The Cage: ‘enthralling’ and ‘deeply moving’ follow-up to The Responder

Tony Schumacher gave himself a “tough act to follow” with “The Responder”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Based on the years he spent working as a police officer, the “quietly glorious” drama about a beleaguered first responder “electrified the flagging cop show format”.

His new series stars the “endlessly watchable” Michael Socha as Matty, a “likeable but chaotic” Liverpool casino manager, and the “equally likeable” Leanne (Sheridan Smith) who works as a cashier. Both have money worries and both start “cooking the books to steal cash until they realise they are both on the fiddle and begin to work together”.

Schumacher has a “rare talent for fleshing out every character and relationship”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Leanne is a widowed mother of two facing eviction and struggling to make ends meet while looking after her kids and caring for her grandmother who has dementia. Meanwhile, “recovering drug addict” Matty is still in the “grip of a gambling addiction” and is “too ashamed of himself” to see much of his teenage daughter “whom he loves dearly”.

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On the surface this is the tale of a robbery at a casino. But in reality it’s an “astonishing, deeply angry, deeply moving state-of-the-nation piece merely masquerading as a mesmerising, perfectly paced and plotted thriller”.

Leanne and Matty soon find themselves “in over their heads” and “at the mercy of serious criminals”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. It’s an “enthralling watch”, carried by the “sheer force” of the “charisma” of Socha and Smith. “You’ll be rooting for this hopeless Bonnie and Clyde.”

Yes, the central characters are “interesting”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. However, other aspects of the show “slip into cliché”, and the “streak of sentimentality” introduces a certain “triteness”.

I found the “emotionally weighty” drama “deeply” moving, said Janet A. Leigh on Digital Spy. And “The Cage” gets its pacing “spot on”, gradually building the “delicious tension” with a multi-layered, “consuming” story. “Before episode one draws to a close, you will be hooked.”