Bang (S4C) Episode 8 Review

If Roger Williams isn’t doing so already, he should definitely charge mega bucks to give lessons on how to write a series finale.  As with every closing episode the fear is there’s too much wrap up in such little time and nearly every time it proves to be the case. Bang, however pulls off a television miracle and satisfactorily ties all the loose ends together in one dramatic sucker punch of a closer.

Rhys, as it was always going to be him, is responsible for the escalation of terror that follows. On the receiving end of a bloody beating, Sam confesses his sister is in possession of the gun. This sets up a showdown as Gina has to hand the gun back to the dastardly duo in return for her brother. We soon discover that the shifty fellas that kept popping up are extra shifty and to top things off, working for Patricia bloody Rose. In a matter of seconds we learn that Mel and Marie are sisters, we discover who killed Stevie Rosie and that the main purpose of Stevie’s dodgy dealings (and ultimately his death) was human trafficking. It’s chaotic, adrenaline fueled mayhem and it’s brilliant. Oh, and Rhys is shot dead. Forgot to mention that.

While Marie has quietly been a major player in the background, Ray has always been a blatant villain throughout but the real scale of his treachery surprises. The truth is, he’s been hiding in plain sight. The grumpy, evil man that’s been the centrepiece wasn’t the red herring at all. He really is the big bad of the show. The reveal of a mystery that’s been burning since that very first scene eight whole episodes back is heartbreaking and shocking. The whole spectacle is handled with such finesse that even our jaws drop to the floor with grace.

We get a couple of much needed one on one scenes too. Firstly, Sam and Gina touchingly express their love for each other but later Sam doesn’t offer the same sentiment to a mother who valued life’s trivial things over her children. As they solemnly face off, her empty words of apology don’t cut the mustard. His heart more broken than his cut up face.

All plot points neatly tired up, all motives explained, all bad guys getting their comeuppance.. it’s all been resolved with a style rarely witnessed. Well, almost. Just when you think it’s all done and dusted, one thing has fittingly escaped everyone’s minds – the gun. Mel holds it along with Patricia’s money and with it, potentially the key to a second series. Unlikely maybe, but if there’s a ‘Bang 2: Mel On The Run’ there’s definitely an audience for it. 10/10

Bullet points:

• We learnt so much that the fact Rhys doesn’t have a ten inch penis was the least of the revelations
• What punishment awaits Sam from the justice system?
• Will Ela visit him in prison and attempt to steal other inmates money?
• Understatement alert: Gina’s promotion might have been delayed a bit.

TV Review: Thirteen, Episode 5 (BBC3)

If you go down to Cabot Circus today you’ll be sure of a big surprise and it’s not that Next have an up to 50% sale on. The scene is set for the most action packed minutes of what has been a steadily paced series. Ivy, in a bid to save Phoebe Tarl has been summoned to meet her kidnapper in this most public of places. The police are hiding in the shadows keeping a watchful eye on events, well maybe watchful isn’t the word as she gets lost in the crowds before our villain of the peace shows up in a photobooth with Phoebe on his lap. He whispers something into Ivy’s ear, presumably that he will set the girl free if she goes with him and this is where shit gets real. He removes her earpiece, puts Phoebe into a lift and takes off with Ivy. It’s an intersting juxtaposition to the CCTV footage we had at another shopping centre earlier in the series, this time Ivy is reluctant and internally fighting rather than emotionally attached to him. They flee in a van with, as chances would have it, only Elliott and Lisa is the way. Mark White puts his foot to the peddle and DC Carne puts his on the brake in the middle of the road, a one car roadblock. Our favourite incompetent officers are flipped over in the collison and White speeds free. It’s a heart skipping opening that almost feels lifted from another kind of show but it works brilliantly all the same.

In White’s new home a fascinating exchange of mind control versus maniplulation takes place. Ivy thinking on her feet, her freedom having given her some confidence convinces him she didn’t escape, that she went to look for him and the police chanced upon her. She also gets him to free her from her ropes. It’s great that White wasn’t played as typical madman or butch alpha male, he is a standard looking guy with Russell Howard’s accent but not his lazy eye. He is quietly spoken and not at all physically imposing but the threat is always bubbling under the calm exterior. The tension becomes almost unbearable as events turn darker. There’s an attempted murder, a head smashed against a wall and arson to finish things off. Not forgetting the creepy need to dress Ivy up in a granny dress. Does he have some sort of mummy issues? In a poetic shot she flees the house seconds before it explodes and the emergency services show up with the Moxam family in a moment of perfect synchronicity. A soulful version of Royal Blood’s ‘Out Of The Black’ kicks in and the emotion flows. She has burnt her bridges and left a rather scolded Mark White in the rubble.

