A Recap of Season 1 of ‘The Tower’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Season One of ‘The Tower’.
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It is definitely safe to say that crime dramas work hard these days to maintain balance in their storytelling. Which means they’re never overwhelming from a violence and darkness standpoint and their social commentary on real world issues, also happens to be pretty light and it makes sense as to why. For this is a genre that is currently riding an all-time high popularity wise, and no one wants to be an outlier at a time when everyone is craving crime drama content. But while that is definitely making for some digestible and entertaining crime stories that feature incredible cases and dynamic detectives that we can easily love, going the balanced route does do the genre a bit of a disservice. 
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Because in reality, there’s nothing balanced about crime. It’s a brutal part of our world that tends to cause great harm and quite frankly, police officers around the world, encounter some incredible criminals and some incredible cases that reflect the zeitgeist of their communities and while a lot the decisions to keep balance in these stories relates to the entertainment factor, they should go bold and discuss the darker stuff and start conversations in the home that need to happen, and that is why the BritBox series, The Tower, is of note. For this is that rare crime drama that took the time to not only present us with an ugly case in a powerful manner, but it also had plenty to say about race relations between police officers and their community, a hot bed topic that is of concern with good reason, and well… with The Tower 2: Death Message about to arrive on the network, we thought it would be worthwhile to recap what made season one so great.

A lot of which, relates to what we’ve briefly discussed. Such as the no-holds barred approach to presenting its story. Since the gruesome nature of what happened at the Tower wasn’t censored or glossed over. Instead, Sarah and Lizzie and everyone involved with this case faced the horrors of it firsthand and that led to some powerful moments and visuals, the kind that were uncomfortably bookended by the absurd acts we saw peace officers take part in. For this story also went hard into the concept that law enforcement is a ‘good ol’ boys’ club where members of the badge always look out for one another in the name of the greater good and bigger concepts and that’s something that we’ve seen echoes of in our world and that bothers us to no end since the law should matter, first. But this show points out that some fundamental flaws in how law enforcement is assembled and run, makes this problem possible.

But truly where season one shined, was in its commentary on negative race relations between police officers and the community. Since we’ve now come to learn that there are cops out there, that racially profile suspects and/or harbor prejudices against BIPOC individuals in their community and react accordingly. Which has led to a bevy of problems the past few years, and has cost people lives and shockingly, few shows or stories have taken the time to address such matters and how wrong they are, but this one did, and did it well. Since it explored how this is enabled in police forces around the world and ignored, and in some cases… encouraged in the name of camaraderie or because that’s just how things are with the old guard of officers. When in fact, that’s not acceptable and needs to be handled and quick.  

Or the disasters we saw in this story and in our own nations will continue to persist, and that makes this a timely and powerful season of storytelling, one that ended in a shockingly realistic manner and of course… left us eager for more. For there is something to be said about not resolving a case and letting folks who abuse power and lie run free. Since it leaves one to wonder if by chance, they can learn from their mistakes and change or if they will just hide behind the shadow of time and resurrect their bad habits later on and well… we get to find out the answers to those quandaries soon. For 5/16 brings forth the second season of this magnificent series, and it will be fascinating to see what commentary and lessons await us when this brilliant show and its dynamic characters, return to the airwaves quite soon. Until next time. 

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