By Ella Wills BBC News
- Published
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season six of Line of Duty, including Sunday's finale
The reviews are in for the series finale of BBC drama Line of Duty - and opinions, it's fair to say, are mixed.
Series six of the show, which first aired in 2012, ended on Sunday night.
Created by British writer Jed Mercurio, Line of Duty stars Martin Compston as DI Steve Arnott, Vicky McClure as DI Kate Fleming and Kelly Macdonald as acting DS Joanne Davidson.
It has been a ratings hit for the BBC, with the penultimate episode watched by 11 million people - a record for the show.
But what did the critics make of the series six finale?
The episode saw the much-anticipated unveiling of mysterious criminal mastermind H as DCI Ian Buckells, played by actor Nigel Boyle.
The future of anti-corruption unit AC-12 was also left hanging in the balance. But the ending left some disappointed.
Metro's Harry Fletcher said Line of Duty's "frustrating" series six ended in a "whimper".
"Its usual complexity seemed to go out of the window during the pivotal interrogation scene with Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle), which saw him unmasked as the Fourth Man [also known as H]," he wrote in his three-star review .
There were "flashes of [the show's] usual brilliance" in the finale, he said, but it "left plenty of questions, with narrative arcs tossed aside with abandon".
"Sunday's instalment felt like an ending of sorts, despite the fact there may well be more episodes in future," he said.
"But will anyone be talking about the Line of Duty series six finale in a decade's time, or even remember how the dullest cop in the service was revealed as the big bad?"
In another three-star review, for the Guardian , Lucy Mangan cited the unveiling of H as evidence that series six of Line of Duty has "superficially at least, delivered".
But she still suspects that the big reveal, for many, will have been an anti-climax. And, looking back on the series as a whole, Mangan wanted more.
There were plot holes throughout the season, she wrote, adding that show had lost key elements along the way - including the connection between Kate and Steve.
"It was all fine," she wrote. "But, oh my, you should have seen it when it was good."
In the New Statesman , Rachel Cooke's review ended with a similar thought.
"It was, for a while, the greatest cop show ever made - and then, suddenly, it wasn't any more," she wrote. "Whimpers all round. Especially from me."
On a more positive note, The Times' Ben Dowell gave the finale four out of five stars - saying it gave viewers "a greatest hits compilation: a prison van interception, pistols drawn, plus a faint whiff of political parable".
While he admitted the reveal of H as Buckells was "hugely disappointing on one level", he argued "at least this felt plausible".
"Of course, it was staring us in the face all along," he wrote. "We knew H couldn't spell, and it was this lapse which 'definately' nailed him, thanks largely to a forensic search of police records that AC-12 could have done ten episodes ago.
"We wouldn't have had as much fun, though."
In the Daily Mail, Jan Moir said the conclusion did not let her down - describing the show as "a richly satisfying final episode, one that made up for the longeurs of previous weeks".
"Many loose ends were tied up," she said. "Although one big question remains: Will there be another series?"
Boyle revealed he was shocked when Mercurio told him he was the "fourth man".
"I was buzzing with excitement! I never suspected it because I know how Jed leads people down the garden path with really good red herrings, so I didn't really pay too much attention to things like Buckells' golf clubs etc., but clearly I should have done!
"I'd fully bought into the idea that Buckells was low on competence levels but looking back it all makes sense."
He added: "I've been sitting on it for a long time. The only person I told was my wife, nobody else, I know how much is at stake!"
On Twitter, however, most viewers seemed disappointed.
One viewer, Louis Molyneux, wrote: "We waited a decade for Buckles to be H?" TV presenter Piers Morgan labelled the ending "a tad underwhelming". Chef Michael O'Hare called the ending "horrendous".
At one point, #fuming was trending in the UK - seemingly as a response to the reveal of H. "Think we need a public inquiry into the systemic failings of the finale... #fuming", wrote one poster.
Meanwhile, unimpressed Times Radio presenter Matt Chorley linked the audience's reaction to the protests at Manchester United's ground on Sunday.
"BREAKING: Thousands of angry fans gather outside the Line of Duty stadium," he wrote.
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