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Bodyguard

Started by jobotic, August 30, 2018, 04:20:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

BlodwynPig

Quote from: phes on September 24, 2018, 11:16:30 AM
Cue clips of people on Gogglebox screaming and covering their eyes

What's up with the BBC. Has their drama always been largely unimaginitive sub-par shit or is it a recent phenomenon? Tried watching that Killing Eve also and bailed at the brain-meltingly rubbish episode 4.

Cozy shite. Self-promoting bastards too. "NOW, WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN GABBING ON ABOUT IN THE OFFICES UP AND DOWN THE LAND...THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE EVEN TELEVISION OF THE YEAR...JIM'LL FIX IT"

Horrible little organisation.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 24, 2018, 03:24:49 PM
I understood what was going on because it was being described in artificial detail by all the protagonists. In fairness, bomb strapped to me, how do I get out of bomb then nail person who framed me is hardly the most difficult storyline to dip into. I hadn't planned on watching it but it was just on.

I would agree about the dialogue. Decent actors but the interactions were oddly stilted. Not in an enigmatic Shadow Line type way but in a bit of a robotic way.

It was really tense for a while though, although that itself got a bit monotonous. Cut price Rami Malek seemed good.

The tension was akin to Egg Wallace saying "the contestant through to next week's grand final is..." "...." "diffused"

Utter Shit

That seems unfair considering they killed off one of the stars unceremoniously midway through the series...there are very few shows where you genuinely think the main star might die, but this was one of them. Especially in the final episode.

My main gripe was with the suicide. I know it turned out to be relevant to the plot but I just hate that sort of thing. If you show someone shooting himself in the head, graphically, he should die. I though blank ranges were lethal at point blank range anyway, or is that one for the "bullshit lies your parents told you" thread?

jobotic

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 24, 2018, 04:24:13 PM
Cozy shite. Self-promoting bastards too. "NOW, WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN GABBING ON ABOUT IN THE OFFICES UP AND DOWN THE LAND...THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE EVEN TELEVISION OF THE YEAR...JIM'LL FIX IT"

Horrible little organisation.

Yes that is tedious, but don't all organisations do that? Haven't heard ITV or Channel 4 announcers say "and now the concluding part to our nonsensical and rather mediocre drama. Watch it if you must."

Mar and Kuensberg can fuck off though. I do hate that.

gilbertharding

Is ours the only house in Britain what's watching Vanity Fair instead?*



*Yes I do know it's 2018 and no-one is watching tv in real time, but I've missed every episode of BodyGuard and have no fear at all that I'm 'missing out'. Can't be arsed at this point to 'catch up'.

gilbertharding

#35
...

BlodwynPig

#36
...

Shoulders?-Stomach!

BBC One doing a "ooh everyone was gripped last night" piece on the 6 O Clock News is the self-aggrandizing shite I'd expect from ITV and co.

Utter Shit

Seems weird that it's made the news and the fact it's the BBC news makes it look like a convenient bit of tongue-arsing, but the viewing figures have been mental - I read earlier that last night's episode had the biggest viewership for a drama in a decade. The Guardian had a 'proper' article about it treating it as news too.

BlodwynPig

Self-fulfilling prophelaticacy

I said to my mum.. i bet the 10:15 news leads with thebodyguard story last night. Out by less than a day

Phil_A

Quote from: buzby on September 24, 2018, 08:13:38 AM
I do wonder if the original script had the secret services actually behind it all but Mercurio was asked to change it to a more conventional 'evil Muslim bomber' during the commissioning process as the BBC can't cast aspersions on 'them'. Is Budd now going to be some kind of British answer to Jack Bauer for the next series?

Oddly I had the same feeling, it was like some senior executive had gone in with a big red pen and just crossed out huge chunks of the original script. The weirdest part was Gina McKee's character's motivation completely changing between scenes - at one point during the bomb sequence she appeared to be working under orders to pin Budd for the whole murder plot, implying she had been the inside (wo)man all along. One of the other characters even voices this suspicion. And yet in the very next scene she's back at HQ(how on earth did she get there so fast?) laying into the security services. It doesn't make any sense for her to be there as she's the senior officer at the incident which at that point is still going on! The dialogue in that scene was just weird as well, just spelling everything out in the most simplistic terms. It stinks of a last minute re-write.

There were so many loose ends that I felt sure they would leave some kind of hook for a future series, but it felt like every potentially interesting avenue it could've gone down was abandoned in favour of a pat easy ending.

Utter Shit

The scene where Nadia revealed her true colours was so silly. The way the sneering smile came over here face was like something out of a cartoon.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Utter Shit on September 24, 2018, 10:23:48 PM
The scene where Nadia revealed her true colours was so silly. The way the sneering smile came over here face was like something out of a cartoon.