Elliott and Lisa spend most of the episode led on thier backs – and not in a fun way. Following the accident they are hospitalised but Carne, ever the stubborn mule limps out and back into work. As usual with this programme there are severe questions that need to be asked of the police. Why didn’t they put a tracker on Ivy just in case? White didn’t check for one and how on Earth did their target elude them when they supposedly had the building surrounded? Quite frankly all the police on this case need to be put on gardening leave with immediate effect. These can be overlooked because it is a drama and if everybody did their jobs properly there’d be no fun in that. Elliott did finally come good when he noticed that what looked like a badly drawn  picture of a ladder was actually a local landmark tower, resulting in the discovery of Mark’s whereabouts. Not that it mattered in the end as he was already charcoal by then.

The real downfall of this series finale is the avalanche of unanswered questions it leaves in its wake. Never should a TV show give you everything on a plate but keeping a lot of the ingredients locked in the cupboard after all the intricate build up is a travesty. While it’s true the story we’ve been told until now has been removed from Ivy’s perspective, there is a slight flip reverse as soon as she enters White’s home. For the first time we see their relationship from her viewpoint and what follows is a wasted opportunity to provide answers. We do learn two things: That Ivy was pregnant but lost the baby and that for the last year of her captivity White allowed her more freedom, even creating a “homely” bedroom for her. However too many pieces of the puzzle are lost – what happened for the first twelve years? There is no backstory at all. Why did he choose Ivy? What was all that stuff about him working at the school for? Why the pseudonyms Alison and Leonard? Most importantly, there is no hint of any motive. Writer Marnie Dickens has stated that putting the villain to the foreground takes away from the victim’s story. Surely even some hint of answers in the finale would not be putting him centre. Ivy’s story feels somewhat diminished by the lack of any hard facts. Even now we don’t really know what she went through or why and this lack of information is what takes away from her tale. Nothing else.

And so to the supporting characters, who added to a web of intrigue finely spun, only to be sucked into the hoover of script confusion (there is no such thing as a hoover of script confusion).

• Mr Headmaster man’s relevance faded more and more each week. So much so that he didn’t even turn up here.  Did it matter that White worked at his school in the end? Nope. He was a bit part player in the reunion of Christina and Angus at most.
• Tim. Oh, Timmy Tim Tim. He had so much to say to Ivy and ended up saying nothing. Which is a fitting statement for the minor cast in general. Did he realise he wasn’t in love with Ivy? Who knows? Do we care? Still, he and Yazz are all good again so you could say the only way is up from here. Yes, second week in a row for that joke and not even sorry.
• All Craig’s hints of control issues just came to nothing as he briefly showed up to reunite with Emma and all was forgotten Literally.
• Eliose proved perfunctory TO EVERYTHING.
• At least Elliott and Lisa look set to be together, once she’s forgiven him for nearly putting her in a coma and/or nearly giving her brain damage. It’s difficulties like these all strong relationships need to get through.

Harsh maybe, but it’s also a compliment that the build up was so finely worked that it in terms of arc it fell at the final hurdle. That should not take away from an exceptional portrayal by Jodie Comer throughout and she was backed by a strong cast too. Thirteen has proved intriguing , suspenseful, thrilling and a little bit frustrating in the same way someone you care about has annoying quirks but you forgive them all the same.  As a series conclusion it is deeply unsatisfying but as an hour of television this was drama played with maximum tension and plenty of class. 8/10

 

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.1 (BBC1)

Television drama has come a long way in recent years, the plodding footsteps of The Bill have long petered out and in its place have charged (pun intended) a plethora of police dramas full of fresh twists and plenty of style in what is now a crowded market. Some with more success than others of course, Suspects should be respected for its attempt to turn the genre on it’s scripted head but sadly the execution was a misfire. We love a good cop show even if most of us don’t love cops. In 2014, Line of Duty proved itself a cut above with the extrordinary story of Lyndsey Denton whose shiftiness was played to a masterful degree by Keeley Hawes. This time round there is a different bad guy to steal the limelight and the lines, on first impressions are much less blurred. This time we know our subject is guilty but what stirs the procedural pot is the question of his motivation and the lives he is dragging into this mess.

There is no misfiring here, certainly not by Danny Waldron who charges ahead of his team and shoots suspect Ronan Murphy in cold blood despite the fact he had discarded his gun. Once his team turn up he convinces them with vicious confidence to alter the crime scene. Rod and Leanne fire hollow shots, Hari doesn’t but is implicated by being there. It’s a sensational opening, holding all the tension and action of a Hollywood thriller but with a naturalistic feel that adds to the atmosphere. The car chase isn’t glamourous or overdone and is all the better for it.

The AC-12 are back, the anti police corruption clan (probably not their official title) remain the same in the shape of DS Arnott, DC Fleming, DS Cottan and supt Ted Hastings.. Their entrance signals a complete shift in pacing as an intense twelve minute interogation scene follows. It’s a sensational exchange of accusations and rebuffing. Twelve non stop minutes of manic wordplay and withering looks and it is a brave move so early on. Mays portayal of Waldron is fierce, showcasing the nastiness and brute ingtelligence that might just get him out of this fix. Simply, he is an arrogant bully but one in a position of power and with weapons at his disposal.

