FONYMAHONEY
Joined Nov 2020
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Reviews112
FONYMAHONEY's rating
A couple of absolutely faultless performances anchor (and, in truth - hugely elevate) a couple of series enough to make them almost unmissable (Tom Courtenay, Alex Jennings).
But - BUT - the writing is woeful. I don't necessarily mean the plot lines (most of which are formulaic and ridiculous, like most ITV dramas - but strangely, not all), but almost ALL of the actual spoken dialogue is cringeworthy in its heavy handed, derivative non-originality.
The amount of scenes which are entirely one actor giving a cloying monologue while another actor or two just sits there in silence...pretty much purely for heavy handed exposition, every single time? I literally lost count. It's so lazy it's laughable.
I can't abide it. Stylistically it's slowly crept into the vast majority of 'premium' TV in Britain these days, and Unforgotten is easily the best of a bad bunch. But it's still so cheesy it's borderline offensive.
As I say though - best of a bad bunch. Still enjoyable. As a fan of acting, the performances of Jennings & Courtenay are worth their weight in gold and probably render this worthy of a watch - but it's more Downton Abbey than Cracker; mores the pity.
But - BUT - the writing is woeful. I don't necessarily mean the plot lines (most of which are formulaic and ridiculous, like most ITV dramas - but strangely, not all), but almost ALL of the actual spoken dialogue is cringeworthy in its heavy handed, derivative non-originality.
The amount of scenes which are entirely one actor giving a cloying monologue while another actor or two just sits there in silence...pretty much purely for heavy handed exposition, every single time? I literally lost count. It's so lazy it's laughable.
I can't abide it. Stylistically it's slowly crept into the vast majority of 'premium' TV in Britain these days, and Unforgotten is easily the best of a bad bunch. But it's still so cheesy it's borderline offensive.
As I say though - best of a bad bunch. Still enjoyable. As a fan of acting, the performances of Jennings & Courtenay are worth their weight in gold and probably render this worthy of a watch - but it's more Downton Abbey than Cracker; mores the pity.
Seriously - what a lousy start to what I'm sure will be a lousy, heavy-handed (and America-skewed) series.
Blasting through a montage of all the downer moments over the last half century or more and completely ignoring the fact they dramatically beat arsenal in the league cup final in 2011? Just to overegg the negativity for an American audience who can't process complexity?
Don't get me started on all these American billionaires invading English football - it rings as a cynical PR ploy in every single case, like almost overcompensating for an underbelly of malevolent, self-serving intent. The public don't seem to mind being lied to and I guess in the grand scheme of that, this isn't the worst thing - but still pretty hateful.
America - leave us alone. We don't want your money or aggressive corporate culture: we're not your quaint curiosity. We are a real country with a deeply embedded culture of its own. It's not for sale.
Blasting through a montage of all the downer moments over the last half century or more and completely ignoring the fact they dramatically beat arsenal in the league cup final in 2011? Just to overegg the negativity for an American audience who can't process complexity?
Don't get me started on all these American billionaires invading English football - it rings as a cynical PR ploy in every single case, like almost overcompensating for an underbelly of malevolent, self-serving intent. The public don't seem to mind being lied to and I guess in the grand scheme of that, this isn't the worst thing - but still pretty hateful.
America - leave us alone. We don't want your money or aggressive corporate culture: we're not your quaint curiosity. We are a real country with a deeply embedded culture of its own. It's not for sale.
Their Woodstock series was pretty great - as a Brit barely into adolescence when Woodstock '99 happened, I found it fascinating, intelligently done and powerfully objective. When I saw they were spinning off into a series, I was eager and hungry for more - finally, a production banner for magazine-documentaries with some real quality behind it. Something to look forward to.
Man, how wrong I was.
Astroworld was decent, for the same reasons as above really - it's a story I didn't know. Not as gripping or as detailed as ...Woodstock '99, but still interesting and entertaining. The Toronto mayor one wasn't anywhere near detailed enough - still a great story but given the tragic end he met, frustratingly superficial.
Since then, they've ALL been trash - entertaining, but absolute trash. A real departure from the brutal brilliance of their debut - and I didn't think they could get more cloying and heavy-handed than the balloon boy episode. Then they dropped PI moms.
What a load of garbage. It felt more like a propaganda piece than a documentary, like who is this for?! It wasn't remotely an interesting enough story - shock horror! Fame-hungry actor treads on others to get ahead! Not worthy of an episode of Dateline, let alone a Netflix documentary.
Don't waste your time.
Man, how wrong I was.
Astroworld was decent, for the same reasons as above really - it's a story I didn't know. Not as gripping or as detailed as ...Woodstock '99, but still interesting and entertaining. The Toronto mayor one wasn't anywhere near detailed enough - still a great story but given the tragic end he met, frustratingly superficial.
Since then, they've ALL been trash - entertaining, but absolute trash. A real departure from the brutal brilliance of their debut - and I didn't think they could get more cloying and heavy-handed than the balloon boy episode. Then they dropped PI moms.
What a load of garbage. It felt more like a propaganda piece than a documentary, like who is this for?! It wasn't remotely an interesting enough story - shock horror! Fame-hungry actor treads on others to get ahead! Not worthy of an episode of Dateline, let alone a Netflix documentary.
Don't waste your time.