User Reviews

When Ian arrives in the highlands for Johnners', his soon-to-be brother in law's, stag do and finds nobody there to meet him he should have got the idea that he was going to have a terrible weekend… he couldn't have guessed how bad though. He manages to get a taxi to where the others are and finds them to be a bunch of obnoxious city wide boys who quickly start picking on him. They have hired a local gamekeeper to take them stag hunting but due to the weather he advises them against it; they are determined though and he drives them into the woods… then abandons then. The group is understandably annoyed but this turns to terror when one of their number is harpooned and dragged into the trees! As the weekend progresses their numbers are whittled down in a variety of ways. They are convinced that the gamekeeper is hunting them but could it be somebody else; or even somebody within the group?

This was advertised as a comedy but if you are expecting lots of jokes or wackiness you are in for a shock; the humour is as black as pitch and there is genuine tension once the mystery killer starts killing off the members of the group. Apart from Ian the characters are fairly unsympathetic at first but over the course of the series we get to know them better and learn that some of them aren't as bad as we thought… just before they die. The remote highland location and the oppressive weather combine to create a great atmosphere where the tension is rarely broken… and when it is that often means something bad is about to happen. The identity of the killer can't be guessed but the person they are working with is mildly surprising… only mildly because by the time it is revealed there aren't many people left. The cast, which includes several familiar faces, does a fine job making us believe in the situation but just because a character is played by somebody is played by somebody familiar doesn't mean they will last very long. There are of course some clichés and silly moments but not enough to spoil this viewer's enjoyment. Overall I found this to be tenser than I expected and well worth watching.

Stag is a fantastic mini-series. It's got good acting-, good- dialogue, good-(dark) humour. It's great. But, the last episode was a bit of a, how do I say this? Downfall.

A lot of things didn't really make sense. I mean, the scene where Johnners is about to shoot the moss-covered, murderous psychopath, Ledge yells "SHOOT!" And Johnners gets shot in the leg. And NO ONE seems to question why the moss-covered, murderous psychopath who shows no mercy, shot Johnners in the leg? At fairly close range?

Then we get to who the moss-covered, murderous psychopath is (and the clichés). To be honest, I didn't really mind who it was, I just wanted it to be someone within the Stag Party. And it was... sort of.

I basically counted two clichés. I know that's not a very big number and I know that every movie, TV and mini-series has clichés, but it's always nice to point them out:

1: Sophie (our moss-covered, murderous you get the picture) let's Ian go and and makes the deal of pretending that they never saw each other. Question: Why is she doing that? I mean, sure, he was telling her how Johnners betrayed Fran (Ian's sister and Johnners wife-to- be) and how he might betray her, too, but why believe him? I mean, he'll say anything to survive and get away from her. So why trust him? Because he's short?

2: The death of Johnners. Well, not his death, exactly, just the fact that Sophie was doing it. Ian places a bag over his head, Sophie comes in (carrying total silence) and hey-ho-what do you know, Johnners starts talking badly about her. Sophie gets angry, lets Ian go and puts Johnners through a meat-mincer. And that my friends, is a giant cliché I hate seeing. Not the meat-mincer part, the 'talking badly about me ally' part.

Anyway, I don't want to bang on but, hey, it is a review. Oh, and if you were to ask me which death was my favourite? Cosmo's. That was beautiful. Sad and bloody and scary but, beautiful.

Okay, now I'm starting to sound weird. Sorry.

The presence of Reece Shearsmith who plays bitter accountant Wendy rather gives you the nod that this will be a black comedy which soon turns into a macabre survival comedy thriller.

Jim Howick plays every-man Ian, a nice geography teacher who is ill at ease at a highland stag do full of posh, rich loutish bankers who either despise him or ignore him.

Ian quickly gathers he does not belong and should not had come but he is the bride's brother. As they go hunting it turns out that they are the prey as one by one they meet gruesome deaths.

As the grisly death toll mounts it is apparent that some of the friends in the group only have paper thin friendships and sordid secrets. Something from their past has returned to haunt them. Ian just seems to be an innocent bystander in the crossfire.

The inspiration for Stag are comedies like Hot Fuzz, some of the characters are very dislikable, the humour, the violence and the thriller element are not always well balanced. Once you get into it, the television series was rather enjoyable and Shearsmith who also co-writes for 'Inside No 9' will approve of the twist ending.

The first point I'd make is how on earth do you classify Stag in terms of genre, as it crosses over into so many, it's that originality that perhaps made Stag such a winner. Before it started I had a pre conceived idea that it be similar to the Martin Clunes film with the same name, wrong! Stag is And then there were none, meets league of Gentlemen, meets Hot Fuzz. The humour is dark and subtle, the suspense is actually really well done and edgy. It's full of twists, constantly surprising, and the outcome will definitely have you guessing right through to the very end. Brilliantly acted by the entire cast, Rufus Jones and JJ Feild I thought were both particularly good. I found this on DVD, I had no idea this had been on, I later learned it was broadcast on Saturday nights, maybe that accounts for it having slipped past.

9/10 A winner.

This series shows some promise at the outset but it's undermined by a lack of credibility; almost all of the decisions taken are completely ludicrous. Granted it's a stag weekend and granted it's a group that doesn't know each other as well as is made out at the start but this is a group that is ostensibly educated/intelligent - why they decide to continually split up and head to the forest, never use their phones is beyond me. It's full of obvious flaws, how does Cosmo's broken foot heal so quickly, how do they all sober up from drugs/full bottle of wine so instantaneously, Mexican's demise is idiotic - I won't even go into the technical inaccuracies (7.62mm would easily pierce a car door as just one example. I can grant a bit of artistic license but the series doesn't show enough comedy, horror or suspense to excuse the completely idiotic decisions that are taken throughout; this leaves the plot lacking realism and credibility despite a pretty good performance from Jim Howick. Overall: plot incoherent; camera work laughable; acting mixed.

I absolutely loved this. The hangover meets black comedy - love the deadpan esp when the Aussie shows up. Carry on. Joy if you love comedy horror

I watched this with an open mind, I really did, but even after 10 minutes I could see how poorly written this was not funny (at all) and dull/unoriginal. With so much 'banter' in the dialogue, its as if the writers have never been out/engaged in any banter whatsoever. Just moment after moment of lot hoes and stupidity. E.g after the 1st death of one of their friends, it takes about 5 minutes before they forget and are singing/having a good time again, and then they seem surprised/shocked when something else happens. Ridiculous. This is beneath the BBC. Id probably not have left a review at all had it been on ITV!

Stag do, bunch of men go away to Scotland. Killer on the loose seems set on hunting them down. Cue long list of false leads that in retrospect make no sense, and a plot that unfolds to leave you thinking why bother.

Utter tosh, although the acting was fine, the whole thing was destroyed by being so silly.

We watched this 3-part series yesterday on BBC Canada and found it incredibly putrid compared with the great TV that we normally associate with the UK. In addition to what earlier reviewers have said about the inconsistencies, (spoiler alert) what was Cosmo's motivation in turning on the gas jets in the crofter's home if he wasn't the killer? Why didn't the crofter alert the authorities when he found the body hanging upside down in his home - and why did the killer put it there in the first place? And how was it this band of yobs could wander around the highlands for so long without encountering anyone else? Incredible.

Only gave it a 3 (rather than a 1) because the acting wasn't half bad given the ridiculous plot.

I watched the first episode expecting to watch a thriller based on reviews. However, from the beginning every character in the show was quite annoying. There was no character that I could like and you do not feel like keep watching when that happens. The way they behave amid unexpected deaths of their colleagues seemed implausible and silly. They act more like preschool kids rather than grown up men.