Hometown

Hometown: A Killing

Mobeen Azhar looked at his hometown Huddersfield, and was totally shocked at what he found.

This was first rate investigative journalism, he touched on the root causes and touched on the cure. It is the case that we need stiffer sentencing to take these criminals of the street for most of their adult lives, the allure of quick money was a factor for the highwayman and it is a reality today.

The crime does not come from the drugs per se but from disputes over money, it could be any product. Also in Whitechapel hundreds of young Asian women are heroin addicts, drug taking is not race specific.

If I was to make a comment I would like Mobeen to consider intellectually is there such a thing as community. Whether we say black, white, Asian, drag artists or teachers. Is there really a sisterhood for women or is every black person a brother. After that perhaps, habit, tradition and culture needs to be challenged as I see a whole collection of tropes being applied in his attempt to make sense of the world.

Either way I think he is great.

I really wanted to get a lot out of this show, but it failed so completely.

The first episode would be a 7 as it focuses on Mobeen's own personal response to what has happened, but it quickly grinds to a halt when it is time to do some real journalism and truly connect and understand the challenges of what is occurring.

Episodes are filled with grand assumptions and tenuous links to create a feeling of progress when nothing is really happening. He attempts to use unsubstantiated 'interviews' and 'research' that is rarely or even no way connected to the actual premise of the show under the guise that he is uncovering something big and shocking... when they are usually not even based in Huddersfield.

The reality is that it just feels like Mobeen doesn't have the ability, connections and local understanding to pull off the premise of the show. This becomes apparent in episodes 7 and 8 when he revisits the area and comes up empty handed as it feels like no one in Huddersfield wants to talk to him. The only interesting moments is when he recounts what he has heard in court about Fizzy.

The first episodes and the follow up had the premise of following up on two people who died with ties to drugs and crimes to really understand who they were, how they got to where they were and the community they came from.

None of that happened.