The problem with Channel 4 and Sundance's underperforming "Babylon" was nothing to do with the show itself, it was expectations. Co-created by Danny Boyle with Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the "Peep Show" and "The Thick of It" credentials of the latter writers trailed every mention of the program in advance and set up an idea of it as a similar kind of acerbic satire that would do for the Metropolitan Police Force what Armando Iannucci's show did for politics. But viewers coming to it from that angle were disappointed: the truth is that "Babylon"'s satire is not so much delivered in witty, stinging dialogue (though there's a fair bit of well-written quippery), as in drama that has the dial turned up a notch or two for heightened, and not always comic, effect. The subtlety of this approach made "Babylon" unlike anything else on TV and is doubtless why it never found much of an audience and still awaits news on a second series (which feels less likely with each passing week) — but it's also exactly what made the show so interesting. Wading into topical waters involving police shootings, racism, surveillance, reality TV and spin within the British police system, it featured a welcome weekly showcase for Brit Marling as the TED Talk-ing PR hired to polish the institution's image, as well as strong support from Bertie Carvel, James Nesbitt, Paterson Joseph and Daniel Kaluuya. If it never gets beyond a one-off (a second season is yet to be picked up), it can do so with its head high.