Showtrial's anti-twist shows that good TV is about much more than big moments

Marcus Calderwood (Barney Fishwick) was purposefully mowed down while riding his bike on a country road, before his body was then dragged into a mass of tangled growth, where the perpetrator hoped he would die, unnoticed.

But a farmer discovered his body with just enough breath left in it to inform a paramedic that a police officer had been stationed behind the wheel.

A short time later, the enigmatic 'Officer X' was unmasked as Justin Marks (Michael Socha).

But did he do it?

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Over the course of the series, we learned that Justin and Marcus had a history.

The police officer blamed the eco-warrior for the death of a pregnant woman and her unborn child who he encountered while on duty.

Medics were unable to reach the injured party, who had been in a traffic accident, due to gridlocked roads caused by a protest from his campaign group, Stop Climate Genocide (SCG).

Despite repeatedly radioing for assistance, there was nothing Justin could do other than promise the woman that she and her baby would be okay. But they weren't, and neither was he.

And so, Justin's white-hot hatred of Marcus was born, first manifesting as a campaign of harassment against him, and ending with a final violent act: murder.

But Justin "seemingly" being guilty of killing Marcus wouldn't cut it in a court of law. While he had a motive, the prosecution's evidence was circumstantial at best, which the defence took great pleasure in repeatedly reminding the jury.

Without the smoking gun – or pedal, in this case – reasonable doubt complicated matters, opening up the possibility of other suspects.

Was Marcus's neighbour Patrick Norris (Aidan McArdle) driving the car? Or his wife Elena (Monica Lopera)? Perhaps they had hired someone to kill him using their nefarious connections and deep pockets?

SCG had also recently splintered, with a militant breakaway group emerging. Did an internal conflict spiral into something deadly?

But at the end of episode 4, we heard the truth from Justin himself, who confessed to his lawyer Sam (Adeel Akhtar) after a particularly difficult courtroom session.

Yes, Norris had been involved, encouraging Justin to kill Marcus (over a tree preservation order, no less), but Justin's hands were on the wheel.

"You know, you've always known," he added. And we, the audience, nodded along. Of course it was Justin. Every single sign was pointing directly at him from the word go.

But while that moment would have been packaged as the grand reveal in countless other crime dramas as the viewers, who had hung on every word and development in an effort to identify the perpetrator themselves, finally learned the truth, here it was expected.

Showtrial favoured a much more pared back approach, which could have felt underwhelming, but worked exquisitely.

Despite those other aforementioned theories, writer Ben Richards was never interested in the mystery of it all. Instead, his anti-twist, if you will, was an opportunity to buck the Big Reveal™ and travel down a less conventional route to deliver a far more arresting tale.

Above all else, this season of Showtrial was a study of sorrow and rage, specifically: what happens when they're left to fester and take root.

Justin had repeatedly refused to engage with his trauma following the death of the pregnant woman, not only ignoring the mental health support he was offered, but flat-out denying that he had anything to resolve.

The "mental health card", as he put it, was not a hand he was willing to play – despite him clearly suffering with PTSD – in part because it didn't align with how he wanted to be perceived.

But more than that, he was afraid of what he might learn about himself if he were to interrogate his emotions. And when his partner Sandra Vodanovic (Anna Próchniak) suffered a miscarriage, existing wounds that had not yet had the opportunity to heal were aggressively reopened.

To his colleagues, Justin was all bravado and machismo peacocking, but inside he was a roiling ocean of pain. He was drowning, and a short time later Marcus was dead.

As Showtrial's second season reached its conclusion, Richards had managed to do the impossible: he'd taken a deeply unlikable man in Justin and humanised him.

While his sins cannot be excused – the former police officer had not only willingly killed Marcus, his treatment of Sandra was cruel and abusive, and he was an active participant in a deeply offensive Whatsapp group with his colleagues – both his heartbreak at not being able to save the pregnant woman and his remorse for his treatment of his partner, including his refusal to share Norris's name in order to protect her, gave us a glimpse of the man he had the capacity to be when stripped of his braggadocio.

But redemption, this is not. Richards has zero interest in turning Justin into a sympathetic character, although some viewers may now have softened towards him. Instead, Showtrial is more concerned with how two things can be true at the same time, in turn complicating how we can feel about a person.

Justin would not have become everyone's Friendly Neighbourhood Policeman had the pregnant woman lived, but 'wicked' feels too abstract or limited a word to describe him. He's a deeply flawed individual, but had he confronted the noise inside his head, could he have been transformed? Maybe. Maybe not.

Justin is hard to pin down, neither entirely one thing nor another. In him, we saw the full spectrum of human emotion.

While that doesn't exactly create headlines in the way that big moments do, it makes for a far richer and more engrossing viewing experience that stays with you long after.

Showtrial seasons 1-2 are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.

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