Review: Code 404

DVD & Digital: Code 404 (2020)

Detective Inspectors John Major (Daniel Mays) and Roy Carver (Stephen Graham) are a highly regarded crime fighting partnership in the Metropolitan Police’s Special Investigation Unit, but during an undercover operation Major is shot and killed.

The end of the road for this detective duo you’d think, but thanks to a secret artificial intelligence project, Major is brought back to life as a better, more intelligent and highly skilled crime fighter.

At least that’s the outcome that the scientific team hoped for.

Imagine a cross between The 6 Million Dollar Man and Robocop…great yeah? Now imagine if it was lumbered with the brain of Inspector Clouseau. That’s John Major 2.0.

Carver is naturally frustrated by his partners new programming quirks, and this is exacerbated by the fact that while Major was “dead”, he struck up a relationship with his partners wife Kelly (Anna Maxwell Martin).

Can Carver cope with working with a highly unstable partner? Will the love triangle ever be resolved? Will Major ever have a rational thought!?

These are just some of the things to watch out for in this comedy/crime series that is highly watchable thanks to its witty script and great performances from its actors.

Stephen Graham is fantastic (as always) as the partner who often has to dig Major out of a professional hole that he has dug for himself, all the while trying to hide the fact that he is in love with Kelly. While Daniel Mays plays it perfectly as a bumbling AI enhanced cop who “should” be the shining light of the police force, but is in fact functioning like a brand new computer that has had a bootlegged copy of Windows ME installed as its operating system.

Code 404 is the kind of silly humour that I love, complete with quick fire lines and ridiculous situational humour. It also has a lot of heart too (thanks again to the great acting) and soon builds up an empathetic bond with the characters so that you actually care about what is going to happen to them.

I look forward to series 2…maybe Major could have Windows XP installed as an upgrade?

Review by Dave from a disc kindly supplied by Acorn Media via Aim Publicity.