Of all the shows to save, Ripper Street was a curious pick from Amazon's streaming service, the not-so-catchily-titled Prime Instant Video.
The show's first series rated well on Sunday nights, but its blend of backstreet Victorian crime and bromantic adventure didn't cause much of a stir. After its second series got shunted in the schedules, viewers dropped and even fewer people seemed to be talking about the period drama.
When the BBC announced that it wouldn't be returning for a third run, the show still had enough loyal fans to orchestrate a well co-ordinated campaign to demand a comeback.
As a show it always felt solid rather than spectacular. Potentially great, but never quite consistently achieving it. However, while its axing was unfortunate, the timing of its demise turned out to be very handy.
Off the back of Netflix's huge success in original programming, Amazon Prime has struggled to compete in marketing itself as a destination for TV fans. Jeffrey Tambor's Transparent may be one of the shows of 2014, but it's not made the same splash as House of Cards or Orange Is the New Black did last year. Probably because it didn't involve Kevin Spacey or lesbians in prison.
Streaming services have two ways of getting sign-ups and capturing imaginations. Investing huge amounts of money and taking a punt on some big names and great scripts, which has plenty of risks involved. Or buying up a show that has an established fanbase and audience, which is a much safer option.
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Step forward Ripper Street.
Back from the dead for a third series, the show will have new episodes released every Friday for Amazon members. It returns with a bang in 'Whitechapel Terminus'. A train crash-sized bang to be precise.
At the end of series two, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) had parted ways with a gloomy atmosphere surrounding the unlikely crime-solving trio.
Four years on and the trio are finally drawn back together when a train tragedy kills 55 on the streets of Whitechapel. It doesn't take long for the old boys' relationship to start crackling again, with Macfadyen, Flynn and Rothenberg's off-screen friendship and bond bursting out of the screen.
The trio remain the show's primary selling point. Reid is the moral beacon, the protector of Whitechapel, painfully earnest and tormented by his mistakes. Jackson is the Jack-the-Lad, act-first think-later, ladies' man with an extraordinary talent for medicine. Drake is the quiet man with a big heart and a handy pair of fists.
On paper, they sound awfully two-dimensional and very occasionally they do slip into caricature. But when they combine forces on the show, there is enough depth, tension and sizzle between the team that they can make even the most dry of mysteries intriguing.
Which is handy because the dark corners of Whitechapel's dingiest streets still remain a little flat and hinder the show from stepping beyond being good and achieving greatness.
The train caper is shot well and looks impressive, but as with the show's first two series, it too often coasts along without enough jolts and bumps to truly engross you in its latest story.
It doesn't need moustache-twizzling, hammy villains, but it needs a hell of a lot more than a disgruntled, crippled train-obsessive to create any sort of tingle of excitement.
Elsewhere, Long Susan (MyAnna Buring) has made an unfortunate business alliance that is keeping her afloat, but dragging her into the depths of the East End's criminal underbelly. It's hardly a scintillating over-arching storyline, but it will have to suffice.
Is it enough to warrant signing up for an Amazon Prime membership? If you're one of the 40,000 who signed the petition to save the show, probably. If you didn't, on its own, probably not.
However, even if you weren't a diehard fan of the first two series, Ripper Street remains a beautifully made, superbly cast drama with a fantastic trio of leads. It may not be worth signing up for by itself, but if you're lucky enough to already have access then it's a lovely bonus that won't disappoint.
Ripper Street is available to watch exclusively on Amazon Prime Instant Video
