Critics struggle to mourn the end of police show that had 'run out of steam' by The Week team 7 Oct 2015 Viewers bade farewell to the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) last night as police drama New Tricks finally came to an end - but there was little sorrow from the critics. After 12 series and 107 episodes, the finale featured a routine cold case about a mental health activist murdered on New Year's Eve in 1999. Terry Ramsey at the Daily Telegraph says it was "wholly predictable", with a "twist that you could see coming a mile away" and a perpetrator, played by Meera Syal, who "couldn't have been more obviously the villain if she had had a glowing neon arrow over her head saying 'baddie'".