Utterly absurd, and as others have said, totally at odds with what the show was supposedly about: don't trust the government, don't trust everything you read in the papers, don't blindly assume that all Muslims are terrorists. Nadia turning out to be an actual terrorist didn't work as a clever twist, it just confirmed the bigoted attitudes of cunts. That, surely, wasn't Mercurio's intention?

Mobius

Yeah the Nadia twist was silly, not sure it was needed as there was more than enough there with the police/security services/gangsters/pissed of war vets.

But overall really enjoyed the show. Whets your appetite for a bit more Line of Duty...

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 24, 2018, 03:24:49 PM
I understood what was going on because it was being described in artificial detail by all the protagonists. In fairness, bomb strapped to me, how do I get out of bomb then nail person who framed me is hardly the most difficult storyline to dip into. I hadn't planned on watching it but it was just on.

Fair enough, that last episode was hardly subtle. It could be enjoyed as a standalone hour of drama, especially as most of it revolved around a tense set-piece where the high stakes couldn't be more obvious.

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 24, 2018, 03:24:49 PM
I would agree about the dialogue. Decent actors but the interactions were oddly stilted. Not in an enigmatic Shadow Line type way but in a bit of a robotic way.

I loved The Shadow Line, but The Honourable Woman and Black Earth Rising suggest that Hugo Blick isn't very good at writing straight-faced political thrillers. He's more at home with strange, stylised, darkly comic dramas which owe a debt to Dennis Potter and John le Carre. His subsequent work contains fleeting elements of that style, but it comes across as rather leaden and po-faced otherwise. 

Anyway, I agree that there was nothing wrong with the acting in Bodyguard. Richard Madden was particularly good. There goes an actor who knows how to convincingly portray panic, decency, vulnerability and "ah, fuck, it's all turned to shit" despair, often without saying a word.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Rev+ on September 24, 2018, 12:36:14 AM
The whole thing was so clearly written around that park scene in the final episode.  You know that was the idea - that one moment - with the rest of the story constructed around it.  Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the story itself felt like a bit of a jumble.

I agree. I suspect that Mercurio wrote the tense book-ending set pieces - which were very effective in isolation - and then joined up the dots to link them together.

This is all supposition, of course, but Budd rescuing Nadia felt like Mercurio's attempt to A) write an incredibly suspenseful opening scene, and B) subvert the expectations of Daily Mail readers by pointing out that suicide bombers are often terrified victims, as damaged and bereft of hope as Are Brave Boys.

The Budd-bomb set-piece in episode 6 was an attempted callback to that original point, but the reveal that Nadia was a 'baddie' undermined and muddied Mercurio's presumably well-intentioned message.

A mess, basically, but enjoyable enough as a piece of slick, flawed, morally inconsistent piece of 24-style entertainment.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 25, 2018, 12:05:01 AM


Fair enough, that last episode was hardly subtle. It could be enjoyed as a standalone hour of drama, especially as most of it revolved around a tense set-piece where the high stakes couldn't be more obvious.


I loved The Shadow Line, but The Honourable Woman and Black Earth Rising suggest that Hugo Blick isn't very good at writing straight-faced political thrillers. He's more at home with strange, stylised, darkly comic dramas which owe a debt to Dennis Potter and John le Carre. His subsequent work contains fleeting elements of that style, but it comes across as rather leaden and po-faced otherwise. 

Anyway, I agree that there was nothing wrong with the acting in Bodyguard. Richard Madden was particularly good. There goes an actor who knows how to convincingly portray panic, decency, vulnerability and "ah, fuck, it's all turned to shit" despair, often without saying a word.

It says a lot about modern tv that you hail Madden - if he got any more wooden he'd have been riding out of a mine on the back of a pony.

There were times i thought i was watching Hollyoaks

BlodwynPig

And those trailers for Doctor Who confirm my senility

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

As already pointed out by others,  the two scenes involving the confessions of Mrs. Brittas and the Naughty Muslim Bomber Woman were sheer exposition, just people sat there explaining the final bit of the plot for Old Boddo and his inconsistent haircut and us, the humble viewers. Yer man Mercutio may as well have given NMBW a tall top hat and wax moustache to twirl, as she gave her evil genius account of herself . What a load of overhyped bollocks. Is " Line Of Duty " better than this ?  Otherwise, I'm thinking Jed Mercutio is a tad on the overrated side as a writer.
Also,  having been a little sceptical initially, have just finished binge watching Killing Eve, which is a load better than the series what this very thread is the subject of, due to being knowingly silly and not expecting the viewer to take any aspect of it seriously at all. A tad inconsistent - the episodes not written by Fleabag Poshbird are the weakest- but well worth watching.


