Stefan and Arrash
New Blood is a British television drama series created by Anthony Horowitz and produced by Eleventh Hour Films for The BBC. It follows Stefan Kowolski and Arrash Sayyad, junior investigators who are thrown together by chance and common sporting interests, but later discovering that they are working two different angles of the same case.
Arrash is a beat copper who wants to be a detective, and is given a chance to be a TDC (Trainee Detective Constable). Stefan is an undercover member of the Serious Fraud Office, the department of the British Government that investigates corruption and financial crime in big business - technically he is not a cop, but his job is near enough for all the mismatched buddy cop tropes to apply.
Tropes associated with this series:
- Contrived Coincidence: They didn't turn out to be Working the Same Case just once, but three times in a row. Every crime that Arrash is assigned to turns out to be part of a villainous scheme by whichever Big Bad Stefan is investigating. Also, for the purposes of the story, there is only one hospital in London, and Arrash's sister Leila is the only nurse, so she gets put in charge of anyone injured who is connected with the current case.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The first case involves one pharmaceutical company in a corrupt plot to uncover the fraud of a rival company.
- Drinking on Duty: Stefan convincing Arrash this is the best way to get some people they're questioning to talk leads trouble on Arrash's stakeout and conflict between the pair.
- Elective Broken Language: Stefan immigrated from Poland to England at an early age and usually does not have a Polish accent, but affects one when undercover as a more recent Polish immigrant.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Stefan and Arrash have an initially competitive dynamic but by the time they've been through a case together.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Stefan and Arrash rent an expensive Central London flat at the end of season one. Justified as it is owned by a corporation secretly run by the Big Bad, who wants to know where they are for a future revenge plot for thwarting his schemes.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: They have the standard "But I want to be the bad cop" argument in an early episode.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Blond(ish) Stefan and black-haired Arrash.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: Asked when a lowly accountant at a charity finds some irregularities in the books, and decides to tell his boss' husband. "No, I came to you first. All the evidence is on my laptop".
- High-Dive Escape: Stefan and Arrash make one of these after the hotel attack as they are unsure if they are being pursued.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Arrash becomes involved after noting irregularities at an apparent suicide he is responding to. Stefan is investigating a fraud case.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: The protagonists' first meeting is because Stefan is hitting on Arrash's sister Leila at a race both men are competing in. Arrash is not happy.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Stefan is the Red, being more irreverent and willing to skirt the boundaries of the law to investigate places he technically has no place being in. Rash is the Blue, being more serious and duty-minded.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Happens after Arrash concusses the man following him during Case 2, only to find that he was an undercover cop from a different department investigating a suspect in Rash's case. Rash is made to take over his stakeout, to disastrous results when he and Stefan get drunk and fall asleep.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Whenever Stefan goes undercover he wears the appropriate hat (chauffeur, builder, porter, etc.) and talks with "a thick East European accent".