The Penitent - Part 1

It used to be Silent Witness was an eminently watchable series. It had tight writing, solid acting and intriguing story lines. No more. The dialog is infantile. The acting unnatural and stagey. But most of all, in this case especially, the guilty party is presented to us in the first half hour. It spoils the rest of the story. There's no mystery who the villain is. But that is just the beginning of plot holes, ridiculous coincidences, stereotypes, sloppy editing and boring conversations. I wonder if the folks behind this series studied the demographics and decided the average Silent Witness viewer has an IQ of 100 or below.

I have watched this series from the beginning and as a scientist myself, was struck by the fact that it was focused on science and not emotional personal dilemmas for a change. However, this seems to have been lost as the series has continued and now we are back to the too frequent schlock of personal relationships taking precedence over science. To me this is a death knell for the show for those of us that watch it for the SCIENCE!

This show was built around pathology and forensics and how it is all part of a crime investigation. The police are the ones that run the investigation while the pathologists and forensic specialists unearth facts from the bodies and recovered items that aid the police. Pathologists are NOT police detectives themselves. Sure they can be creative in finding items around crime scenes for analysis but there are limits!

I find it sad that the series has taken this very unfortunate turn as I suspect that many others will stop watching the show given it has lost its raison d'etre.

I've loved this series until this season aired. It's predictable and poorly planned. The plot falls flat and the characters are boring. If the next episode is as bad as the first three, sadly I won't be watching any further. The show seems empty and not as rich as previous seasons. Also the way the characters seem to imagine what happened to the victims seem like a cheap filming method. There's no wanting more from this season. Something is missing. Maybe the ideas have dried up or was written in haste with only the need to get it on air mattering. Whatever the reason for this season's total failure to captivate, I won't be wasting my time on it further.

Stop, Stop with this ridiculous new version of Silent Witness! Can't watch another show! What was once the most brilliant Show has been ruined, and it is cringeworthy to watch any further episodes. So unrealistic now. Obviously a Limited Budget for extra and good actors like the old episodes. I'm one disappointed and sad fan. Please put this show out of its misery Time to go back to old series to remember how great Silent Witness once was and how the characters were given brains, haha. Cannot even believe I've taken time out to do this review. I usually just score. But give us, the viewers some credit!!

'Everything we do is maybe.'

The team are called in when a man falls to his death at an office block, The Lyell team instantly lock swords with The NCA.

Fair play to the production team and actors, after the six part story back last summer, a full series has followed just six months later.

It's a very good series opener, very little focus on Nikki and Jack, it was almost exclusively focused on the story, the death of the two men. Perhaps a little pedestrian to begin with, it wasn't long before it opened up into a pretty dramatic affair.

The scene with the pigs, that was pretty grim, although I did enjoy the various swine jokes.

I can see Velvy becoming an interesting character as time goes on, he's definitely a little quirky to begin with, I liked him.

How great to see Sophia Myles here, what an underrated talent she is, a real presence. Really liked Chloe also, I hope we see more from here.

Hard to believe this show's been going as long as it has, on this evidence though, it has a lot of life left in it yet.

8/10.