JAG (TV Series) Trinity (1997) User Reviews

So not filmed in Ireland.....

[jondcole · 7/10 · 22 December 2007]

As JAG episodes go, it's not a bad one... but I have to laugh, it's so un-Irish its almost like an episode of Police Squad.

Dodgy accents, stereotypical 'Irish' characters... But since when did Belfast have black cabs and London Routemaster buses?

One bus, when they're escaping their police tail, is a routemaster going to Carnaby Street. Now, that must be an expensive fair! Belfast to London! Do the producers know that London is in England and Belfast in Ireland? Hmmm.

Oh well... it's not real at the end of the day, but it's like Austin Power's London... So obviously a Hollywood back lot.

FYI

[darrenboyd666 · 5 October 2019]

Belfast have black taxis and have had them for years. As for the Red Metal Boxes in the street, they are Royal Mail post boxes.

Truly Awful

[p_meddemmen · 1/10 · 4 July 2012]

From Rabb pronouncing Holy Loch as Holly Loch and the truly appalling sets clearly the researchers and prop managers haven't got a clue. Taxi with a police blue light on the roof!!!! Bus with Carnaby Street on it!!!! Did they company who hired the bus play a joke on the TV company? But guys it is NOT a Routemaster but a Bristol Lodekka. The bus in the background almost at the end looks to have a London Transport logo and is probably an RT.

If this is representative of the accuracy of the portrayal of places and politics outside of the USA then it seriously calls into question the accuracy of other episodes. Yes, of course, it is just a TV show but even as that this episode was very thin. If they cannot even pronounce the name of a USA base correctly there is little hope I guess.

One of the worst researched Belisario programmes I've seen

[IMDb-234-61978 · 1/10 · 9 February 2015]

I'm a JAG fan, and then moved on to NCIS, which is my favourite, but somehow I'd missed this episode of JAG. I came here with the intention of writing a review, to find somebody else had also said very similar things. While I can live with the often crazy story lines, an episode featuring Belfast, during the troubles really needed better understanding and most importantly some proper research. The locations seemed more 1960s Star Trek time travel than realistic. First thing is that the producers must never have looked at Google and seen the architecture - Belfast is an old city, and the locations JAG used don't look remotely period or location correct. Vendors on the pavements (sidewalks) and the vehicles are just a US distorted perspective of reality. No idea what the red painted metal boxes are, but I can assure everyone they don't feature in NI, or the UK. Black cabs were a London vehicle back then. Now they are spreading a little, but even now, the number of old black cabs in Belfast is very low. Signage in the streets was also very wrong, and back then the concept of a policeman with long hair was ridiculous. Shoulder holsters really weren't how the UK managed their limited weapon remit. If you watch the Jack Ryan - Tom Clancy movie with the IRA in it it is much more accurate. Some of the police were even wearing uniforms never seen in the UK - especially the headwear.

It was like watching a caricature of reality, a foreigners take on something they'd only heard about. Worst still, which would have made it very painful for real Irish viewers was the accents. Some are proper Irish accents, but simply in the wrong place, Rather like the US deep south accent being used by somebody pretending to be in California. I'd have thought that the actors themselves might have mentioned the accents were wrong?

As stories go, then it did tell the tale. but it's so full of holes as to be a sinking ship.

Sorry about that

[darrenboyd666 · 9 October 2019]

Sorry about that, just re-watched it and the Red Metal Boxes are not post boxes as I thought but the old Fire call boxes they used to have in New York.

The most ridiculous JAG script ever

[Mark-192 · 1/10 · 22 February 2012]

I can honestly say that Jack Orman (who has gone on to be Executive Producer of ill-fated PAN-AM series) produced the most laughably stupid script for a TV show I've ever seen. I would guarantee he had never been to Northern Ireland (let alone Ireland) in his life before writing "Trinity", he just hadn't got a clue.

As the other reviewer said above, it was the stupid details like thinking the RUC/PSNI Inspectors all drove around in black 1960s Jaguars, let alone the Routemaster Bus gaff, plus basically the entire art direction (obviously shot in L.A. / stock footage) and what Jack "thought" Northern Ireland was like at the time made the show jump the shark for me and made me think how completely far-fetched the entire premise of the show, let alone subject integrity for other scripts would have been if this was the poor standard that Belisarius were knocking out by that stage.

Shameful!

Oh dear! What a poor representation of another country

[hindsonevansmike · 2/10 · 3 July 2019]

We caught this on July 2nd 2019 (some 22 years after the initial broadcast).

Our jaws hit the deck in disbelief! This episode is so bad, it could be regarded as brilliant - not! This demonstrates seriously-poor research into what is a part of a sovereign country - and the USA's most-fastidious ally, through thick and thin over the centuries.

Clearly filmed in the USA, with a pastiche view of England in the 60s (1860s???). No clue as to how Belfast looks (claiming that the city was Dublin - in the Irish Republic, therefore *not* part of the United Kingdom since the 1920s - would scarcely have been any better!).

It looks like the apprentice wrote this with a hangover - and a broken arm.

In terms of the "backstory" to this episode, the programme demonstrates all that was wrong with Americans' (and especially Californians') perception of the terrorist situation in Northern Ireland in the 1990s (where as many people were killed as died in the Twin Towers in NYC in 2001).

In fairness to the USA, this level of naivete was finally dispelled when America discovered what terrorism really entails, on Tuesday 11th September 2001. After which, the USA took a sensible (and far more realistic) stand on terrorism.

Let's just write this off as an aberration by Bellisarius.

I re-read this review, in draft form, after an hour and decided - reluctantly - to double my rating. There was one bright note - at least the internal representation of London's Heathrow Airport in the 1990s was almost accurate! Almost!

Edited out most of an important subplot?

[professor_of_gamez · 5/10 · 22 November 2023]

I don't know if this is a question of "DVD version vs. Originally aired version" but it APPEARED as though a good deal of the subplot was edited out, leaving many unanswered questions.

In one scene, they are doing what appears to be genetic testing. But it is never explained WHO they are doing it on, or WHY they are doing it.

Also, it is never explained WHY the cops took the baby (to get the alleged terrorist??) ... and it was never explained why the cops would want to kill the baby (and especially why they would want to kill Harm or Mac).

Also, in the trivia section, it mentioned Princess Diana made a cameo. Was that edited out of the DVD version because she died??