Reviews

Zen is TV craft at it's finest. Sewel is perfectly cast: articulate, stylish and has a bookish rogue quality all understated to perfection. The interactions, dialogue and maneuverings between characters avoids clichés and sets a new benchmark.

...when I raced to find out if BBC were renewing the series...No. They weren't. How bloody typical. Once again they have a wonderful series in the making, great casting, story lines and settings unlike anything done on TV land. But thanks to the ratings number crunchers at the BBC they ditch it in the sea, without even offering the series to another production house???

Take Hunted, Identity, Outcasts ( a brilliant concept ), Intruders, The fades, Silk, and no doubt others. Hunted was electrifying stuff, but they canned it. Unforgivable.

The slowly unwinding pace of this film can seduce one into a believing not much is happening, but from the outset there's a sinister feel to this film that becomes far more visceral, and disturbing. At times the violence was so calculating and casual it made me physically ill, and wanted to walk away from it. That said, the behavior of the parents, who fed into each others 'evil', reflected for me the explicit desire to dehumanize that which they hate. A feature so evident in the early 21st century. It's not from a genuine failure to reach and understand another's vulnerability, and Tore's is achingly portrayed in this film, painfully so, and the adults ever so casually seek to obliterate it. A day before I'd seen Reggie Yates doco on the experience of the LGBTI community in St Petersberg, and was truly frightened by the casual nature of the brutality, intimidation and violence of 'ordinary' Russians to gay people. The banality of evil indeed.

After seeing the first few episodes of second series, Endeavour ranks as one of the best contemporary period police procedurals. What's striking is that relationships develop, change, and deepen between characters, beautifully understated, with emotional depth and intelligence few police series do well. It avoids the usual blokey male police culture..here I'm thinking of Red Riding 1974 ...a brutal and deeply disturbing portrait of UK police culture in the 70's and 80's.

Eg. Chief Super Bright's character softens and the working relationships between officers is given sensitive and thoughtful treatment, much the same way Foyles War is done. The actors don't play to ego, but rather play into the period and time they're located in. Glad to see ITV have commissioned a fourth series, which I reckon will be nearing it's end. Will be interesting to see how the show will treat the transition when Thursday leaves and Morse gets his Inspector rank. In my view it's even better than Lewis, which was also outstanding. And much better then Inspector George Gently, but thats another discussion.

I've just discovered via third party info online that BBC execs have decided not to renew their involvement in Hunted for a second season. Given the quality of the program, the strength of the production, cast, acting, not to mention reflecting the darker side of our zeitgeist, the decision is perplexing from a purist TV point of view. BBC have had recent form, a bit of a track record over recent years really, of canceling programs ahead of their time, often claiming poor ratings as an excuse, that were technically, thematically and stylistically rich, with ideas and characters that should have been allowed to be explored and developed: Outcasts, Zen, the cancellation of Whitechapel, Identity, The Body Farm, amongst others. The question is Why? What will happen with The Fall? Will it be allowed to reach it's final conclusion on it's own terms or be cut off. If not it would be interesting to know why some programs are given life and others not?