Silent Witness (TV Series) Flight: Part 2 (2016) User Reviews

Gritty, nail biting conclusion.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 14 January 2016]

With Di Ryman laying shot, the team are called in to bring Sarah to justice and solve the murder of Amir Aziz. It turns out that Sarah's husband Zak is still alive. Thomas has definitely fallen for the charms of Ryman. Sarah faces a moral battle, pushed into views by her husband, she must decide to go along with Zak or save her sons life.

Part one lacked a little something, for me it was the involvement of the main cast, it could have been a stand alone show. The conclusion seemed more solid, our trio of pathologists were slightly more visible. There seemed to be more characters in this one then others, or possibly because they all converged in a single story line it did feel a little crammed at times.

Not vintage Silent Witness in all fairness, but still gripping, gritty and very watchable. Quite bleak, quite violent, this was a hard hitting story line. Not the ending I expected, but it was pretty nail biting.

I did miss the involvement of Esther Hall in this second Part, she was excellent in the opening episode. Her presence makes me wonder whether it would be good to have semi regular characters as well as the main trio. 8/10

Returning Jihadis

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 13 January 2016]

These comments refer to the whole two part story not just the second episode.

This episode opens with the sight of a young girl, Alma Begovic, witnessing the murder of her father during Yugoslavian civil war. Returning to the present and she is nervously entering the UK with her baby son. She is then taken to a hotel and we learn that she had smuggled a load of drugs into the country. Meanwhile there has been a murder of a moderate imam; it isn't long before a connection is found with Alma… and she is well known to the authorities as she had been in Syria advocating that people should join the jihad. Questions are asked about why she has returned and what her connection to the imam were… DI Nina Ryman is convinced that the imam was one of the good guys but others are less sure. Any thoughts they she might have given up on the jihad are dispelled when Ryman is shot… evidence at the scene shows that not only was Alma there but she was with her terrorist husband who everybody thought was dead. It is clear that they are on a mission and the investigating team have a race against time to find them before they can strike their target.

This episode was a distinct improvement on the series opener; the subject of people who have joined terrorist groups in Syria returning to the western countries to commit atrocities is topical if not particularly original. The story was helped by Wanda Opalinska's performance as Alma; she had an intensity that made us believe in her as a terrorist but also a vulnerability that gave her character just enough of a degree of sympathy for one to hope that her character will see the error of her ways and find some redemption in the end. The story was helped by the fact that none of the regulars was directly involved with the crime; Dr Chamberlain did get involved with DI Ryman but this feels fairly natural and doesn't distract from the story; hopefully she won't be one of the many characters who are important for one story then vanish. As the story progressed there were some good twists as well as some fairly tense moments that lead up to a gripping and somewhat shocking conclusion. Overall a gripping story; hopefully the series will continue to be of this standard.

Too Much Police Work

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 7 May 2019]

Once again, it would seem that the pathologists have become police officers. They are at the scene when shootouts occur. They become involved in the day to day efforts at apprehension. Here we have Jehadists who are making a point by trying to kill someone who they see as their adversary, at any cost including fratricide and other personal crimes. I am going to continue to watch, but I'm afraid this is now a basic police drama, one like so many others that haunt the airwaves. It is an interesting story but doesn't get down to the gut level of things.

Just who are these negative reviewers?

[CitizenCairParavel · 10/10 · 5 January 2021]

This is great TV drama. The ending wasn't your typical Pollyanna ending. It was gritty and real. Great tension throughout the entire 2 episodes. Great work, Nikki Alexander and co!

weaker n weaker & insulting to boot

[muchechops · 6/10 · 12 January 2016]

Silent Witness has lasted 19 series because it was something different: different in format, content, & style, if perhaps not in character.

of recent series it has become weaker & weaker since it stopped being about pathology & more about forensics: it's morphed itself into a pale imitation of CSI et al. & it's insulting its subject matter & audience in doing so.

more & more it sounds & looks as if it's written by white, middle-class men for a white middle-class audience: these last two episodes, Flight, about Jihadist Brits was SO ponderous, & clichéd, & insulting to our intelligence that this is how British Muslims think & behave, whether Jihadists or 'moderates'.

I thrilled at how original the BBC output was in the early 2000's, with Silent Witness, Spooks & Waking The Dead pushing the stereotypes of police procedural & serial drama, however now, with the demise of Waking & Spooks, & the transformation of Silent Witness, the very differences the Beeb were making are lost.

The pathologists in Silent Witness now follow the Police & do all their thinking for them, while the forensics uncover everything & piece everything together... & the seriousness of subject matter is diluted & polluted to entertain its mid-evening audience...

perhaps I am expecting too much of mainstream drama & that this is tackling national issues is as best a way as it possibly can, & that I'm yearning for a format & time-slot that doesn't yet exist, but this story Flight, while making excellent points about Islam, Muslims & radicalisation, did such a poor job of context, characterisation, & procedure, that I am really dissuaded from continuing to watch Silent Witness. which is a shame, as I'm enjoying the classics on DVD at the mo...

Extremely Disappointing

[rgclosson-568-232001 · 3/10 · 5 August 2021]

No spoilers here, but disappointment that a good underlying plot is left unfulfilled by flaws. Mainly in the writing that puts pathologists in places where they should not - and would not normally - be. This is a long-standing flaw in the writing. There is an admitted close working relationship between forensic pathologists and law enforcement, but there are limits that the writers see as one-way. Do we ever see a cop in the dissection theater? No, and for good reason. But we frequently see pathologists at crime scenes - as they are happening - when this is unbelievable and unlikely in true police work. The writers cannot seem to tell a story about the behind the scenes pathology work without 1) involving a pathologist personally or romantically, or 2) putting an eager pathologist in the thick of police action so the cameras can capture their horror or disbelief at what's happening. Another tiresome plot device is the rookie, or disbelieving, or bent copper needing to be convinced of the true worth of science in the solution of crime mysteries. And lastly - not so evident here but frequently displayed in other episodes - is the interrogation room where police badger the suspect with all manner of leading, biased, unfounded fabrications and suppositions, hoping to break the will of the detainee. Geez, give it up!

Lazy, Predictable and Curiously Dated

[retina_scan · 2/10 · 5 February 2022]

I'm still liking the show but this must have been one of its weakest episodes.

For one thing, it's looks really out of sync, it's like a story that could have been written a decade earlier on - it's no surprise that a character mentions 7/7 in this context

Then the dialogue, the plot development, the characterisation - it's all predictable and clumsy

I'm hoping this season is getting better as it goes along.

Baby at the end

[barbhannon · 23 September 2020]

I agree with those who say we have seen this all before, and way too many times. Question: who is holding the baby at the end?