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 25, 2018, 07:42:58 AM
It says a lot about modern tv that you hail Madden - if he got any more wooden he'd have been riding out of a mine on the back of a pony.

There were times i thought i was watching Hollyoaks

Appreciating that Richard Madden is a good actor doesn't say anything about modern TV in the slightest. You're such a bloody curmudgeon when it comes to talking about television, Blodwyn. Quite patronising too.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 25, 2018, 10:49:07 AM
Appreciating that Richard Madden is a good actor doesn't say anything about modern TV in the slightest. You're such a bloody curmudgeon when it comes to talking about television, Blodwyn. Quite patronising too.

Better or Worse than Wollaston?

Can a man not be a curmudgeon amongst his friends and allies?

Where for the curmudgeon in times of joy and hope!?

neveragain


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 25, 2018, 12:24:12 PM
Better or Worse than Wollaston?

Can a man not be a curmudgeon amongst his friends and allies?

Where for the curmudgeon in times of joy and hope!?

Yes, soz. Curmudge away.

Better than Wollaston, obviously.

Alberon

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 24, 2018, 11:49:08 PM
Utterly absurd, and as others have said, totally at odds with what the show was supposedly about: don't trust the government, don't trust everything you read in the papers, don't blindly assume that all Muslims are terrorists. Nadia turning out to be an actual terrorist didn't work as a clever twist, it just confirmed the bigoted attitudes of cunts. That, surely, wasn't Mercurio's intention?


I suspect what he was going for was that we shouldn't assume all muslim women are victims. That simply because they wear the headscarf doesn't make them in itself submissive. The problem is that the way that was written she should have had a villian's moustache she could twirl while laughing evilly.

Both confessions were a bit too Agatha Christie really and the end was tied up far too neatly in a big bow.

Of course, the whole thing has been obviously bobbins (if entertaing bobbins) from episode one, but the criminal's end plot of sticking him in a suicide vest was clearly far more complicated than neccessary. Just make it look like suicide and plant some incriminating evidence around the body. God knows, Budd spent most of the series crashing around making himself look guilty as fuck so the police would readily believe it.

big al

Quote from: Alberon on September 25, 2018, 07:16:21 PM
I suspect what he was going for was that we shouldn't assume all muslim women are victims. That simply because they wear the headscarf doesn't make them in itself submissive. The problem is that the way that was written she should have had a villian's moustache she could twirl while laughing evilly.

Both confessions were a bit too Agatha Christie really and the end was tied up far too neatly in a big bow.

Of course, the whole thing has been obviously bobbins (if entertaing bobbins) from episode one, but the criminal's end plot of sticking him in a suicide vest was clearly far more complicated than neccessary. Just make it look like suicide and plant some incriminating evidence around the body. God knows, Budd spent most of the series crashing around making himself look guilty as fuck so the police would readily believe it.

It was entertaining, I feel like it was the TV equivalent of an airport novel or chick lit, in that the characters weren't really fleshed out, and some things made no sense, (why was Budd allowed to remain an investigating officer in a case he was both the victim, witness and at one point suspect in?) and the plot became ridiculous, but you continued watching because you need to see how it all pans out.

That said, I was a little disappointed with the ending, purely because I found the political machinations the most interesting thing about it, so to have it just being organised crime and the kind of terrorism we're used to, with all the politics being hand waved away as an aside, felt a bit of a let down.

rasta-spouse

Just binged the last three eps. Pretty disappointing, I thought this was going to go somewhere good. The car/sniper scene in ep2 really lead me to believe this was going to be a bbc thing that delivered quality tension and great action pieces.

The whole suicide vest thing didn't work - would they really let him walk all the way home in it? Nope. And then the "organised crime" ending was rather damp.

Utter Shit

Quote from: Alberon on September 25, 2018, 07:16:21 PM
I suspect what he was going for was that we shouldn't assume all muslim women are victims.

Obviously it was only six episodes so there isn't always time for nuance, but they could have presented that idea better. If the point was intended to be "not all Muslim women are victims", the implication was "not all Muslim women are victims...look, some of them are terrorists".

rasta-spouse

I thought the muslim lady's heel turn had feminist leanings in its authorship. But she might as well have pulled off a rubber face mask to reveal Simon Pegg because I wasn't buying any of it, needless twists tend to provoke the question "and???".

This show, and the recent Jack Ryan could do with being better researched. Then we'd have something thrilling and thought-provoking.

wooders1978

Bunch of crap - only made it to when Hayes showed up mind - the diversity felt to forced for my liking though, a bit too much of a distraction really