Next of Kin (2018) User Reviews

Solid drama, with varying quality throughout.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 14 March 2019]

Next of Kin is a very powerful, very emotive drama, set over six episodes it gives a real insight into the acts of terrorism, the origins, process, and eventual tragic outcome.

It's a little far fetched, and it's definitely padded out in the middle, but overall it's a very good watch. Best episode is Part 3, which is edge of the seat viewing, it also concludes well.

There are moments where you have to suspend belief, as some events will have you scratching your head, asking, would they really do that?

Very well produced, well acted, Archie Panjabi steals every scene, she is marvellous. Claire Skinner I'd argue was badly cast.

Overall, emotive, intense, slightly muddled, but watchable. 7/10

Decent

[stevesmith-80860 · 7/10 · 25 February 2018]

I think this show is decent. The writing, specifically the story and plot are definitely this show's weakness. The story is interesting enough for me to keep watching but, it's not keeping me glued to me my seat and waiting for the next episode. It's just ok, not bad, not great, just OK. 7/10

Unbelievable

[screenidol · 6/10 · 16 January 2019]

Unbelievable is the word I would use to describe so many things in this plot, including the actions of the terrorist police, the lead character, the lost brother, the terrorists. The viewer winds up saying "Why would he/she do that?" too many times. The business subplot and the the way in which the police got the all-important tip was nonsensical. Unbelievable. The plight of Danny? Unbelievable. Some good acting, some overacting, some acting just plain...unbelievable.

Beautiful film craft, but flawed storyline

[robertemerald · 7/10 · 31 May 2019]

There is brilliant footage here of ordinary life in Pakistan, with multiple streets, shopfronts and village scenes being filmed. You can almost smell it, the sights, the sounds and the colour. This is beautifully contrasted against modern London, which is probably one of the points being made. And it's not super rich verses super poverty either, which was a nice touch. The actors all pull their weight, and the soundtrack is modern and helps a lot with the tension. A lot of trouble has been made to show how a family of immigrants are now well and truly British, whilst retaining a respect for their culture. Good intentions, great actors and brilliant sounds however cannot quite forgive this drama its script and storyline. The script tends to be peppered with the mundane and cliches, and the lead character seems to wander through her grief without much of a brain. It is made clear to her early on that her nephew, recently and shockingly discovered to have fled from uni to Lahore, may be part of a police investigation into terrorism. As it is his father's murder that sets off this train of drama, and the fact that the father is murdered whilst in Lahore and attempting to return to London, I find the behaviour of our lead to be dunderheaded to say the least. First she attempts to meet up with the nephew in secret without telling the police or accompanying authorities whilst in Lahore to identify the body of her brother. Surely she must be aware, given her brother's murder, that such an action without support could be dangerous? And why is she persuaded to identify the body and not her brother's wife? I guess it sounds intriguing, but to me it just adds the police to my list of dunderheads, as surely that request in itself should have provoked suspicion. So she gets shot (to the sound of escalating modern drums), but not by terrorists but by the police, whom were aiming for her nephew. Don't worry though, a bullet wound square to the left side of the stomach only means a day in hospital and you'll be fine to fly back to London, have family gatherings and go back to work. Then, bizarrely, the nephew rings demanding several thousand pounds, because the terrorists have stolen his passport and he needs to get back to London illegally and fast. So the aunt now borrows her husbands passwords (without telling him of course), and, to the tune of more modern drums, she enters her husband's business account and transfers the money. The next day, of course, she's in police custody. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that anyone already involved in a cloud of suspicion, intrigue and danger would be that stupid. For starters, if the terrorists have the passport, surely the money would be slightly in peril back in Lahore? And she's already suspected the police are following her, and indeed, the police (at a very high level) have certainly declared openly a huge interest and suspicion in the whole sordid business and especially the whereabouts of the nephew, so what makes her believe the transfer won't be noticed? I'm sorry but I just don't buy it. This is yet another tv show, like season one of Wolf Creek, which seems to have been rushed, and was not checked properly post-production by someone independent. If the wife had been the one asked to identify the body as well as the sister then that would have sorted one flaw. Also, there was no need for the police to shoot her. I've never heard of police shooting in such a way as to clearly endanger innocent persons. A shot fired in the air, as far as the story is concerned, would have sufficed. And as far as the story is concerned, a phonecall to Lahore could easily have served as well as a transfer of money in order for the police to become more aggressively involved. There would, of course, be a little less drama. I guess that's the point I'm making and why I'm holding this otherwise fine looking and exciting piece of British filmmaking back to a 7. For me, less drama is fine so long as the story makes sense. There is obviously a fine body of direction and cinematography at hand to make up any shortfall.

