Reviews

I cannot believe that so much money was spent on such an amateurish drama. The acting lacks conviction, the storyline is childish, and the dialogue must have been written by a cartoonist.

The camera work is good, with the usual Bondish theatrics, but the storyline is so incredible that it was a colossal waste of money to film it.

What were the producers hoping to achieve with this? A stunning success like Top Gun or a Bond movie? It seems to be emulating them in the theatrics department, yet it lacks the immersive quality those movies provide.

I'm writing this after abandoning the series halfway through episode 3, so it can't be said that I didn't give it a fair go.

The series was going well, then suddenly the end. Did the production company run out of money?

Sheridan Smith was impressive, but where did those blinding teeth come from (on display in the final scene)?

This really could have been so much better, but all that talking to the camera and unconvincing dialogue was too much for me. A complete waste of talent.

Kitty Flanagan and Julia Zemiro are both very good comedians, but this show is let down by a try-hard script that simply isn't funny. I couldn't manage more than half of the first episode, so I concede that it could improve in subsequent episodes, but there are other programs vying for my attention and there's only so much time in which to watch them.

This show doesn't hit any high notes, especially with the dialogue, which tries too hard to be smart, particularly early on.

Everything about this series is top notch: setting, storyline, acting, atmosphere, etc. But that dreadful dubbing! It seemed like a group of bored weather forecasters had been roped in to do the voices. Why couldn't the original German be heard? That's what subtitles are for.

I've only watched the first episode, but found myself frequently distracted by the faux American accents. If you can't employ American actors, at least go to the trouble of getting really good coaches. And it applies to pronunciation, too. Americans say 'reckud' not 'record'; 'eether' not 'eyether'; in most states, anyway. Sorry, I don't want to be picky but it mars my immersion in the drama.

I suppose I shouldn't have watched this straight after watching The Fall, but I doubt that would have made much difference to my appreciation of this short series. The script was a major letdown. Dialogue and characterisattion were abysmal, and the total lack of narrative tension left me feeling I'd wasted four hours of my life for no good reason. Ah well, c'est la vie.

After watching the first two episodes I thought this might be just another tryhard that I'd soon give up on, but then the episodes began to get stronger, perhaps because of a throughline developing, and now I feel it has grown legs.

The interplay between the two main characters is working and the performances of the two young supporting actors, Hannah Mangan Lawrence and Mark Coles Smith, are convincing.

Well worth watching for a light-hearted drama piece from the same mould as New Tricks.

ABC drama has been getting much better in recent years. Let's hope the current government's austerity measures don't affect this side of the ABC's business.

If you come to this series having first read Zola's book, you'll be greatly disappointed. There are few touch points between the two, and the entire spirit is different as well. What they do have very much in common is the theme of big business relentlessly and irreversibly destroying small business.

That said, I enjoyed this series. Denise is suitably innocent and pure, Moray is single-minded and lecherous, and the introduced character of Jonas is malevolent. Yes, the whole show has Victorian melodrama stamped all over it, but that doesn't make it any less compelling.

Given the ending of series 1, I can't imagine what series 2 will be like.

I saw this movie when it was first released, but now that it's been issued as a two-DVD set (with Cleese's explanation of how he put the film together), I thought I'd buy it and watch the movie again. I was surprised how little I remembered, but it definitely seemed funnier the second time round. What stood out most was Kline's over-the-top but very funny and confused character, Palin's stuttering (which could so easily have been embarrassing) used as a tension creating device, and Curtis's sexy and manipulative character. All four main characters were well played. This isn't the funniest film ever made, but it's certainly a good example of how to make a successful comedy. 8/10 for me.