Red Eye's cast change with Martin Compston helps fix a major season 1 misstep

Red Eye isn't a drama series that prides itself on gritty realism – at least, I hope it isn't – but a strange twist in the season 1 finale was truly the straw that broke the camel's back. (Hello, I am The Camel.)

Detective Hana Li (Jing Lusi) and Dr Matthew Nolan (Richard Armitage) finally escape a hellish extradition flight and set about exposing a conspiracy that goes to the heart of the intelligence community (naturally).

In a climactic stand-off, Matthew saves Hana from a rogue CIA agent, but suffers a serious gunshot wound that looks, at first, as if it might be fatal. That he recovers is itself remarkable, but less so than what comes next.

Hana visits him in hospital and holds his hand as she thanks him for taking a bullet for her. Moments later, he asks whether they could go on a date once he's recovered, but turns to find that Hana has fallen asleep.

Either that, or she's pretending to sleep, which is what I would have done in this scenario. I mean, come on! Has any romance subplot ever been as much an afterthought as this?

For context, Hana viscerally hates Matthew when she first meets him, clearly disgusted by the manslaughter charge he was set to face in China, following the unexplained death of a woman in his company.

Over the course of season 1, it becomes clear that he was framed and they begin to support each other on the cursed jet, where the only thing more annoying than the hysterical passengers is the killer lurking in the cargo hold.

Perhaps I misread the room/cabin here, but the growing bond between Hana and Matthew seemed to be born from their shared desire to not be murdered. Something that, I imagine, unites many of us!

While she does initiate some light physical contact in the aforementioned hospital scene, this caring gesture was no more than you would offer to a close friend, relative or perhaps anyone who'd stepped in front of a bullet for you.

That Dr Nolan considers it a signal of romantic interest is quite a leap – and you'd think he could at least let Hana have a good night's sleep before he propositions her. Red flag!

It's been 18 months since Red Eye season 1 premiered and I still lie awake at night wondering whether this interaction was intended as a throwaway joke, or if it really was a last-minute insertion of a romantic subplot in a story that didn't demand it.

Even Netflix's infamously far-fetched Christmas romcoms would struggle to spin a love story out of Hana and Matthew's recent experience (although I would like to see them try).

In any case, when ITV announced that Armitage wouldn't be returning to the Red Eye cast in season 2, it was more surprising than it was disappointing – because this isn't a storyline that needs to continue.

Let the Red Eye canon state that Matthew asked Hana out while high as a kite on painkillers and the two have happily moved on with their lives since his recovery. Aww, good for them!

In the show's new co-lead – Martin Compston's dubiously named Clay Brody – we have a character who isn't going to get down on one knee in the last five minutes. At least, according to Lusi herself.

During an appearance on ITV's This Morning, she spoke of how "refreshing" it was to see a heterosexual man and woman in a strictly professional relationship, which doesn't blossom into anything more.

Her words seem truthful based on the episodes screened to critics, where Hana and Clay share a bitter rivalry that stems back to their days in police training. And no, the feud did not originate from a break-up! Huzzah!

Obviously, romantic subplots have been major highlights of a multitude of television dramas, so I'm not suggesting they should be erased from any pitch at the commissioning stage.

But, in screenplays as in real-life, there's a time and a place for these sentimental moments – and call me old-fashioned, but I just don't think an active crime scene is the place where true love blossoms. Download an app like the rest of us!

Red Eye is available to stream on ITVX.

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