Peaky Blinders: ‘Dangerous’ (Series 4. Episode 4 Review)

“If you’re here in one hour, I swear to God I will cover you in tar and fucking feathers”

One of the many great strengths of Peaky Blinders is the unpredictability of its narrative. It never adheres to a set formula and that is shown off with great dexterity tonight. The first half plays out like a series finale. Teapots are shaking and guns are blazing as a woman from the past comes back to haunt Arthur. The second half takes the foot off the pedal and even the loud reintroduction of Alfie Solomons can’t shift the gloom encompassing Small Heath.

Mrs Ross, the mother of a boy killed in the ring at the hands of the moustachioed one, offers Arthur round for a nice cuppa and a big slice of decoy cake, which tastes even worse than last week’s dry scone. It’s all a trap so Mr Changretta can sneak into the hospital unchallenged and he’s not turned up with grapes. Turns out, this is just more gameplay too. He pushes an unloaded gun into Michael’s sweaty forehead and pulls the trigger. It’s all about the drama and that was a truly dramatic way to open the show.

As Luca saunters away, turbo charged on his own raging gangster pheromones, things soon come to a standstill at a road block. This time it’s Luca who has been lured into a trap. One of Aberama Gold’s making. Gypsies assemble (now that’s an idea for Marvel) en masse and shoot to kill. Changretta gets away. Of course he does, but the driver isn’t so lucky. It establishes just how dangerous the two sides are and shows that Tommy being between the two parties means he is the very epicentre of the storm.

“Sometimes he sees something glamorous and expensive.. he just can’t resist it. He’s so weak”

Lady Carleton is back on the scene and even though she’s smelling of paraffin it won’t put Tommy off. They talk about horses and drink gin but it’s quite obvious the chemistry between them is as explosive as the factory when he walks through it. The train strike that never happened was another trap. but this one didn’t catch its intended target. They kiss but the lady isn’t for turning. She has his horse but he doesn’t have her heart.

Speaking of long faces, this brings out Lizzie’s exquisite bitchiness (“fuck Tommy and his cock and his gin”). Her seething jealousy is not in the slightest bit hidden, yet Tommy remains oblivious. He might have to take notice soon if Lizzie is pregnant, as is hinted here.

 

“Morning Alfie”

It is a typically grand introduction for Tom Hardy, clearly still loving the role of Alfie and making his potty mouth sound so ridiculously poetic. Which side is he on? What kind of world is this for kids to live in? Answers on a postcard. He squares up to Aberama Gold with great comic pathos. This is a verbal wrestle but they set up a proper one and Gold’s boy is, as ever, up for the fight. Quite where this storyline  is heading is a mystery but it’ll certainly be an entertaining spectacle.

“Just tell us where and when. We’ll do the rest”

Of course, Michael is now wise to Polly’s deal with the devil and we have to wait most of the episode to know what he does with the information. As it turns out, he simply wishes his boss a good weekend. Which is nice, isn’t it? If you disregard the fact he’s letting Tommy leave that building knowing he could be dead by Monday morning. Still, Australia is nice this time of year..

As Tommy sets of, his car is followed by Luca and his gun toting team while a pensive Polly looks on. Is Peaky Blinders brave / mad enough to kill Tommy Shelby? Answers on a postcard to:

Alfie Solomons

1 Smells of pig road

Shithole

England.

8/10

 

 

 

 

“

Bang (S4C) Episode Four review

The gun has become as precious to Sam as that ring did to Gollum. While he may not talk to it, his relationship with the firearm has grown unhealthy. Not content with an armed robbery last week, Sam and Cai plan a break in but this time the target is the business run by grumpy stepdad Ray. As if the guy wasn’t miserable enough already. Due to the interruption of a security guard the weapon is called into action for the first time but it was the fingers of Cai that pulled the trigger.