"Unless we frightened him off......."

[cleishmains · 22 January 2018]

Episode 3 and after shooting at Danish and hitting Doctor Mona instead, the woman from MI5 wonders whether they might have frightened Danish off! Nah, not at all, don't worry - he'll trust you!

It also seems that Pakistani hospitals have much better treatment capabilities than the NHS as Dr Mona is miraculously cured and back on her feet within days and.....completely forgives and forgets MI5 for shooting her!

If the BBC keep producing stuff like McMafia against rubbish like Next of Kin then they have nothing to worry about - the licence fee's worth it!

Great series!

[jhreid-52585 · 6/10 · 6 October 2018]

However it makes no sense to me that this family after the police started targeting them that they did not have an attorney to help them through the police harassment and investigation.

Quality TV, engaging and tense.

[bobbsaunders · 8/10 · 5 June 2018]

This is a well produced TV series anchored strongly by Archie Panjabi who's face spends much time filling the screen, but thats no bad thing. Good to see such a real drama that drastically affects this very British family in a highly contemporary storyline. Its not perfect but overall it ratchets up the tension and keeps the viewer intensely engaged. Good performances all round ensuring you empathise with the human mistakes they make because of the closeness of kin.

Utter Disappointment

[spitfire2356 · 1/10 · 8 February 2018]

It is a real pity that such a topical subject matter that holds such promise for highlighting modern global realities as viewed from the family angle disappointed me so much. I looked forward to Archie Panjabi's acting making this series work ( I was very frustrated when she was dropped from the Good Wife series) but the story line was unimaginative, full of plot holes and unbelievable develpoments. I only continued watching because my OCD prevented me from abandoning it. I cannot believe such incompetence from the creators of Vera. The story assumes that we viewers cannot seperate fiction from nonsense. I also hoped with ever decreasing fervour that some twist would save it from oblivion. Jack Davenport gave off the vibe of chagrin as he realised too late that he had been sold a flop but plodded on to honour his contract. Shabana Azmi was quite convincing in her acting but her role in the story was not. Viveik Kalra did what any teenager does naturally - just laze about and sulk. Claire Skinner could not control her family in Outnumbered and was just as incompetent in her control of underlings here. Simply not worthy of the BBC.

Fine Brit Drama

[CostelloGuy · 9/10 · 7 February 2018]

An excellent drama which focuses on a family drawn into a frightening, and very relevant, terrorist situation. A bit of a continuity blunder early on seems to have given some people a bit of a stick to beat this programme with but, embarrassing as it may have been, it has no real effect on the story. Tension builds nicely to a genuinely moving conclusion. The actors create a believable family dynamic which is far more effective for the telling of the story than having some maverick cop-type character or Strike Back style antics doing everything for them. Nice to see Archie Panjabi in a lead role in the UK too - long overdue.

A waste of time

[jdhb-768-61234 · 2/10 · 10 February 2018]

I'm not sure what to say about this. It started with a degree of promise and then slowly turned into a mish-mash of events which appeared confused, illogical and largely unconnected.

The acting was pedestrian at best, the plot, such as it was, was pretty daft with a female doctor doing a bit of globe trotting in search of her nephew who'd become embroiled in a terrorist organisation, and another woman heading some sort of MI5 unit but making a hash of her job. Overall, the characters were uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the dialogue was naff. The whole was frequently accompanied by loud background noise, presumably intended to increase the, or replace the missing, tension.

Frankly, it was utterly unmemorable and a wasted 6 hours for me.

TIME TRAVEL NOW

[carolscarborough · 10 January 2018]

FLIGHTS FROM PAKISTAN TAKE AT LEAST 7-8 HOURS, NO WAY WOULD HE HAVE GOT HOME THAT AFTERNOON FOR THE PARTY???? HE WAS NOT EVEN ON THE PLANE WHEN HE SPOKE TO HIS SISTER?????

