The Penitent - Part 2

Apart from the introduction of Velvy Schur and Dr. Gabriel Folukoya as new and potentially interesting members of the team, this story was let down by a weak plot, largely both preposterous and curiously uninvolving, poor dialogue and some hammy overacting by guests and regulars both. The premise of this show has always stretched credulity in terms of the free reign offered to the pathology team, but usually manages to keep things interesting enough for the viewer to make allowances. As always, the best bits relate to actual forensic pathology and the insights it provides. Not enough this time to overcome the downsides, sadly. A disappointment.

I really do not understand how it can be that a so well loved series gets the most hideous scripts with dialogues that make you cringe and dread the upcoming sentence - which you already know, because it's out of the "writing trivial, nonsensical, unbelievable crap for idiots"-book. At some point of this longrunning series I stopped watching, because I couldn't take any more of what is at the end an insult to the intelligence of the viewers. Now we are at that point again.

Do they get paid enough? This lazy writing, who approves of it? Who says, yeah, that's good. Let's do that.

I feel sorry for all the actresses and actors involved.

Nikki and Jack assist The NCA in their battle against The Mafia like Organisation, The Ndrangheta.

I was a little bit frustrated with this second episode, I felt like they had all the ingredients, a great mix of raw materials, with the acting, production values, the staging, and certain elements of the plot, but what they had here was an egg custard casserole, the ingredients just didn't combine, didn't sit right, and ultimately left you feeling frustrated.

I watch some pretty heavy going dramas, and as a rule, I don't have issues following them, I didn't have a clue what was going on throughout this one, I couldn't make head nor tail of the plot, it was all over the place.

A shame, it was very well acted, it looked terrific, some real care was taken with the production, and some really nice effects too, all somewhat wasted.

Unfortunately, this was really disappointing, 5/10.

Silent Witness has always been a well-made criminal drama, despite the large amounts of suspended disbelief needed to enjoy the series. Forensic pathologists just do not ever work with the investigating police officers in the field, interviewing suspects and getting in the line of fire. If you could forgive that, it used to be quite enjoyable.

But now they have gone way too far. The storyline in this pair of episodes, depicting omnipresent, omnipotent master criminals with unlimited resources, is just ridiculous. Adding to the decline in quality, they also inject some very dystopic extreme left political comments along the line of "all wealth is a result of crime"...

If the next double bill is just as bad, then it's goodbye from me.

I've always loved Silent Witness, through all of its cast changes, and have watched pretty much every episode since it started in the mid 90's. But....what on earth is going on? Granted Nicky has always been annoying, extremely self-righteous and poking her nose into things. She's forever having to be rescued (she never learns), and most times we have to suspend belief when she and Jack get into situations that I'm pretty sure no forensic pathologist has ever been in. This latest episode however, was, quite frankly, ridiculous. The storyline was totally unbelievable, the script was poor, and the actors looked rather bewildered. I had no idea what was going on (although I suspect part of that was due to my having lost interest so wasn't paying proper attention). Please, please, sort out the storylines and the script, and let's have the old Silent Witness back. We know the actors are better than this drivel.