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graeme-86220
Reviews
The Blacklist (2013)
Just gets worse!
Blacklist started off as a good series with Spader ruling the roost by his performances but each series just became more ridiculous. I happily gave up really when Elizabeth died at the end of the last series but series-link kicked in and downloaded the latest series, starting 2 years later. The start of this series is so bad though that I cancelled the link and deleted the show about 30 minutes in.
To believe that Cooper can have such power to bring characters back into the fold so easily is ridiculous. That the original geek guy, who later became a full and fearless field agent, would enter into a meeting where his and his buddy's lives were totally at stake with his phone switched on was bad, that he gave it all up to answer the call and dump his friend and family was unbelievable.
Cooper immediately manages to set up a convoluted meeting with (the previously dying) Reddington who immediately has the answers to a problem that no-one knew about before and so I saw the same slippery slope commencing as for previous series. A hijack almost immediately of a target was ludicrous and the extension of the not even vaguely credible was on the cards.
The ability of Reddington to create travel time-warps to find the right targets around the world has just become ridiculous and Cooper becoming the crime-fighter supreme - but only with Reddington's help - pointless.
My repeated use of ridiculous/unbelievable/incredible/ludicrous conveys my summary. I like fiction and accept some manipulation of story lines to suit the plot but this has just gone too far.
Goliath (2016)
Do I watch s3?
I thought series 1 was quite good with characters having some depth and a decent storyline until the ending. Series 2 has very perceptive characters who unexplicably switch that off with regularity. Timelines and stories are muddy or weak in turn.
Decision to be made - do I finish 2 and go for 3 in the hope it improves?
Craith (2018)
Depth obviously isn't good for some viewers
This programme has its faults but being slow isn't one of them. The way in which it shows the wide impact of one person's crimes is excellent. The film work is sometimes clichéd but generally adds to the overall feel of the show. The actors are very good and the use of the Welsh language is not distracting to anyone used to watching ScandiNoir.
I'm sure there are procedural issues with the Police work and plot holes but I could live with these for the sake of the storyline. If you want a story that's set out out and solved in an hour, go to Hawaii 5-0, if you want a tale worth watching, stick with this.
The Man in the High Castle: Fire from the Gods (2019)
Poor, poor, poor
I must admit, I expected a "Close Encounters" ending of Juliana walking into the light but wtf? People coming out of the portal with not a word spoken - looked much like the arrival of the 7.42 from Guildford into Waterloo. Who on/off earth were they?
Juliana had already covered several miles of mountain terrain in no time to catch up with the others. They got there pretty smartish too from the train wreck.
The Smiths' daughters were to be looked after by the resistance - how/by whom?
Smith's deputy single-handedly changed the whole strategy of the Reich and the end of Naziism?
Nazis made bullet trains and Concordes but not colour tv, yet even had mobile video phones on trains?
I don't mind a series with questions still unanswered - GOT, Ray Donovan, Sopranos - but there seemed to be no answers at all to TMITHC. I get the sci-fi idea of alt universes cannot have definitive answers but this almost felt like nit getting anywhere near the question.
Overspel (2011)
Is this really justice in Holland?
Stuck me that this is a low-key version of "The Affair" and the characters are similarly ones I can't seem to care about.
Production is ok but low budget with very few different locations and lots of lingering looks and pregnant pauses.
I know nothing of Dutch criminal system, but wire-taps at the drop of a hat, prisoners endlessly grilled with no legal representation even where clearly suffering mental issues, doctor just believing the character when he said he was normal, last-minute witnesses without any hesitation or reference to either party, no vetting of information, guns getting past security as hip pins - it all seems so wrong.
Thankfully, series 1 has an ending I can leave there (unlike The Affair) and shan't bother with season 2 or 3. All fairly predictable fare.
Silent Witness: Seven Times: Part 1 (2020)
It gets worse
BBC storyline to educate us all in the ways of the world.
Characters who only ever have one (or two if somehow linked) bodies to deal with at any time so they can then spend hours in and out of the office solving murders that the Police can't see.
Red herrings so obvious you can almost smell them - what left-handed person actually puts a left arm out to shake hands?
Every variety of relationship has to be covered and expect the reverse of the norm to be included.
I gave up on this series long ago but the wife put it on and it's nice to know it continues downhill
Inside No. 9: Dead Line (2018)
Hate the pompous "saw it a mile off" reviews
I didn't see the programme live and, being an avid non-twitter and non-social media person, didn't see any of the comments before watching on Catch Up. I was truly fooled! Having had issues with catch up downloads before, I was rewinding, forwarding, re-starting and re-loading the programme. Only when I went direct to BBC site to find the same, did I eventually twig. Those who tell you the trick only worked live are wrong!
After that it became the "usual" fare of surprises, tricks, and oddities from the pair who never stop surprising us. Best catch since the final episode of The Sopranos.
No programme like this was going to be perfect but it was a great nod (and comment) to Black Mirror who are regarded as their rivals in surprise. Why are you looking for a complete storyline? The several storylines are there and complete by connecting the dots - exactly as intended. Stylised BBC announcers (and screenshots) were there to give the clue to what was happening, not intended as acting!
Lovely mix of surprises and gore - exactly what Shearsmith and Pemberton always deliver; not every episode of League of Gentlemen worked fully.
Death in Paradise: Man Overboard: Part 2 (2017)
Good for happy endings I guess
The second part of the story in London to hand over the top cop role brought more silly crime solutions that police would have solved without leaving home let alone the island.
Anyone for fingerprints on the boat? Anyone for realising that the door frame wasn't damaged by the lock being kicked in? Anyone not anticipate the clapping in the restaurant? Anyone bother to ask the new cop whether he actually wanted a new job without warning? Anyone spot that crime doesn't happen on the island when the police aren't there - is this the way to prevent further deaths in paradise?
I know, I know, I'm being pedantic on a lighthearted easy-view programme that my wife enjoys, but honestly!
Death in Paradise: Man Overboard: Part 1 (2017)
Series in decline again
Here we go then setting up the series for its next handover of top police role to an even less competent UK officer. How do we achieve that? Send 3/4 of the island's police force to London!
When Humphrey went to the island he was more of a knockabout than his predecessor and now we're expected to accept that they can turn it into the island of Father Ted.
Pretty obvious how the killer got off the boat without waiting 40 minutes for the Sherlock Holmes statement to be quoted, albeit with variation.
Pretty scenery aside, this series is heading downhill rapidly and is now not even the gentle time passer we've come to accept.