'Paying the Price' (series 4) was pretty bad

Partly the directing and partly the writing. I've enjoyed every episode up until this one, and I'm hoping it doesn't signal a trend.

The scripts usually don't have red herrings, but in this one, the boyfriend of the kidnapped woman has a criminal record involving extortion. Total red herring. Then we have Frost interviewing a suspect, and David Jason's acting has none of its usual nuance. He's just saying the lines. It's supposed to be a cat and mouse game -- "I know you did it and I know you know I know" -- but it's all very rote.

At that point, Frost had plenty of reasons to arrest the man, but there was still 45 minutes to go in the episode, so Frost lets him go.

The worst is yet to come, when the kidnapper gives the police 15 minutes to deliver the ransom money. They have one officer watching the drop point, a crowded schoolyard, and of course the officer loses track of the kidnapper. One officer, watching a kidnapper who they suspect will kill his victim as soon as he has the money.

But wait, in the meantime (in those 15 minutes), Frost has found the kidnapper's girlfriend's phone bill -- which was three pages long. He orders an officer to find out who the numbers belong to. We're supposed to believe this can be figured out in 15 minutes. But they do, and for some reason -- known only to screenwriters fumbling their way to a conclusion -- Frost decides that one of the numbers is the place where the victim is being kept.

And the ending, where (1) Frost can't find a pulse on the woman and thinks she's dead (she's not), and (2) we're supposed to believe Frost would have bashed the kidnapper with a shovel, but (3) officers arrive in the nick of time.

Terrible episode. If it had been the first I watched, I wouldn't watch any more. I hope it's a one-off.