling (created by Joe Barton who also wrote for the series Humans), it’s like no thriller made in the past decade.”

While one critic wrote: “[It] cross-pollinates genres – mixing cop show, yakuza thriller, love story, anime and hokey family melodrama, all spiked with bits of offbeat comedy. Giri/Haji is unlike anything else on TV.”

Yet another impressed viewer commented: “The resulting tangle is highly stylised (slipping into black and white, animation and at one point what I can only describe as slow-motion interpretative ballet) and unlike anything else I’ve watched on the BBC.”

Audiences were left equally impressed by the British-Japanese show, with one fan writing: “This is by far one of the greatest shows I have ever seen. It’s artful, creative and existential in all the best ways possible. The fact it isn’t more widely known is a sad indictment on the current state of television.”

The British crime drama has received glowing praise from all quarters (Image: BBC / Sister Pictures)

Another viewer said: “Gripping from the first moment. Intelligent script, stunning cast, brilliantly crafted. Blends thrills and humour.”

While a third happy fan, calling the crime drama ‘outstanding’, said: “Just an amazing show with both visual and verbal attributes that are mesmerizing and the duality of the show goes beyond the parallel locations but is intertwined to the depth of the characters. There are some scenes that just surpass anything that I have seen on TV in recent times if not ever. Just outstanding…”