After such an intense opening they are surely playing their aces too early? Not a bit of it. The twists unravel as the politics of everyone involved gets more clouded. Hari won’t testify aganst Waldron and it’s clear there’s a history there. Also, Waldron is snooping outside his house with intention to snipe and that isn’t the act of a good friend really is it? Kate joins the firearm squad to spy information and watches the team falling apart under the pressure of the lies. She also nearly accidently shoots a child but Danny stops her in time so at least he has some boundaries, eh?

Not content with one murder in an hour, Waldron kills another man connected to his first victim, raiding his house, kicking him in the balls then God knows what, as we are spared the gory details. He fed the dog though which was nice of him – even if it will starve anyway once he leaves. So is Danny killing off officer’s of an old case that affected him? Did he, in the speech he delivered when ordering his second victim to take off his clothes, recall previous sexual abuse that had hapeneed to him or someone close? When he says “I was being sent to meet him with a gun” he comes across as a one man police extremist, intent on a justice that the law itself can’t bring. Notably he later says to Martin “When this is all done I will suffer for my actions, I’m under no illusion of a happy ending”.

In all this havoc there was little time for personal stories. There was no hint of the troubles that Hastings had last time round and we only get a smooch in the car park for Martin and a brief phone call home from Kate. This was all about setting up a new case and HOW. In sixty minutes the show achieved the impossible and upped its game further. A bit melodramatic? Absolutely. An edge of the seat, gawp at the screen moment of triumph? No doubt about it. Has it jumped the shark? Not at all. It’s jumped a skyscraper which has twelve double decker buses on top and the result is bloody spectatcular. And that conclusion was bloody and spectacular. 10/10

 

Suspects: Episode 1 Review

SUSPECTS: EPISODE 1 REVIEW

The concept of anything original from Channel 5 is as novel as Ant and Dec swapping sides. Remember, this is the station full of American shows and lightweight reality dross. Suspects then is their first original drama in nine years (as to what that was, answers on a postcard please) and they have certainly been pushing the promotion hard. The premise being that this a new take on the cop show, shot documentary style and heavily improvised. The actors given pointers of what the scenes need to achieve but with no script and no prior knowledge of how the others will play their parts.

There is no character backstory or insight into their private lives. D.I Martha Bellamy (Fay Ripley) doesn’t have family troubles at home, D.S Jack Weston (Damien Molony) isn’t an alcoholic and D.C Charlie Steele (Clare-Hope Ashitety) didn’t forget to lock her front door this morning. They are 100% focused on the crime. It’s a brave move and one that might not pay off over time if the audience isn’t emotionally invested in the main cast. Presumably the viewers affections are asked to be placed with the supporting cast but that has its own difficulties if we don’t know who the innocent party are until the end. Time will tell if we learn more about our main protagonists. Curiously, all the other police officers are essentially resigned to being extras.

From the off there’s no messing about and the pacing is Suspects’ greatest strength. We are straight in to the crime scene where a two year old girl has been reported missing and we see a quick fire no nonsense against the clock approach to solving a crime without all the personal politics which feels refreshing on first viewing. We never see forensics at work or eye witnesses accounts. We just get their findings in the form of fingerprints, CCTV and photofit, although these all seemed to arrive very quickly assuming this was all taking place in a twenty four hour period.

In a time when dramas are so slick and polished the style as a whole is a revelation. There are moments they disappear off screen or into the dark and all you hear are voices and then there are moments that take you so close it’s akin to intrusion of personal space. When they’re in interrogation rooms they actually sound like they’re in interrogation rooms, the acoustics helping with the realistic atmosphere. The fly on the wall nature works best when following them around streets or pacing the office but the rocky camera work is a little overdone during static slow paced scenes.

The unrehearsed element is an interesting one but Fay Ripley seemed to struggle, you can see her mind whirring and the result was a lot of undramatic pauses punctuated with many “ums and ers”. It was a good impression of a police officer out of her deph (unless that was the intention). Ashitey is quick and on the ball but was given too little to work with so on this episode’s evidence (sorry) Molony is the main character – a quietly spoken but determined individual who gets the fun bits of chasing people and shouting at them. While to a lesser extent you can see his thinking process as well, he comes out with convincing dialogue and only a couple of lines seemed out of place. On that, it’d be fascinating to watch this without the hindsight of knowing about the lack of script and how different would our opinions be?

Gripping? Not necessarily but there was enough well executed twists to keep up the intrigue. Reportedly filmed in episode order, it’s a good solid start and should improve further once the actors have adapted more to the hurried ad lib nature of filming. 7/10