It further sets up the merging of the investigations with Sams’ predicament as brother and sister are set to collide head on. The gun is essentially acting as GPS for the police. They the know the bullet was from the same gun that shot Stevie Rose, as they also know from his random shooting into the air previously. The irony is that in his desperation to buy his house he is keeping things too close to home. First he steals and then commits armed robbery of his work place and now he is stealing from his stepdad and accidentally putting someone in hospital. The guard is alive and it could be curtains for Sam’s dream. His new home could soon be behind bars.

The actual details of the Stevie Rose murder doesn’t grow much more in the way of flesh and is the weakest thread in the series as a whole. There’s some unusual behaviour from Mrs Rose that involves waiting outside Gina’s house and an attempt at bribery. The widower grows more suspicious with each scene. Justin also hints that drugs are involved somewhere but progress will be slow considering the police are chasing a gun which is not in the hands of the killer.

It’s a superbly atmospheric forty five minutes that flies by, culminating in Cai, for reasons best known to himself, going to visit the security guard in intensive care. Again, it proves a good tracking device for the police and they chase him down and indeed out as he’s hit by a car and the grim reaper comes calling. As do the boys in blue, to Sam’s workplace. There’s no hiding in dark corners behind palettes now. 8/10

Bullet points:

• When the truth comes out, will Gina sacrifice her duty to the badge and cover for her brother?
• Can you imagine how sour Ray’s face will be one he finds out who broke into his company? Is it possible to frown any more?
• Will Sam somehow be implicated in the murder of Stevie?
• Will the money being posted through Gina’s door be classed as an acceptance of a bribe?
• Will the Port Talbot tourist board use Bang as a promotional tool for gun lovers?

Safe House (Series 2, Episode 4 Review)

Safe House lives up its title in a finale that plays it so bland it makes Shredded Wheat exciting in comparison. Safety first is the order of the day but even worse is the contempt in which the viewers are treated. If writing has the guts and imagination to follow through on everything it sets up, to answer the questions it’s had had the nerve to want to be asked, then any faults will remain niggles rather than a banging your head against a wall sort of frustration. Safe House has a San Andrea sized fault running through the carpets. It constantly disregarded the premises set out. Most of the things that happened in the first three episodes were meaningless and of no consequence, the actions of character’s weren’t explained or vaguely logical. Threads were unfurled and left dangling.

The villain here was never going to be Roger Lane as he was only introduced in the penultimate episode and the fingers were so blatantly pointing at Liam come the credits it was unlikely to be him either. But in making Simon The Crow it makes a mockery of a series that was a shambles already. What was Simon’s motivation? We’re fed a sudden back story at the dinner table as Liam says that his dad used to get very angry with his mum and if you hadn’t guessed already, it was then clear who the traitor was. This is at odds with the ideal of The Crow making the men suffer. Why would he kidnap his own wife if that’s the case? To make his son suffer? He didn’t have an affair with his wife. Though it would have been a plot twist! Did Simon kill MacBride? Did he kill John? If he did, the premise being that he took Liam away from him to Manchester because.. that’s a reason to kill? Also, pushing someone down a ladder confuses The Crow mythology more. Jason Watkins makes sinister and creepy at the reveal and is frankly the only one giving the script more power than it deserves.

There’s so much more left unanswered that you wonder if they binned the last four episodes in the writer’s room and went to the pub instead? What happened to Griffin after he got attacked and did he still have some sort link to the murders? What on earth was that John and Dani kissing stuff all about? Add to that, we never even saw a glimpse of Julie and her daughter in the finale so we didn’t see their reaction to his death (throwing a party presumably). Three episodes built around a family that are discarded at the last moment is insulting an audience that is asked to care. Then there is Tom’s fling with Elizabeth which had been signposted more than a Wonderbra campaign in the nineties. He admits to Sam they had a one year fling but it doesn’t seem much of an issue as he answers his phone mid confession. Was John going out with Sam at the time or was it before? Anyone? Dervla Kirwan must have fancied a cold holiday as she was only in about four scenes.

