The Tourist - BBC and iPlayer

Yep pretty much sums up my feelings. Watched Belfast recently. I have realised I really like Jamie Dornan as an actor

I gave up on it last night after 10 minutes of episode 3.The characters just didn't interest me any more and it was so slow and the backdrops so drab that I couldn't take it any more. Have to say I have been disappointed with most of the BBC dramas on recently. Hopefully Rules of the game will be better.

I agree on that - TV has been rather disappointing recently. I hope there are good things in the offing that have been delayed because of covid (the final series of Peaky Blinders) though I do feel the BBC has lost its touch with drama: in recent years it has cancelled several great and promising series and scheduled good shows badly, in effect throwing them away. What I've seen of this winter's big family offering, 'Around the World in 80 Days', lacks the pace and urgency a story framed around a deadline really needs and really just feels like some extra Dr Who. 

I've just gone back and restarted Game of Thrones and it's striking, compared to so much current TV, the difference that there is when the writer and screenwriters know exactly where the characters' storylines are going. I felt the same with the first two series of Succession which tied up neatly and punchily at the end, but less so with the recent one. 

Conversely, I really enjoyed this.

Far too much fictional TV rushes every element, where scenes play out in seconds and acres of plot finds itself shoehorned into mere sentences.

The Tourist takes the pace seriously and deliberately. I found the directors choice to pace things slowly when we know nothing and incrementally speed up the more we learn, informed and intelligent. It suited and worked brilliantly.

In the same vibe as Killing Eve, there is a very firm tongue-in-cheek approach to the writing here and the writers obviously had some fun developing this. Downton Abbey this is not. The use of stereotypes (Russian Drug Lord, Cowboy Assassin, Corrupt Authority Figure) in the characters obviously a subtle poke at the genre and lightly black humour along the way keeps it from becoming overwhelmingly generic.
On the subject of characters, I don’t think 3 principles (Elliot, Helen, Luci) 3 supporting (Lochan, Billy, Kosta) and a bunch of transient characters is too many. If that’s really the case someone needs to have a word with Shakespeare for his overzealous use of characters (not that I’m comparing this with Shakespeare). We spend a lot time with characters like Ethan and his verbal diarrhoea because we need to dislike him for the payoff when Helen finally snaps.

EP 5 was actually my favourite of the lot because, for me, this was where it really found its feet, moving from Australian Breaking Bad to its own piece. The creative team were able to use the plot to play on the non-linear elements and bend the production style, which paid off.


Again, BBC Studios were only lightly involved (1/6th of the production team) so I’m not sure where this “BBC drama loosing its touch” logic comes from.

Overall, an enjoyable ride. Beautiful colour palette, great sound mix and soundtrack, digestible and entertaining.