M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team

Having seen the first episode of 8 only, I'm in two minds whether to watch the rest. The first story continued from a storyline portrayed in a recent episode of The Bill. And a very interesting, intriguing and surprising storyline it was, too.

But what spoilt it for me was the filming technique. Just because you can stick a modern TV camera right up the actor's nose doesn't mean you have to. I watched on a small TV set, but the thought of seeing someone's head fill the whole of a 3-foot wide TV screen makes me feel seasick. Pretending to hide behind another character's head or a plant is a very dull, and now over-used, way of trying to create a sense of reality. The filmic technique merely gets in the way of the story.

If you like really bizarre camerawork with peoples faces filmed from weird angles, and the camera motion like it's hand held, then you'll like this. It was a popular style in the early 2000s. Coupled with extreme closeups of faces, mouths, eyes that are common in many of today's films from Europe, mainly France, it's all just a bit too distracting. The show itself is formula driven with clues being solved in quick succession by a very smug faced inspector. It's just not that good a show to go up against other murder mysteries or cop shows on TV. No wonder it did not last long.

The one thing that stands out about MIT is that it's not very homogenous: style and quality of stories are very different throughout the first series. Some episodes are meant to be very cutting edge by using an almost documentary style, some are fairly traditional. Some stories are very complex and difficult to follow particularly within a 50 minutes format- sometimes you get the impression that a 90 minutes story was cut down to fifty. Other stories are great crime drama, almost Jonathan Kellermann terrain. So all in all, it's a show that's showing promise but still has to find its own style. My main issue with the show is however the DI Vivien Friend or rather the way she is portrayed. She is a bit of a stereotype in terms of being the hard nosed career woman on the surface but with emotions underneath- I just don't see that in the performance.

The first season was really interesting. Not perfect but the players were good. Putting DS Trevor Hands in charge for season two the show went downhill. No wonder there was no season three. His insensitivity and brash recklessness made everyone's job harder. There was just no sign of a good detective, just someone trying to prove he was the best but his ego was too big such a shame.

If it had carried on in the same vein as season one it probably would have been much better. His character was repugnant. The actor portraying him may have been good but the character was atrocious and unlikeable and very demeaning to others.

I don't know why only two seasons were made of this show, I really enjoyed it. There was good acting, good story lines. I recently found it on Acorn TV and am disappointed there are no more of MIT to watch.