Hard Sun

I have never understood why people are so quick to jump to the 1/10 score. The 1970 Film 'Trog', arguably one of the worst films ever made, gets an average of 3.6 so, even if you are hyper critical of some of the shortcomings of this series, it is clearly not 1/10.

Without giving another plot synopsis, the story is a London police drama underpinned by the knowledge of the protagonists, of the inevitable extinction of life on earth in 5 years.

I tend to be quite critical of procedurals that have outlandish and unbelievable plot elements. With this one though, as long as you buy the main premise (and that requires a certain suspension of disbelief), the extremity of the situation takes the focus off most details that could trip up the more nit-picky mind. So I for one was generally swept along.

What helps this is the pace and intensity of the programme. It is undoubtedly a high-adrenaline drama, with few gaps to take a breath. The music criticised by some commenters have for being too noisy (really?!) was well matched to the unrelenting tempo of the plot.

The casting and acting were both suitable to the drama, with a really convincing performance from Agnyess Deyn. Stylised it certainly was, but it was stylised well, so I really cant see that as a criticism.

There were a few niggles. I don't think the editing was brilliant. The various serial killer sub-plots were very variable in detail and the one in the last episode seemed almost throw-away. I got the feeling that they had had to scrunch the series down to 6 episodes having originally filmed for more.

Also how silence about such a life ending event could be maintained at all, and the ease with which the newspaper release in the first episode was quashed, strain the credulity a bit.

Anyway that's my tuppence worth. There's no accounting for taste, but I wish people would avoid rushing to unnecessarily harsh scoring. It ruins the system as a guide.

I would give it higher marks but whoever arranged the music does not know what they're doing. If you play: Dramatic music, Dramatic music, Dramatic music, Dramatic music. It loses its effect and just becomes annoying noise to the point where your head is about to explode and when at last for just a few seconds you turn the blasted noise off it is a tremendous relief and you think 'Thank goodness for that!'

I mean, guy walks up to flat (dramatic music, heartbeat music) knocks on the door (dramatic music, heartbeat music), woman opens door (dramatic music, heartbeat music), 'Hiya' he says, 'Hello' she says. ?

Some of the other music is just a horrid wailing sound! It really was a challenge for me to just not turn it off and I'm not sure I'll be able to sit through many episodes if it continues like this as it really does my head in.

My hope is that if one makes the effort to look past the action (a spectacular choreography, by the way) and this genre-specific plot clichés, one's going to find a fresh and an interesting take on the age old dilemma that entertains the question whether people as a whole (as a society; as a global collective, if you wish) ought - let alone deserve - to be made aware of all the details and parameters of an impending extinction-level event.

Or, in other words - will we succumb to our most primal and atavistic impulses and instincts? Or maybe human spirituality's evolution has had finally caught up with the technological one? Are we all remaining to be simply cavemen (and "cavewomen", lets not be sexist ;) with cell phones and lap tops, or at last we've crossed over some kind of a mental - or a spiritual - threshold, thus becoming something... more? The thing is, we won't be sure which is it until we actually find ourselves on the precipice of some catastrophic, cataclysmic event. Once we had been reduced to creatures that act solely on their instincts and nothing else, then it will become clear whether the human nature has had evolved beyond that of cavemen (and cavewomen - I would hate to find this review dismissed on grounds of sexism and misogyny, hehe).

I think that the series have the real potential to gain "a must-watch" status. It all depends on whether the show's creators have dedicated more screen time and a stronger accent to the question has the humanity's mentality's evolution reached the point where we had finally become mentally fit enough to survive a global cataclysm.

If not, at least the show's entertaining, if nothing else.

Granted, it isn't a whole lotta sci-fi... but it does do what good sci-fi does best which is explore humanity.

Really liked it, probably a bit too much cliche in there to go above 8 though.

The end of the world is nigh, and the criminals are still at it, even when the world comes to an end we are still need cops and spooks to put the bad guys away. Fortunately this serial was better then the premise suggested, what sounded daft was actually very good viewing, an unlikely pairing of Agyness Deyn and Jim Sturgess worked incredibly well together, two actors I absolutely love, so wonderfully talented, Sturgess for his recent work on Close to the Enemy. I'm just glad to see a drama serial on the box on a Saturday night, Taboo showed that it can work, we don't have to be made to switch off with only reality TV on. Bravo BBC again.