If TV shows could win awards for ending a series with unsatisfactory nonsense then the mantelpiece in this safe house would be chock-full. You can question plenty of the closing twenty minutes so here goes: Why did Simon bring his gun to the safe house, pretty much waving it under a cop’s nose. Not just any cop’s nose either, the one that has been chasing you for years. Why didn’t Liam go straight to Tom? All the evidence was there. In another deviation from The Crow’s past, Simon seems to have disposed of Sam’s body (dead or alive) rather than locking her up. Here’s the thing – we don’t know do we? Anything. As Brook wrestles mad Duke in the world’s worst wet t-shirt contest the series is over and what strives to be an epic cliff hanger is simply the act of a programme drowning in it’s own unsavoury fluids.

Cast and script changes have clearly had a big affect on a project that looked low on confidence. Ironically for a show so slow moving it might have been the battle against the clock to get everything up to scratch after all the production problems and this more than shows on screen. It’s already had a second breath of life but a third will be prolonging the misery. If Sam is alive she’ll stay locked up somewhere and this house on the rugged North Wales coast should get a change of locks, be boarded up and condemned. 2/10

 

Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 4 Review)

In Doctor Foster, even when expecting the unexpected you can still be confounded to a point where dizziness takes over. That applies more than ever in a penultimate episode crammed with paranoia. In a change of tact to its standard structure we see the same morning from two different perspectives and at last Jodie Comer is given the chance to shine as Kate. She rightfully gets a chance to be the headline act.

Kate opens a hand delivered letter containing the tie Simon left after the  and it injects more doubts on top of the ones that were clearly already there. It’s a game changer to be allowed a look into the window of a relationship we’ve only ever seen glimpses of through Gemma’s eyes. Kate is led on a which hunt through the plants of Carly, Sian and Anna, the latter leaving loads of notes around the Doctor’s property with the address of her hotel on them. It’s a convoluted plot to ambush Kate that backfires on the surface but the seeds have still been sown.

In a scene that brilliantly echoes Gemma’s first confrontation with Simon about the affair back in series one, Kate challenges him with fire in her heart: “Work out the consequence of lying and the consequences of telling the truth”. Simon’s silence is longer and more painful than before and the tension palpable as another lie is expected to froth from his lips. Instead he tells the truth and his pathetic squirming sets toes curling “Seconds into it I started thinking of you, your body’s better, the things you can do with it.. you smell better, you’re kinder. I get much more pleasure from you in every way. Starting sex with her was driven by lust, yes but finishing it was politeness”. It brings a weird moment of hilarity but still can’t cut the tension. Once a pathological liar always a pathological liar.

Kate returns to the hotel and is lectured on her husband’s obsession with the ex-wife. From dress sense, wedding vows and.. er.. food” Gemma wins her over by saying “His taste is me”. It may be tenuous to some but it’s perfectly understandable that she is won over by this. It serves to amplify Kates’s earlier “I’m here!” as her husband looked through her and talked only of his former lover. Never could it have been predicted that the women in Simon’s life would end up as an uneasy alliance. While all these new revelations are true let’s not forget that Gemma is also obsessed. People in glass houses and all that.

What of poor Tom? The story that grounds everything in reality. Captive in a hotel room and sobbing in a touching moment as mum washes his hair. He is still a kid and the most damaged out of everyone. What Simon said about his mother is still a mystery and is one of two key points the whole series is hanging on. The second is Simon’s grand declaration that he’ll only leave in a coffin. Someone might leave in a wooden box but it could be anyone.

Simon’s life, like the man himself is an entire lie. He has no money in the house, the business isn’t his, even his satchel isn’t his own. The clothes he stood in would have been stripped off were it not for public decency.  Chris Parks is literally every viewer as he rages “It was made very clear to you from the beginning that all this, this whole life is my daughters and you get to live in it while she’s happy. The moment she’s not it snaps back” then happily exclaiming “and here it is FUCKING SNAPPING! HAPPY DAY!” It’s punch the air satisfying. Mr nasty has lost his house, business, wife and child and only two of those were his anyway. As Gemma rolls up to survey the wreckage there’s an incredibly powerful contrast. Simon kicks and punches her car but she sits there stony faced. Almost numb. Her victory tasting somewhat bitter. For a moment there it almost looked like she was softening. That is until she speeds the car at him. Normal service resumed. Kind of.

