Review by aarongregoryj

Steve Coogan is great! All of the actors are great. I should get that out of the way before I give The Reckoning a bad review. Here's the problem. It's boring. I've only seen the first two episodes, but so far it's about a flamboyantly dressed old man shuffling from one darkly lit brown room to another for two hours. I understand that the makers of The Reckoning didn't want to be too exploitative, but in doing so they've created a portrait of Jimmy Saville that's just a little bit creepier than his public image while he was alive. We're given the set up to his crimes, and then a cut to the next scene every time. I don't want to give the impression that I would prefer to see Saville graphically assaulting people, but it feels pointless to portray his crimes as shadowy and mysterious if there's to be any sort of a reckoning. The Reckoning needs to go at least as far as the documentaries that have been made about him. It reminds me a little of a bad miniseries that was made about Ted Bundy in the 80's called The Deliberate Stranger starring Mark Harmon. In it they never show any of Ted Bundy's crimes, which only serves to make him seem like a guy who's always in a rush to get from one place to another. I feel kind of the same about Jimmy Savile in this. He seems like a guy who's always accompanied by ominous music, but never really gets to follow through with his bad intentions. Also, as a lot of the other reviews have mentioned, the BBC doesn't hold itself as accountable as it should.