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Post by crowblack on Mar 5, 2018 22:36:55 GMT
A waste of a good cast and several hours of time! It never really managed to be engaging - lots of characters, but we never got to learn much about them and never really got to care. The soldier character was potentially interesting but even that plotline was underdeveloped, and that closing scene with her was bizarre - Mulligan's character has gone all that way to try to talk down a potential suicide, and needlessly, fatally tells her the man she shot wasn't the dangerous man she believed?
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Post by peggs on Mar 5, 2018 22:41:45 GMT
I assumed maybe it was her fella? I don't think so because she suggested he get back to his woman "or man" upstairs before she left! Never mind - I'm just glad it wasn't only me who couldn't keep up! Oh sorry, didn't read what you'd actually written, that was the journalist, I think episode 1 he was lurking around after a story and was who John Heffernan was feeding dud info to. I thought you meant who was speaking to on the phone in the car (although you would have had to write whole different words for that to be true). |
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Post by lynette on Mar 5, 2018 22:46:49 GMT
Eh? What was all that about? After such a good first episode that was a complete load of nonsensical horse's excrement. Who was the bloke Carey Mulligan went and spoke to briefly who complained she'd woken him up? Had we seen him before? What did nasty rapist bloke have over Sandrine? Did they ever tell us? What was the point of John Simm or Billy Piper? Or even Nicola Walker (despite the fact I think she's fab.) Ach. Can't be bothered to even think any more about it. ETA (even though I 'm not thinking about it any more.....) The jury's still out re Carey. I still wish it had been Keeley. The bloke was a journalist who was putting story in the newspapers who got the stuff from the MI5 bloke who got it from the sidekick policeman. No? What the rapist had on Sandrine...missed that unless it was her general shakiness after coming back. The vicar story and the MP story did connect but it might have had a better structure if he had written connecting dramas with each one's story much amplified in separate plays. Tell me how come the two baddies were kept together on way to station and in station? Since when do you tell a woman her daughter has shot herself on the phone? Short of actors were they for a visiting policewoman? And that poor kid who won’t see her daddy until they go to court. As for what it was all about, well it was all about Hare venting his political credentials. I think Hare was relying on the actors here. They fleshed out the cliche ridden dialogue. |
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Post by wiggymess on Mar 5, 2018 22:59:50 GMT
Glad that's over. Sucked in by episode 1.
At times it felt like A Touch Of Cloth mixed with that rubbish Ballot Monkeys show (I had to google the name) especially the scene with the Labour leader. Anyone else find the irony of her shouting 'I don't want ambiguity!' hilarious?
Also found the last scene with the solider just ridiculous. She lied about giving 2 people citizenship but couldn't lie about the guy having been a terrorist. Man alive...
And I have NO idea what the Piper/Simm plotline was!
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Post by Tibidabo on Mar 5, 2018 23:02:59 GMT
The bloke was a journalist who was putting story in the newspapers who got the stuff from the MI5 bloke who got it from the sidekick policeman. Ah thanks! (not that I remember him..  ) It's finally happened - I've turned into the granny in the corner constantly interrupting asking "Which one's that?" "Wasn't he married to the other one in the last episode?" "Why do they all look alike?" (Which reminds me of a Spanish series I was watching once and got to episode 6 before I realised there were actually three dark haired blokes with moustaches, not two!) Oh well. Some good acting at least. |
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Post by Deal J on Mar 6, 2018 7:09:35 GMT
The journalist was played by Mark Umbers from Merrily We Roll Along. Very stagey in terms of cast, but the plot was all over the place. I'm very pleased to learn I'm not the only one that was left a confused.
My husband thought they were just setting up for a second series, but I doubt they'd get that cast back together. Personally I don't think it warrants a second series.
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Post by bacon on Mar 6, 2018 8:24:55 GMT
It was like a Formula 1 race that had to be stopped because all of the cars just slowly ran out of fuel. Every storyline withering-away into tension-free irrelevance. I'm guessing all the name actors signed-up after only reading the first episode. At least us theatre-fans got *something* out of it, Lord knows what enjoyment - if any - the rest of the country gleaned from their 4 hour investment.
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Post by wiggymess on Mar 6, 2018 9:08:51 GMT
It was like a Formula 1 race that had to be stopped because all of the cars just slowly ran out of fuel. Every storyline withering-away into tension-free irrelevance. I'm guessing all the name actors signed-up after only reading the first episode. At least us theatre-fans got *something* out of it, Lord knows what enjoyment - if any - the rest of the country gleaned from their 4 hour investment. That's right, all the plot lines started with such potential and then just fell flat. The scene with the soldier's wife in the kitchen and the garage - there was absolutely NO tension in that scene whatsoever, despite the (presumably last straw) attempt to build it up with slightly dramatic music. I'm going to go back to my State Of Play boxset - now that was a series. This was a very poor imitation of that. Nathaniel Martello-White was great though |
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Post by TallPaul on Mar 6, 2018 10:34:50 GMT
Quite apart from all the above, one minute Berna was in a high-rise glass tower, she started walking down a glass staircase and, by the time she reached the bottom, she was in a low-rise brick building on a cul-de-sac.
Nice to see the CAA building on Kingsway, though.
I did wonder if I had spent too long looking at the architecture, but it seems not!
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Post by lynette on Mar 6, 2018 13:49:58 GMT
Please go over to the general section for questions on Cormoron Strike series.
