The Box

WHY?, This should have been a great showing, especially when you consider previous roles played by Anna Friel.

SHE is actually good in this!, BUT the script lets it down Very Badly.

Production values are about average, the camera work is above average and in all, the acting is quite good.

It's quite hard to find good to say about this because of awful script writing.

To Conclude, Note to the production company or companies, Please invest more in decent scripts!.

It would make sense to invest more in production and script writers with even some talent, than to give the lead Actor/s the bulk of finances.

Right from the opening credits & throughout, the The Box is an uncomfortable watch, with tedious & dark scenes, accents which obviously aren't American, although they're supposed to be & all underlined by miserable music & overacted performances.

Friel was long ago over promoted from her British soap opera beginnings & her short comings are left wide open & on view here as there's no one around to support her with any glimmer of talent. The clumsily inserted ID politics & ridiculous man's suit add to the unintended comedy.

The blurb for the show sounds great, but getting anywhere near this story means wading through a morass of dreary nonsense. One wonders what happened to the 'Entertainment Business', as modern Hollywood seems bent on entertaining no one.

Nothing about this show works. The writing is bizarre, the accents are wild, and the single indoor set the whole thing takes place on is like some community theatre idea of what an American police station looks like. Oh and the costumes, my god, the costumes. Hilarious.

The whole thing feels like a cutaway joke from 30 Rock.

If you like the idea of Anna Friel playing a detective with unmanaged PTSD, watch Marcella instead.

Feels like a parody of all bad crimeshows ever made - but sadly its not.. Ridicilous dialogue and a mumbling Peter Stormare to top it of.

So bad you actually need to see it!

Enjoyed Anna Friel as Marcella. This role is similar: The outsider cop accused of wrongdoing with mental health problems and a complicated private life. The character worked as Marcella, here not so much, seems Friel has no range. It is not clear why this Swedish production chose to use a host of British actors in a US setting. It is jarring, better to use this cast in the UK or get Americans.

Horror/suspense clichés are littered throughout the first two episodes (As much as I could stomach) - quirky camera angles, dark restricted colour-palette sets, jittery lighting ... This is not an intrinsic problem, but The Box has nothing else to recommend it.

Such a disappointment, this had the potential to be compelling viewing, but fails on every level.