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March 28, 2024, 01:45:45 PM

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Sixth series of Line Of Duty on BBC 21st March

Started by Fambo Number Mive, February 27, 2021, 10:19:18 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

BlodwynPig

Quote from: mjwilson on April 19, 2021, 09:00:53 PM
I would be surprised if someone else hasn't entered the yard and fired at least one of the shots.

Precis. ...and killed Jane McDonald.

sevendaughters

#271
Me and the Mrs watched the first two episodes (edit: of the whole thing) this evening. I thought it was so unbelievably bad. The plot itself fairly engaging in a soapy way, a page turner. But everything else was so deeply annoying, from the constant on the nose and tin-eared dialogue, to the painfully easy ciphers for the writer's hatred of liberal influence in law and poor people, to the abysmal and stilted acting from a cast of otherwise very good actors from some of the best shows this country has ever produced, to the constant lousy shakycam and over-keen musical score, and the overt and continuous plagiarism from The Wire. Does this get better? I'm starting to doubt my own sanity and taste if this is a show getting all the plaudits it is getting.

Mobius

All of those things you listed, are why it's good

Ray Travez

it's confusing. It's the Jill Dando case, except it isn't quite, and it turns out NotJillDando may have been murdered to cover for someone in the Stephen Lawrence case, except it isn't quite the Stephen Lawrence case, it's the Lawrence Christopher case, an entirely different yet strangely similar fictional case. However, despite it being fictional, the real life Jimmy Savile is involved. Jimmy Savile, a real person, knew Cllr Roach, a fictional person, and something something Tommy Hunter, who I can remember nothing about except he was a Very Bad Man and possibly died in a ambulance.

Feel like I'm studying for an a-level in something. I mean, what we are getting, essentially, is Jed Mercurio's Grand Theory of Everything.

Ray Travez

AND ANOTHER THING

if pilkington is such a hot-shot pro-assassin, who can just creep up on people and pop a cap in the back of their brain, like he presumably did to gail vella, and demonstrated quite ably with Jo Donaldson, why does he
a) lure Kate to a discreet location when it's obviously unnecessary
b) completely fuck up his MO by appearing to her face rather than behind her, without a mask, and also several yards away?

Tend to think of this series as entertaining guff, though it's in danger of becoming entertaining guff that is also quite hard work

Hat FM

Quote from: Ray Travez on April 20, 2021, 12:25:39 AM
AND ANOTHER THING

if pilkington is such a hot-shot pro-assassin, who can just creep up on people and pop a cap in the back of their brain, like he presumably did to gail vella, and demonstrated quite ably with Jo Donaldson, why does he
a) lure Kate to a discreet location when it's obviously unnecessary
b) completely fuck up his MO by appearing to her face rather than behind her, without a mask, and also several yards away?

Tend to think of this series as entertaining guff, though it's in danger of becoming entertaining guff that is also quite hard work

just what i was thinking. also, if you are aware that a gang has put a hit on you and one of them is facing you with a gun, dont you just shoot them rather than reason with them?

sevendaughters

while you're all on the series 6 wtfs i'm still boggling how an entire plot pathway in s1 begins because a violent street mugger put in a complaint that Gates had received a free breakfast, pure fucking bobbins

BeardFaceMan

It's odd, this is definitely one show where you can say the whole is far more than the sum of it's parts. I can't really explain why either.

Waking Life

It's an entertaining police procedural, nothing more. It does require a lot of suspension of disbelief, but from reading this year's thread, it seems that expectations are higher than usual (probably the external hype too). As another poster has pointed out, it's been pretty ridiculous from the get go (I seem to remember Tommy Hunter being a ridiculous villain), particularly with the action scenes and some of the season finales. I find it as entertaining as something like Lost or Life on Mars.

Somebody had recommended I watch it after Series 2, mainly based on the interview episodes. Series 2 was a massive improvement on the first and was probably the strongest the show got (although Thandiwe Newton series came close). The interview episodes reminded me of that murder suspect episode from the first series of Homicide.

I've enjoyed this series but it does seem to be setting itself up as the last one, with
Spoiler alert
presumably the current Chief Constable being the final big bad, which takes it all the way back to the Series 1 opener
[close]
. They seem to be trying to tie up all the different series too, somewhat clumsily. I wonder if they'll try to flog it though given the viewing figures that the BBC are obviously pleased with.


sevendaughters

Mrs 7D has carried on and I just LOVED (hated, thought it was the most disgusting piece of vile telly in years) when the gobby girl with the kid criminal punched the down's syndrome man in his flat while a giggling third member pissed on his plants. wonderful stuff.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: sevendaughters on April 20, 2021, 10:53:59 PM
Mrs 7D has carried on and I just LOVED (hated, thought it was the most disgusting piece of vile telly in years) when the gobby girl with the kid criminal punched the down's syndrome man in his flat while a giggling third member pissed on his plants. wonderful stuff.

Punching down's

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Turns out there are seven episodes in this series instead of the usual six. Just thought I should mention that for anyone expecting some sort of resolution on Sunday.

