'Miss Scarlet' Season 6 Puts Detective Blake on "The Night Shift"

If it was a surprise that Miss Scarlet’s sixth season decided to include an episode in which its titular heroine scarcely appears, the fact that the show decides to do it twice — and within the space of just three installments! – feels downright shocking. Like “The Delivery” before it, “The Night Shift” is a decent enough hour of television, but as an episode of Miss Scarlet, it’s something of an odd fit. 

To be fair, this episode isn’t a terrible idea on paper. There’s a real argument that a Blake-focused episode has been long overdue, if you ignore the fact that Eliza’s absence from this hour means she’s missing from a full third of the season. Unfortunately, despite carrying the episode, “Night Shift” isn’t all that deft or introspective in terms of its character work, and we don’t learn much about Blake that we didn’t already know.

It would have been enough had the episode focused on Blake’s perspective on his relationship with Eliza. The episode makes a valiant attempt, with him mooning over a glove she left in his office and reminiscing about their first meeting. But isn’t the same as actually dealing with the issues that made them take a break. Besides, using the threat of a potentially life-or-death experience to somehow handwave away his very real concerns as a parent and partner is pretty lazy storytelling.