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Reviews
Trigger Point (2022)
Gender wars
Disappointing. So many unbelievable scenes with unexplained actions taken apparently on pure guesswork. More irritating is that there always has to be a senior male character or two who arrogantly overrides or dismisses information coming from the senior female officer despite her being seemingly the only one to discover and isolate a bomb minutes begore it explodes. Not at all credible and pushing the 'Women are just as good or even better at their jobs than men'. I suppose it's payback time for all those 1950's/60's where the hat wearing males treated the women in the same way which was just as annoying.
Prime Suspect (1991)
Incredible story lines, i.e not credible.
I never watched this series on TV when it first came out but given the dross that's currently on offer, with very few exceptions I thought I'd give this a try given the highly rated reviews it's had. I'm on series 5 episode 2 and have persevered from the beginning although it's been a struggle. Fine actors all but they can only do so much with the preposterous scripts which have characters carry out actions for no logical reason other than to spice up the story. Jane bedding an important to the storyline character who then just conveniently disappear. This current series has the villain murdering people unnecessarily. He gives a young man a loaded gun and tells him to shoot his girlfriends brother which he does, reluctantly. Why didn't he shoot the villain? No explanation as to why the villain shoots his beloved dogs. I'll see it through to the end but not one of the best detective series.
Manifest (2018)
Nah.
I only just saw this advertised and started watching. Immediately I was reminded of "Lost" a series years ago that I watched part of and gave up on. I watched about half of episode 1 of this series noticing but accepting that despite not being around for 5.5 years the main character borrows and uses someone else's phone without any appearance of being unfamiliar with it. Overlooking that I persevered but switched off at the point where the 2 characters both experiencing premonitions start arguing with each other about it. Seeming to blame each other rather than comparing their experiences as normal people would do. This is a device plot often used so that the audience are kept up to speed on in the plot. Having now read other reviews I am grateful I didn't waste any more time on this new "Lost".
Marriage (2022)
Married relationship under the microscope.
A realistic portrayal of a couples 27 year marriage unlike any other I've seen on a tv drama. Parts are uncomfortable to watch with awkward silences and little arguments and flare ups masking the real undrlying issues and feelings. The viewer is left to guess at the motives driving all the characters actions just as in real life where you never really know the full back story. The characters are really well portrayed by the cast in a realistic way unlike other dramas where the scripts have them tell each other facts they'd already know merely for the benefit of the audience. Not an exciting watch but quite intrigueing.
The Undeclared War (2022)
A PC drama in PC game show mode.
A much needed drama about a modern problem that I sense was probably extremely good when first drafted but then what happened? Is there a committee who insist on introducing elements to a good story that makes it, in their eyes, more popular and accepable? Many have already rejected this as a 'Woke' series focusing on the central character being non white and strangely, in the first episode, having a character apologising for being white and there being so many so many like him in GCHQ. Heavy handed plot devices such as a young student who is brilliant but has ADHD or Autism is seen sitting alone obsessed with lining up items in an orderly fashion and explaining that he's not good at changing conversation topics. Then we have the trainee student on her first day being the only one to identify a hidden code as a consequence of which she's taken along to a COBRA meeting and given a round of applause by the PM and high ranking officials.
I suspect the author plays a lot of computer games as this is the style of presentation where, if a solution to a problem is needed, then somewhere hidden nearby is a tool or clue which will help. Well, life's not like that or nor should drama series be which wish to be taken seriously.
Such a shame that yet another potentially good storeyline ruined.
The Midwich Cuckoos (2022)
Updated classic worth a watch
A fair attempt at the classic Sci Fi favourite let down by the need to populate the village of Midwich with all nationalaties. I think people are intelligent enough to realise that whatever village in the world is portrayed there will be predominantly one nationality. I found this aspect distracting. The acting is good and the storeyline, although updated to modern times, still intrigueing. The original story had the children all of the same mode, i.e. Blue eyed and scarily blonde but not in this series. I can see why that was changed in keeping with todays attitude in the media that everyone is equal (even though in reaity they're not). Wouldn't it have added a further element of intrigue to keep the aspects of the children similarly uniform ( not necessarily white) in appearance or would that have provoked 'outrage' as is so often the case in these 'enlightened' times ?
Overall an enjoyable series that kept me watching even though I know the story well.
Another mystery is why I can't see Sam West as listed in IMDB's credits as playing the part of the Home Office official, Bernard Westcott. Alien intervention you think? (now corrected..just like his character in the series he's re-appeared.)
Succession (2018)
Can't be arsed anymore.
Managed to wade through series one despite the wealth of dialogue liberally peppered with profanity, media techno babble and unfinished sentences with nothing meaningful being said e.g. " Are we good"? , "Yeah , no, yeah. Golden. All good, yeah. Hook up later". And that's without the F and C words every other sentence. You don't see any of the characters actually doing any work and overall I find I'm really not interested in any of the people portrayed. I only watched it this far as I'm using up the remaining days of my membership to the platform that shows it. Decided I'm not going to continue spending £10 a month for garbage like this. I'll reconsider at a later date if and when shows of the quality of Babylon Berlin etc., are on offer. 2 stars are for me, one or each series or part therof that I watched.
Devils (2020)
Kept me watching but..
Kept me watching but it was an effort to overlook the frequent lack of detail as to how numerous developments of the plot were achieved. More than once when someone was asked "how did you get/ do that?" the answer was "you don't want to know" or "don't ask". Magically things happen because the plot requires it and a character says "get it done " or "do it" with again no explanation apparently needed. One character, a "genius" student, acquires expertise (seemingly offscreen overnight) in the art of hacking a financial institutions security databases and then this 20 something is brought into a boardmeeting of top financiers to advise them how to bring down 5 leading countries banking systems. There's no end to the ludicrous plot holes but if you can accept all that in this fantasy world, it is quite watchable if only to find out what tragic back story is shown in flashback for each character (often in slow motion) to justify why they act as they do.
Timeless (2016)
oh dear
I see much has been written by lovers and haters of this nonsense. I only watched two episodes but couldn't continue as it was insulting what little intelligence I have. I'd probably have, loved this when I was under 10 years of age and could forgive it if it was made clear it's aimed at children with a "Horrible Histories" approach but the fact it appears to be aimed at adults I find very worrying.
House of Cards (2013)
Great start, awful finish
Highly enjoyable series from Season 1 Episode 1 through to Series 5 and great theme music which builds just like the story. It should really have ended with Season 5 as 6 was a disaster. New characters introduced to pad out the story but it seemed to me that they all seemed to magically know who did what and when without any indication to the viewer of HOW they knew (I'm thinking 'Hmm maybe they'd read the script). E.G. Doug in one scene approaching widower of of Cathy Durant after the funeral stating he thinks she was murdered. Door is closed in his face. Next he is seen saying he thinks she's still alive with no explanation as to how he knows that. Overall a very unsatisafactory final season and a clumsy final scene with Claire saying over murdered Doug's corpse " No more pain' just like Francis did in the first episode over the dog he put out of it's misery, Oh look we've come full circle, how clever.