Because Sleeping Dog is swimming with great characters, it somehow drowns in its own excited details. In six episodes, a lot happens, and because there’s not one particular thing to focus on, some of the characters end up taking the back seat, and Britney happens to be one of them. A black lesbian cop in Germany is unique, and in the first half of the series, we learn a lot about Britney, but as the series progresses to the climax of Mike’s story, she doesn’t get to be a cop; there’s more of a focus on her personal life. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but considering her back story, we’d imagine she’d be more interested in figuring out more about Mike and why people are digging up old cases again. Britney is played by Melodie Wakivuamina, who is great at expressing Britney’s fear and determination simultaneously.
Spoilers Ahead
Early Life And Racism
We learn that Britney’s father may have been killed as she explains to Zari that she was not fast or strong enough to save him. That is why the only thing she cares about is being the best at those two things, so she can be a fantastic cop. Britney’s determination is unflinching as she faces discrimination while she’s the one helping people. Britney never steps back from doing the right thing, just like Jule and the other strong female characters of the show, who work hard just to be good. We can imagine that Britney grew up alone for most of her life after her father’s passing because when she kicks down the door on the toddler, she immediately gets attached to the girl. The toddler’s mother is found dead, and she’s taken care of by social workers after her wounds are tended to. We can see Britney was eager to help the woman in the house, who may have been in grave danger, but her impatience ended up being a mistake. After that, she is cautious about what she does. Britney even has to face neo-nazis during her time with the KDD, making her a target, but her team helps her, and she never steps away from the fight.
Britney And The Child
We see Britney struggling with the idea of leaving the child abandoned and alone. She begins to visit her often and check in on her. When the child is good and well and ready to be taken into foster care, there’s another problem at hand. Since she was born to an alcoholic mother, many parents wouldn’t accept her because they wanted “healthy” kids. Britney takes it upon herself to solve this problem, and her big decision is to take care of the kid herself. When she mentions she wants to adopt a child, she’s told she needs a partner and that it’s difficult to adopt as a single parent. Because of this, she rekindles an old romance, and within one night, she makes the blunder of telling her partner that she needs her just because she wants to adopt a child. Britney is desperate for a connection. She’s a great cop, and she enjoys her work, but more importantly, she wants someone to tell her to step away when it’s too dangerous. Her inner thoughts are quite self-destructive, but she feels like that’s alright because she’s alone. We learn that she didn’t want to commit to her ex, but she wants to commit to taking care of a child for life. In an interesting conversation with the adoption authority, she tells Britney that taking care of a child is not as easy as it may seem. Once the child is a teenager and hates you, you may need a partner to fall back on. This hits home for Britney and makes her reach out to her ex.
Britney’s Relationship With The Team
Unfortunately for Britney, Zari and Roland are as thick as thieves when she joins. It’s not that they are distant towards her or anything; in fact, they are very accommodating to the replacement of their best friend. They encourage her, and it’s really lovely to see them take her side when the neighbor of the dead woman claims that Britney knew there was a child in the house. This would’ve put a black mark on Britney’s record, but Zari and Roland saved her from that by threatening the racist woman who was trying to sabotage Britney’s career. But because Zari and Roland carry so much baggage, Britney can’t completely fit in because they have too many internal secrets. She still tries to understand them, and she does support them as much as she can.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Britney finds peace knowing that the child will be in safe hands. She tells her that when she’s 15, she should come to see Britney so she can beat up the people who try to make her do drugs. She’ll probably find a new team, and she’ll probably return to her ex-partner, probably to give her a proper chance this time around. It would’ve been nice to see more cop work from Britney, and if she had been part of the search for Mike’s memories, then her character could’ve left a bigger impact on us at the end of it all. Additionally, the duo of Jule and Britney would’ve been unbeatable if they came together to catch some bad guys, so Netflix, if you’re reading this, thank us later. Britney is a memorable character, but because there’s a lot happening in the show and the overarching story is that of the murders, she gets sidelined. It would’ve been great if her arc was also incorporated within the greater storyline rather than made a separate thing altogether, which feels added on at the end of the series. As much as the show is enjoyable, it’s details like this that make it less than great. As mentioned in our full review, the show has all the elements to be fantastic but loses grip on the many details and the twist in the end.
