This show started out pretty well. Some cloak and dagger mysterious goings on, racial tensions, flashbacks to 20 years previous, various threads of story to follow. It seemed promising.
Then it really all started going downhill...
First, this show must take the award for literally the worst attempt ever (read: no attempt at all) to make actors look convincingly older/younger between two time periods. I know this is going to be challenging and there's only 'so much' that can be done, but at least do some work with hair and makeup, exaggerated fashion choices, etc. to try to convince us that these scenes are 20 years apart. Add a little grey hair and a few subtle wrinkles in the 'later' years, stuff like that. At least make some kind of attempt. This was pathetic. Everyone had the exact same hairstyles between 1996 and 2006... except Adrian Lester, whose hair is *slightly* longer in 1996. Even the restaurants in '96 have modern-day décor, and the kitchens look all glossy white and modern. Really, really poor.
Second, in the all-time awards of "most actors pretending to be American who clearly are not American" this show comes up trumps. The accents are laughable. Surely the BBC could find one or two actual Americans to play actual Americans, thus ensuring they sound like actual Americans? Terrible.
Third, there are several incredibly sloppy plot points. (Spoilers herein): 1) Adrian Lester's character deliberately breaks his wrist in the jamb of a metal gate. This is so he can get a plaster cast put on it, and use that plaster to hide a recording device to entrap the 'baddies'. Oooooh.... clever!
Problem 1: In the scene in question, he closes the gate with all the force of a feather blowing in the wind. It would never be enough to break a wrist. Problem 2: Why would you need to break your wrist in order to have somewhere to hide a recording device? There are tons of other ways to achieve this. Absolutely nothing in the plot explains why wrist-breaking was necessary, nor does anything in the plot hinge on the presence of the plaster cast itself. Problem 3: Immediately after trying to trap the baddies, Lester's character smashes the recording device, claiming that it did no good. WHY? Problem 4: ...Oh God, I can't be bothered. I'm bored now.
As for the ending... Well, I can only describe it as completely incoherent. I can only imagine there's another series to come because the major plot twist does nothing to tie up any loose ends and simply leaves more questions hanging in thin air.
I have never been left more confused or bemused by a TV show.
Thoroughly befuddled and disappointed with this.
Then it really all started going downhill...
First, this show must take the award for literally the worst attempt ever (read: no attempt at all) to make actors look convincingly older/younger between two time periods. I know this is going to be challenging and there's only 'so much' that can be done, but at least do some work with hair and makeup, exaggerated fashion choices, etc. to try to convince us that these scenes are 20 years apart. Add a little grey hair and a few subtle wrinkles in the 'later' years, stuff like that. At least make some kind of attempt. This was pathetic. Everyone had the exact same hairstyles between 1996 and 2006... except Adrian Lester, whose hair is *slightly* longer in 1996. Even the restaurants in '96 have modern-day décor, and the kitchens look all glossy white and modern. Really, really poor.
Second, in the all-time awards of "most actors pretending to be American who clearly are not American" this show comes up trumps. The accents are laughable. Surely the BBC could find one or two actual Americans to play actual Americans, thus ensuring they sound like actual Americans? Terrible.
Third, there are several incredibly sloppy plot points. (Spoilers herein): 1) Adrian Lester's character deliberately breaks his wrist in the jamb of a metal gate. This is so he can get a plaster cast put on it, and use that plaster to hide a recording device to entrap the 'baddies'. Oooooh.... clever!
Problem 1: In the scene in question, he closes the gate with all the force of a feather blowing in the wind. It would never be enough to break a wrist. Problem 2: Why would you need to break your wrist in order to have somewhere to hide a recording device? There are tons of other ways to achieve this. Absolutely nothing in the plot explains why wrist-breaking was necessary, nor does anything in the plot hinge on the presence of the plaster cast itself. Problem 3: Immediately after trying to trap the baddies, Lester's character smashes the recording device, claiming that it did no good. WHY? Problem 4: ...Oh God, I can't be bothered. I'm bored now.
As for the ending... Well, I can only describe it as completely incoherent. I can only imagine there's another series to come because the major plot twist does nothing to tie up any loose ends and simply leaves more questions hanging in thin air.
I have never been left more confused or bemused by a TV show.
Thoroughly befuddled and disappointed with this.