As drama goes it can’t get more riveting than this. Doctor Foster is a kitchen sink drama with cinematic ambition. It’s a pulse quickening, mouth opening extravaganza of madness. So mouth opening you too could inelegantly shove pasta in your gob IF you could take your eyes off the screen that is. Like last week this felt like a series finale so it’s a guarantee the stakes will be raised even further than all that’s gone before. Murder? Suicide? A happy ending? Nah, Just joking about the last one. 10/10

Doctor’s notes

• it was obvious Kate wanted out the moment see stared with contempt at Simon wolfing down pasta.
• A vibrator in someone’s drawer isn’t a sign of a bad sex life. Just saying
• Even Simon looked embarrassed as he said “love you” down the phone. And he was alone.
• Whatever the removal company is called we need to know because those guys are damn good at their jobs.
• Did Simon put the GPS on Gemma’s phone?
• Why would Gemma run over the man she has just claimed “victory” over? All that she’s worked for would be over in an instant.

TV Review: Apple Tree Yard, Episode 4 (BBC1)

“Courts aren’t about the truth. They’re about who tells the best story”

The sex in public, the family politics and the vagaries of the legal system have pushed us to this conclusion where the fate of Yvonne Carmichael is in the hands of twelve strangers in the jury rather than the one stranger who led her here.

The court proceedings are wonderfully done and charge forward purposefully with brisk powerful punches of all the information we need. At no stage does it drag or feel like ‘Series Two Broadchurch Syndrome’ (now a recognised television disease).

The more he sits silently in court, the more Mark Costley’s aura of mystique is taken away from him. The flesh of his lies reduced to mere bone. We learn more about his past – the time he was inappropriate with a former work colleague and his previous conviction. There are even two conflicting accounts on whether he has a personality disorder. One doubting Thomas declaring “his pursuit of extramarital sex and a tendency to embroider the facts do not mean he’s mentally unwell .Otherwise half the men in the country would be seeking treatment” Touche! However, a Doctor claims he does suffer from one and Likens his behaviour to acting like a movie star in his own movie. 007 has truly lost his shine.

The knife twists further as Yvonne takes to the stand and has to relive the assault and the the day of the murder. If that wasn’t tormenting enough the big reveal is to follow, the big reveal to Gary at least, when the question “Are you familiar, Doctor Carmichael, with the small alley way called Apple Tree yard?” comes crashing in like a wrecking ball. And no, Miley Cyrus wasn’t called as a witness.

As if emotions haven’t been shredded enough there’s one last twirl of the dramatic blender as the twist kicks in. We get a flashback, yes that devious old trick, but this one is worth it. As they lay together in romantic clinches she jokingly says “I want you to kill him” and perhaps with more serious intent “I want you to smash his face in”. Costley proudly declaring he never told anyone this information is a bit like a cat bringing home a dead mouse wanting some applause. Her steady response of “People can say anything. You really can’t tell the difference can you?” may mask an agenda we’ve never seen before.

It’s a belting end to a show that’s been all about the issues of trust and people living false narratives. As for Costley, on the plus side he now has a confined space all to himself where he can create many filthy stories with that vivid imagination. 9/10

Blind alleys

Full marks for the healthy discussion of mental health issues. Very refreshing to hear.

It’s up for debate if Yvonne knew what she was doing when asking Mark to kill. Was she much less innocent than we thought? Did she know Mark was a bit of a fantasist who would take it literally? Or were they really just throwaway comments?

The look to camera at the end suggests it wasn’t the latter.

