Second Sight

Clive Owen brings his almost complete absence of charisma and scant repertoire of nuances to "Second Sight" as a detective who may or may not be losing his sight depending on who you believe; host Diana Rigg or the doctor characters. A much too pat and uninspired Brit detective series about a workaholic divorced sleuth with personal issues, DCI Tanner (Owen), "Second Sight" is full of nonsequiturs, plot holes, and just plain shoddy work. Owen does the usual connecting of dots expected of mysteries while maintaining the pitiful I've-been-screwed-by-life attitude you would expect of a terminal cancer patient not one whose just may be going blind and especially not one who sees perfectly when required of the plot and otherwise when not. All the while, Tanner has what Rigg describes as a "torrid" affair with his sidekick which is little more than a few seconds in the sack and sees visions (the second sight thing) which are rationalized by some mumbo-jumbo about his medical condition. Pale in comparison with the Brit "Cracker" series, "Second Sight" is little more than par fodder for TV junkies. I gave up on it with about 10 minutes to go in the 2nd DVD. (C+)

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.

My TV watching is confined almost exclusively to PBS and the British shows, which are usually the only things on TV worth watching. BUT... this particular show suffers from an excess of unintelligible dialogue that only added to the confusion of the muddled plot and story, the jerky handheld camera work, the appallingly choppy editing and uncertain direction. May I suggest to Rebecca Eaton that she add sub-titles to this show (which still has a few episodes to run) so that American viewers can truly enjoy rather than endure the British dialects and poor diction of the performers.

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.

So I've started seeing Clive Owen here and there the last few months and I look him up to see what other work he's done. I end up searching for this set of TV episodes and Greenfingers. Both are movies I couldn't find in my neighborhood movie rental spot. Anyway, I loved this show. All eight episodes kept me interested, though I was disappointed with the Tully just suddenly moving along aspect, and Clive rules the small screen just as well as he does the big screen. I highly suggest anyone that enjoys Clive's work pick these up, especially the 1st two dvds (2 parts to each one). Oh, and some great cameo's but well known actors as well. Overall, an A- for the set.