This series started promisingly with the always interesting Keeley Hawes convincing as Julia Montague, a rather patronising Conservative Home Secretary.
who is pushing a controversial new counter-terrorism bill through parliament.
Richard Madden as her Bodyguard Budd does ok considering he has to contend with a character who in turns is conscientious, lucid, smart, naive, stupid and downright creepy. His more negative character traits are superficially dismissed as 'problems', originating from trauma suffered in active service
In the latter episodes, one can forgive much of the cast when they struggle to convince, because their main function is simply to pass on information to the audience and explain what is going on. Episode 5 was particularly frustrating in this regard, giving the viewer a headache with an hour of almost endless exposition. Nor is there anything inventive or humorous in the dialogue or the performances, making it something of a trial to sit through. However the script cannot be blamed for Nina Toussaint-White's terrible miscasting as someone we are supposed to believe was an experienced detective. The director should have demanded more from her than a constant, pained expression. She brings nothing else to the role at all.
How different to the promising first episode, where silences, measured pauses and slow build-ups created a tension-filled atmosphere with ease. The show started to slip when Montague and Budd's relationship took a ludicrously unbelievable turn, and one which was quite unnecessary for the overall story. It would have been so much more powerful to leave their relationship professional with nothing more than hints at an ever-growing friendship and mutual respect, but no, the writers couldn't resist going over the edge and it was all downhill from there.
The setting is unrecognisable as modern-day London with snipers, political assassinations and attacks on schools; it feels more like a war zone, but the dull and cliched news reports - which were put there presumably to give the series some authenticity, actually have the reverse effect, treating these catastrophic events like business-as-usual.
The final episode was the most ridiculous, which managed both to be highly far-fetched and nonsensical.
Although there were 3 or 4 scenes in this series that were amongst the most gripping I have seen on TV, they cannot make up for the amount of time where little is happening beyond tired descriptions of an increasingly implausible plot.
Richard Madden as her Bodyguard Budd does ok considering he has to contend with a character who in turns is conscientious, lucid, smart, naive, stupid and downright creepy. His more negative character traits are superficially dismissed as 'problems', originating from trauma suffered in active service
In the latter episodes, one can forgive much of the cast when they struggle to convince, because their main function is simply to pass on information to the audience and explain what is going on. Episode 5 was particularly frustrating in this regard, giving the viewer a headache with an hour of almost endless exposition. Nor is there anything inventive or humorous in the dialogue or the performances, making it something of a trial to sit through. However the script cannot be blamed for Nina Toussaint-White's terrible miscasting as someone we are supposed to believe was an experienced detective. The director should have demanded more from her than a constant, pained expression. She brings nothing else to the role at all.
How different to the promising first episode, where silences, measured pauses and slow build-ups created a tension-filled atmosphere with ease. The show started to slip when Montague and Budd's relationship took a ludicrously unbelievable turn, and one which was quite unnecessary for the overall story. It would have been so much more powerful to leave their relationship professional with nothing more than hints at an ever-growing friendship and mutual respect, but no, the writers couldn't resist going over the edge and it was all downhill from there.
The setting is unrecognisable as modern-day London with snipers, political assassinations and attacks on schools; it feels more like a war zone, but the dull and cliched news reports - which were put there presumably to give the series some authenticity, actually have the reverse effect, treating these catastrophic events like business-as-usual.
The final episode was the most ridiculous, which managed both to be highly far-fetched and nonsensical.
Although there were 3 or 4 scenes in this series that were amongst the most gripping I have seen on TV, they cannot make up for the amount of time where little is happening beyond tired descriptions of an increasingly implausible plot.