Waking Life

Yeah I noticed that too, which is why I also thought they were going to tie up the show.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

The way Mercurio has tried to tie everything together in this series does perhaps suggest that he's finally putting it to bed. However, in a recent interview with the Radio Times he sounded like he'd be up for milking this cash cow until its udders are raw and bleeding writing another one.

Quote"We're in a situation where it's not entirely clear that there will be a seventh series. We would hope there could be, but we're having to do our planning coming out of COVID and a whole bunch of other things."

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Apologies, Waking Life, I've only just read your post from yesterday. A post in which you said everything I just said, but better and in more detail.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on April 21, 2021, 05:06:07 PM
Turns out there are seven episodes in this series instead of the usual six. Just thought I should mention that for anyone expecting some sort of resolution on Sunday.

thought there had only been 3 episodes, everything bleeding into each other

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I bet you're worried about the fate of Ryan, who you love.

BlodwynPig


Ballad of Ballard Berkley


BeardFaceMan

I was looking forward to a good old fashioned interview scene but Carmichael is too much of a pantomime villain for it to be enjoyable. Thank fuck there's only one episode left.

beanheadmcginty


Spode

Fair play to James Nesbitt. If you'd have told me before this series aired that he'd appear in 2 episodes and they'd be two of the worst in the entire history of the show, I wouldn't have been surprised. but to do it purely via osmosis, with no speaking part at all. Incredible effort.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on April 25, 2021, 10:04:39 PM
She won't be a baddie though will she?

That's the problem, I think she's so over the top with her badness that it's too obvious that she's the bad guy, so she won't be. But then she's so over the top that if she is the bad guy it will be equally crap. Just a crap character all round, really.

jobotic

Carmichael is awful. Her attempts to shut stuff down are so obvious. Perhaps its deliberately so but that's ridiculous.

elliszeroed

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on April 25, 2021, 10:03:25 PM
I was looking forward to a good old fashioned interview scene but Carmichael is too much of a pantomime villain for it to be enjoyable. Thank fuck there's only one episode left.

Yes. She seems far too one-note, a clear obstacle for the protagonists,  to feel like a real character in this overly-dramatic world. It seems clear at this point that Steves old boss is the ultimate villain, but who knows?

Crabwalk

^ It certainly appears that he's the last plausible candidate standing (apart from Andrea Wise). Unless there's an audacious and ludicrous twist, the final episode looks like being a showdown between Hastings and Osborne.

God, it needs to end though. It's fun enough but it's a shadow of the show it was in the first three series. It started out like 'Bodies' and it's ended up more like 'The Bodyguard'.


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

That lengthy interrogation scene with Jo sums up what's gone wrong with this series. They're usually compelling set-pieces, but it felt like something Mercurio thought he should include because "people like them, let's make more of them." It just dragged on forever and added very little to the plot.

We were presumably supposed to be gripped by Ted getting annoyed at Jo's "no comment" stonewalling and Carmichael's blatant unwillingness to address the bigger picture - Mercurio attempting a bit of meta-commentary on what the viewer was experiencing - but it didn't work. I shared Ted's exasperation, but not in an entertaining way.

And that wink-emoji gag towards the end when Ted basically said, "Oh for fuck's sake, I can't take much more of this endlessly convoluted bollocks." That would only be funny if you were having a whale of a time trying to piece it all together. Instead I found myself thinking, "You and me both, Ted, you catchphrase-spouting parody of yourself."

BlodwynPig

Quote from: jobotic on April 25, 2021, 10:18:28 PM
Carmichael is awful. Her attempts to shut stuff down are so obvious. Perhaps its deliberately so but that's ridiculous.

Doesnt the actress play this character in everything she does?

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on April 26, 2021, 02:20:04 AM
That lengthy interrogation scene with Jo sums up what's gone wrong with this series. They're usually compelling set-pieces, but it felt like something Mercurio thought he should include because "people like them, let's make more of them." It just dragged on forever and added very little to the plot.

We were presumably supposed to be gripped by Ted getting annoyed at Jo's "no comment" stonewalling and Carmichael's blatant unwillingness to address the bigger picture - Mercurio attempting a bit of meta-commentary on what the viewer was experiencing - but it didn't work. I shared Ted's exasperation, but not in an entertaining way.

And that wink-emoji gag towards the end when Ted basically said, "Oh for fuck's sake, I can't take much more of this endlessly convoluted bollocks." That would only be funny if you were having a whale of a time trying to piece it all together. Instead I found myself thinking, "You and me both, Ted, you catchphrase-spouting parody of yourself."

The worst part was the fact that Steve had a high end motor stashed away for Fleming to use for a crappy unbelievable car chase. Ive seen more crafted reality in The Hobbit

Hat FM

Quote from: BlodwynPig on April 26, 2021, 07:54:22 AM
The worst part was the fact that Steve had a high end motor stashed away for Fleming to use for a crappy unbelievable car chase. Ive seen more crafted reality in The Hobbit

and that she has one stashed away for him at her place! as if!