Review | What to stream this weekend: Guilt, starring Mark Bonnar, returns for a thrilling final season that returns to its Scottish roots
- Brothers Max and Jake McCall (Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives) find themselves back in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the final, four-part season of Guilt on BBC First
- Meanwhile, a trio of emergency rescuers find themselves facing off against a fire-loving foe in the second season of The First Responders on Disney+
In a crime drama, nothing says “bleak, British, grim” and “underworld” quite like Edinburgh, the Scottish setting for Guilt (BBC First, from Friday). And with more to be guilty about than most is Max McCall – the reliably sinister yet somehow vulnerable Mark Bonnar, brother of Jake (Jamie Sives).
The former is a disbarred lawyer and ex-jailbird; the latter is a bohemian, mostly failed musician. Each betrays the other to various degrees, despite the fact that they seem fated always to be stuck with each other – and even though Jake laments: “You know, there’s no one in this world, Max, who’s been around you who hasn’t been left ruined.”
And so it is, as the third and final season dawns, that they find themselves back in Scotland, having been deported together from the United States.
Reluctantly, Max is forced into a climactic showdown with his old nemesis and vicious gangster Maggie Lynch, now the uncompromising boss of Edinburgh’s most violent and intimidating crew.
Lynch is infused with controlled malevolence by an unnerving Phyllis Logan – an icy shock for those more familiar with her from her Lovejoy days.
