Our season finale comes to an epic conclusion as we wrap up proceedings in our Des Episode 3 ITV review.
Our mid-season episode certainly stepped up its game as Nilsen completely changed his strategy and pleaded not guilty in yet another narcissistic power play.
Whilst quite standard in its layout and how the episode was wrapped up don’t take anything away from Des and the sheer brilliance of its cast.
Hooked from start to finish on a chilling David Tennant performance and strong supporting actors throughout we see the Nilsen trial play out before our eyes.
Not one for courtroom dramas this one felt much easier to cope with but episode 3 takes the focus off Nilsen and onto Peter Jay (Daniel Mays) and biographer Brian Masters (Jason Watkins) as DCI Jay wants justice and Brian wants his book completed.
By the end of the episode it feels as though neither of their stories are fully concluded here but some postscript in the end credits reveals what happened to the real-life counterparts after the Nilsen trial.
The postscript somewhat contradicted what we had just witnessed on screen as the last encounter between Nilsen and biographer seemed like a conclusion for us to read that the real life Brian Masters visited Nilsen in prison for 10 years after the book came out.
Similar with DCI Jay as he left the force 2 years after Nilsen’s conviction but there was no explanation as to why that was.
I said previously in one of my last episode reviews that 3 episodes didn’t seem like enough to do this compelling story justice and in the end it wasn’t.
There feels like a few loose ends were wrapped up too quickly for us to fully appreciate what we had just witnessed.
As Brian Masters sits down infront of Nilsen (Tennant) in one of the final scenes, Brian makes it clear that the book will not be the celebration of Nilsen that Nilsen himself wanted it to be.
It certainly felt like a fourth wall dialogue to the audience reaffirming the fact that this show does not glorify Nilsen in the slightest.
Rushed ending aside we cannot take anything away from David Tennant in easily his strongest and most spine-tingling acting performance to date. His lines delivered with such indifference towards his victims and his sole purpose for turning himself in being that he felt like he couldn’t stop killing. It was an urge and an instinct that he couldn’t control.
Whilst the shows format didn’t get it quite right it’s safe to say we’ve witnessed an acting masterclass and a true-crime series that ITV can be proud of.
Des Episode 3 ITV review Sean Evans
Episode Reviews
Our Rating
Summary
Sadly at the end everything felt a bit too wrapped up in the usual convention manner but take nothing away from Des. A show of stellar performances as David Tennant gets lost and Dennis Nilsen comes to the fold with spine-chilling delivery.