He could be out in five years on good behaviour. Which alley would the sequel be set? Answers on a postcard.

We’re all googling for places with rude names now aren’t we?

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.4 (BBC2)

The walls are starting to close in on AC-12’s elite team – that is, if they don’t eat each other up first before they get squished. How did we get here? It’s a brain frazzle of lies and mind games that has lead us down roads we never knew possible. These aren’t twists for the sake of twists like many of those twenty plus episode American series are built on, these are masterfully built building blocks – like crime jenga you could say. But these blocks are wavering under all the intensity.

Did we expect Lindsay to wander cockily in the their offices and demand a showdown that is both forceful and quite comical. Denton pushes for apologies as if they were naughty school children and all the power is back in her court.  It was hardly “a healing process for all parties” as stated and she knows this only too well. Just what audio has she got on her phone? Is she bluffing and appealing to his Steve’s paronia? Hastings fumes as his kick-off-o-meter is starting to crank the levels. “He can be an irritating wee gobshite when he wants to be” he barks and we’re all sat here thinking “you ain’t seen nothing yet, Ted”.

Cottan watches in on an interview, surveying his own lies being picked apart through the form of  Hari. Did we expect Hari to admit to the murder of Danny Waldron so soon? While he denies his part in the death of Rod he is arrested for that too. Dot’s grimace turns to relief, his mischievous magic playing wonders again. He’s also circling the office once more like a vulture around Maneet and picking up the information Arnott requires. In this case Linus Murphy’s blood found with the envelope that he’d already stole the all important list from. As my mother used to say – your lies will always  find you out in the end and in Dot’s case he has enough of them to bury in a football pitch sized hole.

After such a confident opening saga from Denton did we expect to see her landing back into the real world with such a grim bump? She cries in her bedsit and is soon cleaning the aisles of a supermarket. More grimy though is her confrontation with a seedy support worker. Just when all men thought you’d be able to get a blowjob from Keeley Hawes for a tenner the fantasy is ruined when she soon breaks his balls.”I’ll take your human rights act and raise you section four of the protection from harrasment act 1997!!” she sneers and we all cheer her on!  Admit it. You did. Now take your pale arse and be gone with you creepy guy! She might maintain the posture of a world weary soul but she is fighting back and AC-12 and Cottan should be very fearful indeed. Most staggering of all are the hints that Denton and Arnott could form the world’s most uneasy alliance. Did we expect that? Just in case you’re not following – the answer is no.

Did we expect to see the return of Nige and his walking stick? Well, yes because his name was in the opening credits but we’ll overlook that. He’s questioned over misinformation he gave about the Caddy’s identity. Once again Cottan is on the inside, questioning a man who knows all his secrets. It’s an episode that has some comedic moments amid all the murk and Nige coldy declaring his “I’m extremely remorseful” mantra was one of the highlights.

Did we expect the credibilty of Hastings to be questioned?  It transpires that he has connections to Roach and Fairbank who are names that link to the whole suspected peadophile ring malarky. Ted “interview bombs” (erm, just go with it) Fleming and Arnott with a handshake to Fairbank that can only be described as masonic. Please not Hastings too. Don’t ruin all our hopes Jed, please.

Arnott gets a rough ride this week but when doesn’t he? His girlfriend is being cold and Kate is in even more of a grump with him than usual (some of which is being masterfully coerced by the Caddy himself). Finally, in the world’s most unsubtle presentation, Dot bullet points all the reasons why Steve is the caddy. Did anyone elses’s heart break when Ted glanced suspiciously across the room? Our leading AC-12 trio are unravelling with all the weight of suspicion. Anti corruption have been corrupted. Is it beyond repair? 9/10

REDACTED FILES

• Does Arnott have a south eastern accent? He’s always sounded Austrailian to these ears!
• Who interviewed Linus and why wasn’t it in any files? Is Hastings involved?
• It is annoying when people walk on your freshly mopped floors but I wouldn’t fancy my chances of survival if they were Denton’s freshly mopped floors.
• Not really digging the romantic storyline for Ted. There is the potential for a conflict of interests so it’ll probably have a good pay off.
• Can Denton really be the one to help capture the identity of the Caddy?
• Dot must know Nige will have kept a back up? Maybe he really should have shot him? Will that be his downfall?