This film was an education for me

[freejoyhart · 10/10 · 19 November 2023]

The best way to educate is through emotions. If we can get to the heart of a person, we usually succeed! So, with all that is going on in the world these days, it's important for us to try to keep an open mind. What's happening in the Middle East is very confusing to many of us. As for me, with this film I am able to see how a young man can be recruited to a terrorist cell. Taking place in the England, we can see people from all walks of life caught up in this tragedy. The main character, Mon, cannot see how her nephew Danish could betray his father & his family, but these things happen. It can happen so quickly. We are all looking for some kind of purpose in life! Perhaps Danish saw a higher purpose for himself by joining this terrorist cell. They made him feel important, like he was part of something big, something important. Proper make mistakes. And sometimes there's no turning back from these decisions! Even though this family seems to be a loving one, families can have all kinds of complexities. This film had a deep emotional impact on me. And it helped me tremendously on my journey to understand what's going on in our world today. Understanding & education are crucial to finding positive solutions. I really believe that. So, I thank the makers of this series for helping to open my eyes & see more clearly!

Slightly entertaining but marred by terrible acting

[qui_j · 5/10 · 28 April 2020]

This series was somewhat entertaining but really marred throughout by a bad script, bad acting, dialog that appeared to be improvised at times, and some seriously oversized plot holes. The editing is choppy so things jump around a lot with some scenes on screen just for seconds. Overall, not great but not very bad!

Don't waste your time

[timgf-81276 · 2/10 · 11 September 2023]

This starts off promising but the story just doesn't flow naturally. It's very contrived and is basically just a succession of people making one bad decision after another. We finally abandoned it a few minutes into episode five when there was one stupid decision too many. Archie Panjabi and Jack Davenport are wasted here, they deserve much better material. Can't really fault the production, the acting or even the detail of the writing, the problem is with the story which simply doesn't work. The basic premise might have made a single movie length drama by cutting out the stupidity, but as it stands, don't bother.

don't bother

[oisincorr · 1/10 · 18 January 2018]

So stupid nothing about this makes amy sense, too much going on with no relation to anything, t

More Bollywood than Anything

[starstreaker · 3/10 · 9 January 2018]

A slow and pedantic series with several pointless scenes and whimsical 'face the camera' dialogue. Shades of Bollywood in this drama targeted at UK minorities. Mood musicians must have made a packet out of it.

Why am I watching this?

[lizb-96573 · 5/10 · 31 August 2023]

I wanted to like this but so many holes in the script. The family has gathered to welcome Kareem home from Pakistan but he had just phoned Mona, his sister, an hour before the party to say he was on his way to the airport. That flight would have taken several hours so why were they hiding to yell "surprise!"?

Was the older lady, Mrs. Shurani the mother or aunt? At one point I thought Mona called her aunt.

Mona travels to Pakistan to identify Kareem's body and was shot in the side when meeting with her nephew, Danish. She appears critical but then is up and walking and flying back to London soon after.

It seems that finding her nephew is more important than her husband and son. While supposedly an intelligent physician, Mona makes one stupid mistake after another including wiring £12,000 pounds from a business account to try and save Danish even though he's a suspected terrorist.

Maybe this gets better but the first 3 episodes are borderline ridiculous.

When???

[eljohn1069-1 · 11 July 2018]

When is this going to be shown on Sundance in the US?

Bad female role model

[paskochariotvarnica · 3/10 · 30 September 2023]

I have noticed that a good number of British shows produced in the last five or so do their best to present a main female character as a strong woman who does not back down under duress. In case of Next of Kin, writer/director/producer fail miserably. Mona, the main character does things that are utterly stupid. And certainly not a good role model for a wife.

If I were her husband I would have divorced her by episode 4.

I am getting an interesting take on what British marketing thinks people want to watch. Or, most likely, what they think should be fed to audiences. Force fed is more accurate.

trotting out the usual British tropes about deep state.

[ikanboy · 5/10 · 1 January 2024]

A B grade Brit show which never gets smart enough to warrant a good review. It's entertaining enough, but it's central theme, a family with a wannabe jihadi member, never seems real enough for the world proper.

Archie Panjabi's character makes one stupid mistake after another, all under the motive of a devoted family member, who doesn't think including her husband is part of the marriage deal.

The counter terror people follow her lead , and even accidentally/incompetently shoot her. But not to worry our heroine is good as gold in no time and able to keep on making mistakes.

If I were a Pakistani I'd be blushing.