bunnysnotwolfgang

I watched this on the strength of the screenplay being written by Ed Wood, and feeling like even though he was famously bad at his job, this ought to be in some way a piece of cinema history even if it's a bad one...

The word "screenplay" here takes an AWFUL lot of liberties here.

There is about 5 minutes worth of plot. And the rest is just topless dancing in the cheapest costumes you've ever seen (although some of them are pretty funny at least, especially the bride)

I've never really heard of Criswell before, but to say he phones this in would be an insult to phoning it in. He is visibly reading all his lines off cue cards being held up just off screen, or crib cards on his knees.

I have enjoyed the films of Anna Biller, and some of the looks in this reminded of her movies, but the difference is her dialogue, delivery, and costumes are all deliberate and knowing, instead of just genuinely bad.

It is not possible for this review to contain spoilers, because there is no plot to spoil

Don't bother. Really don't bother.

The first few series of this were outstanding, but the last couple were really poor.

I think it's about the time when Idris Elba started to be more creatively involved that it stopped being well scripted and well paced, and started being a series of action set-pieces made to make Elba look variously cool and hard.

Much like other comparable shows like Sherlock, the early series are definitely worth a watch.

Now it won't let me post the review without more characters, so I'll say that Ruth Wilson absolutely steals every scene she's in, and there are a couple of villain performances that are absolutely bone chilling.

So, this isn't as woeful as some have said, nor is it as good as others have, but it DOES suffer from the same pitfalls as all of those ABYSMAL Harlan Coben shows that netflix started commissioning.

It's shot mostly in close-up, a lot of the various b-plot threads are irritating, and it's trying to make the audience NEED to know where all the mysteries lead... Ok, it's not actually Mr Coben's fault that's happened, but it IS the worst trend in TV these days. Focusing more on hooking an audience in with a mystery than actually making the story interesting.

What saves this is some of the performances. Jenna Coleman is very good, as is Tom Glynn-Carney, but even some solid performances don't make it better than fine.