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Reviews
The Girl Before (2021)
So who gave this show planning permission?
So after 4 hours of mind numbing tedium the serial killer is finally revealed to be...err...a staircase
Creepy characters, ludicrous dialogue, zero suspense and a totally bonkers premise (or perhaps premises)
The series should be demolished.
Survivors (1975)
Disturbingly Topical
An excellent serial.
A mysterious virus imported from China starts killing people off with no cure in sight and no real way of knowing who will die and who will survive
Eve so slightly topical right now
Wisting (2019)
Wisting well
It featured a lot of wells.
I was left wisting it well but it needs to be a lot darker to be a proper scandi noir
The Victim (2019)
Gripping
All that a really good drama should be.
Genuinely thought provoking. Morally complex and challenging and also tense.
Great script and super acting
And for a change some realistic Court room scenes
Best original drama I have seen in ages
John Hannah was great as always and suddenly Kelly MacDonald has become a big start out of nowhere.
Well done Scottish TV
What Remains (2013)
Gothic horror in a London loft
Basically rubbish which would have been totally unwatchable without the always excellent David Threlfall
The Capture (2019)
The Crapture
Started well but soon descended into the ridiculous before ending in full blown paranoia
And I am sick to death of the bad guys always being the enemy within, the CIA, MI5 Police, the deep state etc etc
A good cast was wasted on this high gloss rubbish
Line of Duty (2012)
End of the Line?
Like millions of others I I have been a huge fan since the beginning but am thinking they made big a mistake in killing off the 2 most interesting characters, the Keeley Hawes DI and The Caddy
Time to bring them back. Yes I know that technically they are both dead but that should not present too much of a problem for Jed Mercurio
They should also release Roz Huntley. It would be very interesting to see how much mischief she can get up to with one hand.
Otherwise I fear it may be the end of the line
Doctor Who (2005)
Doctor Cultural Marxist
I was not expecting to like a female Doctor but Jodie is quite endearing. However she cannot save the show .
I have just seen the Rosa Parks episode and the programmer has now gone full cultural Marxist.
A whole episode dedicated to patronizing self righteous hectoring rubbish about the evils of 1950s racism Ir is supposed to be at least a bit sci fi.
Abysmal.
Killing Eve (2018)
Stylish rubbish
It started out as an intriguing thriller but then disappeared up its own over styled pretentious fundament fairly early on.
If you set out to make a black comedy thriller that is neither funny or thrilling what you actually get is a turkey
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
The Fundamental Truth....Not Very Good
It would have been interesting to see the now depressingly familiar tale of Islamic terrorism told from the perspective of a West loving intelligible and clearly likable peaceable Muslim...but in true Hollywood fashion it disappeared up its own virtue signalling fundament.
Almost every Muslim was heroic whereas only 2 white characters emerged with any credit at all, Erica the girlfriend who turned out to be bonkers and selfish and Bobby who was evidently clapped out and somewhat incompetent.
And the pace was coma inducing.
A fundamentally disappointing film.
Bodyguard (2018)
Spooked
Reminds me of Spooks which also starred Keeley Hawes in that the plots are ludicrous the dialogue wooden and the characters barely skin deep
I also feared it might be the latest outbreak of BBC man bashing rubbish when I
saw how many women played central positions
But if you can suspend disbelief it is fast paced action packed and highly watchable and it is really about the problems of a male character trying to be a traditional "real man" in a modern world increasingly run by women
Old fashioned entertainment of a very high order
but hen it is Jed Mercurio
Undercover (2016)
Wasted Opportunity
I though the idea of a drama featuring a successful middle class Black family was overdue and with two great actors in the leads I had high hopes for this.
Sadly the plot was utterly ridiculous. An undercover cop who fools his family y for decades by pretending to be a Writer who never writes a single word in 20 years but spends the time telling his dear old Dad a pile of porkies.
And what was all that running about? If it was supposed to be a metaphor it was too crude for words.
And a Wife who is aright on Defense lawyer who spends her days challenging dodgy Police evidence and who has never prosecuted in her life is picked to head up the CPS?
And what on earth is she doing messing around in the US Courts. Did she do this in her holiday? Did the Crown fail to spot that when she was supposed to be leading a huge and very important Government department she had gone awol And as far as I know British Barristers have no rights of audience in US Courts. .
And for good measure virtually every male character, black or white, turns out to be a turd. All in all man hating box ticking PC rubbish
What a waste
Keeping Faith (2017)
Defeated
What is the obsession with Faith's feet? Every episode has long lingering shots of her tootsies. It is almost perverted. The plot is utterly ludicrous and most of the characters irritating especially the main ones.
And whilst I accept that drams featuring Courts are rarely realistic these are comically bad. Faith wins every case with submissions that are nothing more tan warmed platitudes and vacuous cliches with no substance or relevance to the matter in hand.
A ;lot of the cast were in Hinterland. I thought that was excellent Welsh existential angst. This is just rubbish which leaves me completely defeated.....or perhaps defeeted.
DCI Banks: Aftermath: Part 1 (2010)
Crap
Stephen Tomkinson is usually good value but he phoned in this performance. But then you can't really blame him. A ludicrous Gothic horror meets 6th form psychology plot. and the character of his implausibly attractive DS was absurd. One minute she was ruthless and cold heated happy to crap o anyone on her way up the ladder. Next she was a total softy
The dialogue was dismal an the acting no better than the dialogue deserved
Cardinal (2017)
Existential angst...with action
I have not read the books but had mixed feelings about Season 1 which seemed to be trying a little too hard for the angsty Scandinavian feel and had too much emphasis on the emotional travails of Mrs C
Season 2 however hits the mark. Intelligent dialogue with just enough existential gloom, a decent but not over complicated plot leavened with the right number of action scenes.
Very good
The War Game (1966)
Cold War Gothic
As drama it was first rate but as a serious look at the problem it was banal. Outside the handful of fruitcakes in the Pentagon and the Kremlin no one ever thought nuclear war would be a breeze.
An entire film saying look here these nuclear bombs thingies are really rather unpleasant was crass. As children of the Cold War my generation assumed that if it kicked off nuclear style it would be goodnight Vienna for all of us and this would have told us nothing we could not already have guessed
The utter inescapable horror of nuclear war was after all its whole point and the strategy underpinning the MAD.doctrine
The film gloried in its own misery and failed to notice that rather than hastening Armageddon the Bomb has helped keep the peace in Europe for a record period of time.
Furthermore the three central predictions of the film were all wrong. Perhaps 4 new nations acquired the bomb in 50 years not the 12 nations in 15 years it foretold.
Nuclear stockpiles generally have been slashed not increased and most importantly there was no massive nuclear War by 1980..
None of this was due to the Jeremy Corbyn like shroud waving. of this film
Collateral (2018)
Garbage
Did David Hare really write this in 2018 or did he just recycle some old rubbish he knocked out in the 1960s.
And if this is really is the state of our nation today we are in deep trouble.