 

TV Review: Thirteen, Episode 4 (BBC3)

There may be one skeleton in the cellar but naturally many more lie in the cupboards of everyone connected to the Moxam case. Ivy finds herself in custody and under questioning is quiet as the grave. The threat of arrest and the supporting arms of a mother lead to the truth about Dylan coming out. She didn’t murder him of course but the fact that there was even the slightest suspicion she might have is full credit to the writing. Kudos too, to Jodie Comer who throughout the interrogation scene is a bambi eyed mix of lost, angry and distressed.

Carne is a man on a mission this week, furious at being taken in by Ivy’s misdiretion he cuffs her aggressivly, punches the table and jumps off his wits end. Lisa, despite her cold exterior has gradually emerged as the one with both heart and sense – as she ruefully says “I do (take things seriously) I just don’t let it affect my work “. As the series has progressed there have been more and more questionable antics from the police and it is also worth noting a lack of support from outside sources. Yes, this situation is one of a kind for this country but where are the experts from abroad who have been involved in similar cases? For the quality the show generally represents these are quibbles we can put down to dramatic effect.

Let’s not forget in all this that Mark White has kidnapped Phoebe and the hunt is still stuttering. Not content with writing letters, his method of communication has progressed to phones as he calls the police staion demanding to talk with ‘Alison’. The scene where Ivy walks through the station as officers stare was very reminiscent of Life On Mars without the smoking and moustaches. It felt like Gene Hunt was going to shout out “Oi, grubby cardi!” at any moment. White corners them into a showdown, Ivy has to meet him at Cabot Circus and demands for no police to attend. AS IF.

While the Mark White thread is ramping up to full gear, many of the secondary stories are limping to unsatisfying conclusions. Eloise’s guilt seems soley centred on not meeting Ivy that fateful day which was a reveal last time out. Tim too is proving a letdown – he simply wants to declare his love for Ivy. We also have confirmation that Natasha and Henry were together 13 years ago but it was more a partnership of convenience than passion.

So, in a rare glimmer of hope (yes really) Natasha and Angus look set to have put their issues behind them while relationships elsewhere are eroding like flesh left to rot since, say about 2009. Craig has packed up his things and left Emma, Tim crawls back into the bed of Yazz but stares at the ceiling with another girl on his mind.  The only way isn’t up with Yazz, there’s also the clinging to a relationship when you love someone else way. Not quite so catchy admittedly.

The stakes are high for next week, hopefully a measured, intriguing series doesn’t descend into farce and become a spaghetti western set in a Bristol shopping centre (“Are youse lookin at me babber?”). There’s a lot resting on this, bringing a kidnapper and murderer to justice, a child’s life and not forgetting that Ivy will be able to pop into Topshop and buy a new jumper.  7/10

 

CASE NOTES:

– When Ivy muttered “sorry,sorry, sorry” she was aiming it at Mark wan’t she?

– Will we ever see Mark’s face properly (other than photographs) or will he be a near invisible menace throughout?

– Is Phoebe still alive?

–  While it’s very unlikely Phoebe is Ivy’s child, there is still the distinct possibility that she had a child with White.

– Who else felt a bit sorry for Mr headmaster man? Even if it was for just a few seconds?

– Will the case be fully solved and have a full stop?

– Then will Lisa and Elliott have some sexy making up time. If so can we watch?

 

THEORIES:

– Mark White will be captured and Phoebe rescued.

– Mark will be captured and Phoebe will be missing or dead.

– Mark captures Ivy setting up series 2 and let’s face it, the sacking of Carne and Merchant!

– A mixture of some of the above or none of it.

– Glad to be of help