- Fan-Preferred Couple: Lynley and Havers, naturally. The fandom outliers are those who don't ship it! The star of the show himself declared outright that he wanted to see the show end with Lynley and Havers holding hands and walking into the sunset.
- I Knew It!: Clever viewers may find themselves shouting this, especially since whodunnit is often not who you'd expect and therefore being right is all the more exciting.
- Jerkass Woobie: Barbara in the pilot, "A Great Deliverance". Viewers spend most of that episode both wanting to cuddle her because she's had such a crappy life and smack her for being bitchy — at the same time. This does persist into the first series, but has largely been replaced with Jerkass Façade (plus plain old Woobie) by mid-series 2.
- Like You Would Really Do It: Like they would really kill off the show's Deuteragonist.
- Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize:
- Idris Elba and James McAvoy were guest stars on the same episode, "Payment in Blood." Averted as neither one was the killer, and one became the third victim.
- Richard Armitage played the role of Philip Turner in "In Divine Proportion". Again, averted, as he wasn't guilty of anything other than fanservice.
- Honeysuckle Weeks and James D'Arcy appeared as a married couple in "Know Thine Enemy". Played Straight, since they were the Big Bad Duumvirate.
- Relationship Writing Fumble: If the writers wanted viewers to believe Havers and Lynley aren't falling head-over-heels in love throughout the course of the show, they really shouldn't have had them call each other their reason to get up in the morning, or given them the infamous Cry into Chest at the end of "In Divine Proportion" that looks like nothing so much as a man comforting his traumatized lover. Many, many fans have pointed out that Lynley has much better chemistry — and a much healthier relationship — with Barbara than he ever did with Helen.
- Retroactive Recognition: Tons of current stars started out as minor characters on this show, including Henry Cavill (Superman in Man of Steel), Richard Armitage (Thorin in The Hobbit), and James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men Film Series). Catherine Russell, meanwhile, would go on to break into the British TV mainstream as Serena Campbell on Holby City.
- The Scrappy: Lesley Vickerage's Helen, who is by and large considered a whiny, selfish milquetoast. Catherine Russell's incarnation of the character is generally considered likeable enoughnote (if a bit bland), but virtually everyone wants Emma Fielding from the pilot back.
- Woobie: Both the lead characters, in spades. When the storyline gets sick of torturing Lynley, it takes a break to snack on Barbara. And of course, because the two are so close, when one of them is hurting, the other is too. Luckily, the comfort and strength they find in each other helps make up for it — a little bit, at least.