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Post by loopyjohn on Mar 6, 2018 14:30:36 GMT
Quite apart from all the above, one minute Berna was in a high-rise glass tower, she started walking down a glass staircase and, by the time she reached the bottom, she was in a low-rise brick building on a cul-de-sac. Pretty sure it's Osborne Water Tower House, near Elephant & Castle. It featured on Grand Designs a few years ago. The owners tried to sell up a while back but now seem to be making some cash from renting on Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7334895) and using it as a location. Spotting locations made up for the lack of drama. I'm sure a few on the board will have recognised the pizza shop as the fast food joint under the railway arches, just opposite the Menier Chocolate Factory. |
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Post by TallPaul on Mar 6, 2018 14:38:47 GMT
^ Ah, it all makes sense. Thanks. I've seen that episode of GD (and most of the others) but it must have been too long ago to make the connection. Still looked odd continuity, though
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Post by crowblack on Mar 7, 2018 10:00:03 GMT
Spotting locations made up for the lack of drama. I think that was part of the problem - four hours, my god, many new writers would give their eyeteeth for that, and a hell of a lot of it seemed to be spent watching characters walking up and down or going in and out rather than developing characters you cared about. There was a piece in the Guardian yesterday, on the back of this, about the perceived crisis in BBC drama (I thought there might be!). I think it's more across the board, though - there have been many duff and disappointing dramas recently, not just on the BBC. I don't watch Marcella - I won't watch a series that product-places a real fur coat so prominently - but I saw that was getting a lot of criticism too, the Times critic giving it two stars and saying 'I'm out'. I really do think too many series are being given the green light without a decent script, thinking if you chuck money, glossy locations and flashy camerawork at it, that's enough. |
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Post by wiggymess on Mar 7, 2018 10:35:14 GMT
Spotting locations made up for the lack of drama. I think that was part of the problem - four hours, my god, many new writers would give their eyeteeth for that, and a hell of a lot of it seemed to be spent watching characters walking up and down or going in and out rather than developing characters you cared about. There was a piece in the Guardian yesterday, on the back of this, about the perceived crisis in BBC drama (I thought there might be!). I think it's more across the board, though - there have been many duff and disappointing dramas recently, not just on the BBC. I don't watch Marcella - I won't watch a series that product-places a real fur coat so prominently - but I saw that was getting a lot of criticism too, the Times critic giving it two stars and saying 'I'm out'. I really do think too many series are being given the green light without a decent script, thinking if you chuck money, glossy locations and flashy camerawork at it, that's enough. I'm not sure how Collateral managed to get through all the various stages, hoops, editors, meetings with that script. Part of the problem, I would guess, is that with the whole 'golden age of telly' thing, channels are so desperate to keep up that they aren't applying the same rigour as before? I guess with the sheer quantity of Drama On TV / streaming services these days, a fair percentage will just be naff? I like this quote from a review: The real preaching came in a painfully long scene between the disillusioned MP David Mars (John Simm) and the Labour Party leader Deborah Clifford (Saskia Reeves), which was like being waterboarded with political pamphlets. Each time you thought, “Nah, this cringey homily will end now,” there was more, delivered with the subtlety of a power hose. |
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Post by crowblack on Mar 7, 2018 12:55:38 GMT
Oh god, that was so clunky. Do actors not have the power to say "but no-one talks like this?" Or is everyone so in awe of David Hare they just do it as is? |
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Post by wiggymess on Mar 7, 2018 14:14:18 GMT
Oh god, that was so clunky. Do actors not have the power to say "but no-one talks like this?" Or is everyone so in awe of David Hare they just do it as is? I feel for Simm. Worst dialogue a character has been given in some time, did he have ONE realistic conversation? How about when he asked the leader of the Labour party: 'Do you know what comes with a free market? Free movement of people. We cannot run hospitals without a dynamic economy and that won't happen in Fortress Britain.' |
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Post by lynette on Mar 7, 2018 15:43:25 GMT
It was bad that scene wasn’t it? I thought the scene right at the end with the two women and the door beteeen them was good. Good acting of course. But it wasn’t earned at all, the whole back story of the detective, ex athlete, pregnant and 'educated' was just chucked in and so there was no real pay off. Makes you realise how brilliant Endeavour is, eh?
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Post by crowblack on Mar 7, 2018 16:08:45 GMT
Endeavour's a fab series - lovingly packed with pop-cultural nods for the eagle-eyed, but they never overwhelm it as they often do in something like Stranger Things. My favourites are the sign for R. Duck Theatrical Agent in a scene set in London, the Joe Orton-themed episode (a shop called Welthorpe's etc) and a marvellous bit combining Kenneth Graham's 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' with Pink Floyd's! Oh, and Thursday's boss being Discworld's Sgt Vimes!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2018 16:10:03 GMT
I think original British TV drama is in a bad way - the vast majority is overly formulaic and melodramatic and can fall so far short of the often brilliant shows coming out of the US, Europe and beyond. With some notable exceptions (Sally Wainwright for starters) the same UK writers are turning out the same tosh time after time, and the landscape here doesn't show much sign of change.
It seems to me that there are fundamental problems in how shows are developed, and I think it is chiefly because commissioners do not take enough risks. Commissioners decide what they are looking for and circulate that narrow brief to producers - which encourages writers/producers to develop shows that fit the brief in a mechanical way just to get them commissioned. If they are able to get the commission they then have to write/make those shows, and there isn't always enough energy, inspiration and passion there to deliver a brilliant series - but at least the production company is getting paid! Perhaps this is an industry-wide problem - I really don't know - but if so we seem to be suffering from it more than others.
Producers need commissions, and it can become very tempting to pick low-hanging fruit; if they can attach a prolific and successful writer like Jack Thorne to a project then they know they have a far better chance of getting it commissioned than a lesser known writer who has never been the lead writer on a broadcast series - but it just exacerbates the long-term problem of bringing new writers into television, and opening up new territory.
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