Better: Can DI Lou Slack Really Redeem Herself?

What happens when a police detective spends two decades working for a powerful criminal — then decides she wants to make things right?

That is the question at the heart of the BBC thriller Better, starring Leila Farzad as DI Lou Slack, a morally compromised officer whose carefully maintained life begins to fall apart after a devastating family tragedy.

Set in Leeds, the five-part drama explores corruption, loyalty, morality and whether someone who has spent years doing terrible things can genuinely find a path to redemption.

What Is Better About?

Lou Slack is a successful detective in the West Yorkshire police force. She is also a corrupt officer who has spent around 20 years working with criminal boss Col McHugh, played by Andrew Buchan.

Their relationship goes back to when Lou was a young officer and Col was still an ambitious figure in Leeds’ criminal underworld. Over the years, the two have risen through their respective worlds, developing a bond that resembles a close friendship between brother and sister.

Col, however, is now a powerful drug trafficker, while Lou’s career has been built on the secrets and compromises created by their arrangement.

Everything changes after a serious family tragedy involving Lou’s son, Owen. The experience forces her to reconsider the choices she has made and the person she has become.

Lou decides that she wants to put her past behind her. But escaping Col’s influence is not as simple as walking away. If she truly wants to make amends, she may have to bring down the very man she has spent two decades protecting.

A Crime Drama Focused On Morality

Despite its police setting, Better is not designed as a conventional procedural or traditional murder mystery.

The creators, Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, wanted the police and criminal worlds to provide the backdrop for a much more personal story about morality and human behaviour.

At its centre is the question of whether someone who has knowingly done wrong can become a better person — and what that process might actually cost them.

Farzad has described Lou as a deeply complicated character, capable of being ruthless and manipulative while also being a loving mother, wife and friend. That contradiction is central to the drama’s exploration of redemption.

The series therefore spends as much time examining Lou’s relationships and internal conflict as it does the criminal investigation surrounding her.

Lou And Col’s Complicated Bond

Andrew Buchan’s Col McHugh is more than simply the criminal Lou needs to defeat.

He is someone she has known for decades and helped along the way. Their shared history makes Lou’s attempt to break free considerably more difficult.

Buchan has highlighted the fact that Better is not structured around a conventional “whodunnit”. Instead, the drama follows the gradual unraveling of two complicated lives and the consequences of the decisions its central characters have made.

That character-driven approach gives Lou and Col’s relationship a particularly important role in the story.

Is Better Based On A True Story?

Despite its focus on police corruption, no — Better is not based on a true story.

The series is an original fictional drama created by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, the writers behind Spooks and Humans.

The writers have said the idea developed over many years from a relatively simple premise. Although the story changed considerably during development, its central concern remained the same: the struggle between good and bad, and whether redemption is genuinely possible.

Brackley and Vincent deliberately wanted the drama to remain character-focused rather than becoming a straightforward police procedural.

So while the corruption depicted in the series may feel familiar to viewers of crime dramas such as Line of Duty, Lou Slack herself is not based on a specific real-life police officer.

Why Is Better Set In Leeds?

Although Brackley and Vincent are from London, they wanted the story to take place somewhere with a strong identity that audiences did not constantly see on television.

They eventually chose Leeds and West Yorkshire, where the series was filmed.

The city and surrounding areas became an important part of the show’s visual identity. Filming locations included Leeds, as well as locations elsewhere in West Yorkshire, with production also using places such as Plumpton Rocks near Harrogate and Pinderfields General Hospital in Wakefield.

Rather than using Leeds simply as a backdrop, the production sought to make the city and its distinctive atmosphere part of Lou’s story.

How Many Episodes Does Better Have?

Better consists of five episodes, each running for around an hour.

The series premiered on BBC One on 13 February 2023, with all five episodes also made available on BBC iPlayer. The final episode aired on 13 March 2023.

By the end of the series, Lou’s attempt to escape her criminal past forces her to confront the consequences of two decades of corruption — and whether making amends can ever truly undo the damage she has caused.

Ultimately, Better is less interested in asking whether Lou is a good or bad person than in exploring whether those categories are ever as simple as they appear.