What's Going On, Tony Hill?

I watch Wire in the Blood for one reason, and one reason only. The main character, Doctor Tony Hill (Robson Green) is the most interesting profiler in fiction since Cracker, and his theories about crimes are always thoroughly entertaining. The most notable thing about his character is that he, unlike every other profiler in the history of fiction, has absolutely no major mental problems or tragic backstory motivating him. No, Tony Hill solves crimes because he believes that his skills can be used to assist in catching murderers. Is any more reason necessary?

The simple format of the show - every week there's a gruesome murder, and then Tony helps the cops solve the crime - has remained unchanged for five years, with only the barest amount of continuity bridging the stories. Even that only involved Tony's developing relationship with the chief inspector Carol Jordan, which ended abruptly two years back when the actress left to join the cast of Spooks.

This season, however, there was a pretty big change in the first episode, when it was revealed that the killer was Hannibal Lecktor.

Okay, that's not the character's name (he's anonymous, and calls himself Michael), but everything else about the character is Lecktorian. He's a counsellor who, every now and then, kidnaps one of his patients and cannibalizes them.

In addition to the rip-off villain, the episode was unusually contrived - Kevin, one of the team's detectives, was gone for a week, and by an amazing coincidence, his temporary replacement just happened to be having an illicit affair with one of the people that Michael had been targeting, just as the team was investigating the case.

Anyhoo, Michael wound up in prison, then promptly escaped two episodes later, leading to the problem I've had with the season: the sudden dip into continuity has made Tony look a little like an idiot. While he's off testifying about how Michael only escaped because people didn't believe his warnings about Michael's supervillain-level evil geniosity, mysterious taunting packages begin showing up at his door. For some reason, Tony assumes that they're coming from the woman in charge of the prison, and not from Michael himself.

Why does he do this? So that Michael will have a chance to complete his taunting by murdering the woman Tony suspected.

I know that they're saving the Michael resolution for the season-ender, I just wish they wouldn't draw the show out by making Tony look like an idiot, since the entire premise of the show is that he's not.

Fiona