Second Sight

I watched this on Prime (with subtitles) but spent most of my time forwarding it by 10 seconds at a time. I didn't even last 10 minutes with it. Why? Refer to the title of the review.

Second site did not disappoint. I felt the realism in the t. V series but also the character was allowed to have the feelings of anger at his position. But yet he continues to fight, despite he's going blind. I do wish the character that was played by detective Tully would have stayed in the series a little longer. I thought they made a good pair. I like the way Second Sight appeared as a tiny miniseries. To where two or three episodes may have focused on one of the major plot lines. I feel like that made the show more realistic instead of just doing one episode with one plot and then moving on, and on.

This was supposedly a 2-part pilot yet there's no series. Because someone tanked it, apparently. Good call. The phrase Second Sight is widely known to refer to ESP or psychic ability yet more than half way through, there's still no indication he's having visions; in fact, so far, he's just doing the same thing over and over - drinking, sulking, having tantrums - with some detective work sprinkled in. If you want to feel like you might be watching Groundhog Day with the entertainment value removed, this is your show.

Another Great UK Crime Drama . . . With a twist. A very interesting twist!

A young Clive Owens plays has DCI Ross Tanner, a cop who discovers that he going blind. Add to that a nasty murder case and a new DI as his deputy . . .

. . . A good basis for a story. Clive Owen makes it work so well, Claire Skinner manages to keep up and the always dependable Stuart Wilson (and his Crossworlds hat) is excellent as usual. The music harkens back to the 50s, 60s, 70s detective shows of my youth and almost makes it feel like a period piece.

I love British crime shows (Midsomer Murders, The Last Detective, Endeavour, etc.). I'm slotting this one into the rotation!

Second Sight is a basic British crime drama but with a twist -- the lead detective might be going blind. So the show is not just an anthology series, it has a running plot about the man's increasing sight issues that may or may not lead to loss of sight. This leads to a bifurcated show: the story of the possible blindness is extremely well done; it's touching, effective, but not overly maudlin. But the actual detective stories are not very good: the plot holes are completely insane, the detective work is almost silly; it often feels as if no one cared about the story lines as long as the larger theme was well-developed.

However, what really saves the show is Owen. He is absolutely terrific dealing with the possibility of eye sight loss: the show never wanders far from his dilemma. Why this man never became a major star is the most baffling mystery of all here.