pdtp911 Review of The Body Farm

The Body Farm (2011–2012)

If you love maggots and decaying corpses, this is the show for you!

[19 September 2011]

I watched this show because it was a BBC production starring Tara Fitzgerald, who I adore. However, it begins with a long string of shots of decaying bodies in the wild, crawling with insects. These corpses are brought back to "the farm" where they are studied by "the farm" team. As the show moves forward, the viewer begins to understand that the main cast is made up of a team of scientist who are truly thrilled to live around and study dead things in order to learn about how they died. From the outside, "The Body Farm" appears to be a charming homestead. However, inside it consists of very dirty laboratories and unkempt living spaces. The team is perfect for this work as they are completely at ease with all this filth and decay. All of this seemed intriguing and perhaps the premise for something quite original. However, it turned out to be just another gory forensics show with overly dark sets, flat acting, jerky camera shots made even worse by bad lighting. The viewer is forced to relive the bloody crimes over and over again with escalating brutality with all manor of crawling insects, maggots,and flesh eating flies added to the mix. If you love CSI because you are able to see the violent crime committed over and over again with increasing detail AND you love insects that feast on dead flesh, then this is the show for you. To each his own but I will not be watching the next episode.