Culprits

My favourite genre, but so few of real quality. We watch in hope of finding another gem and this combines three components in one series: recruiting a team for a one-and-done job, the getaway, and the aftermath. The aftermath is the main story, having completely left old lives behind and beginning anew with new identities and untraceable lives - my favourite part to see how they pull this off in the modern security camera-social media-AI-facial recognition world. That's what keeps me watching. But the setup/recruitment for the job with Gemma posing and preening as a cliched, hard as nails crime boss is pitiful. I like her in other roles, but this is ridiculous. Too many movies/series have actors posing ridiculously as cliched toughies and it is way beyond capacity for suspension of disbelief. It can work in action films because of the fast pace - you scoff/laugh but the grunting and choreographed fight scenes/car chases move you relentlessly along without pause so they get away with it. That's the trick of action films, just good fun. But these slower paced jobs that want to be taken seriously cannot get away with this Milli Vanilli approach of stylish pretence as a substitute for substance. Gemma stepping straight out of wardrobe and immaculate colour-coded makeup, Jo muscle stepping straight out of the hair salon with a new, immaculate hairdo... just stupid.

I agree with the frustration expressed by others about taking the time to introduce competent, skilful characters only to have them behave out of character an episode later... why bother! We have an assassin who never misses, unless she's shooting at an old bloke in a tracksuit... all of a sudden she's inaccurate, only when shooting at this one guy... total role reversal. A professional assassin with a safe, spacious, anonymous, art filled storage lock up with power and a cache of weapons but... no meds, no first aid kit... has a fridge but zero provisions - full of one brand of soda. But whatever you do, don't hole up there because it's not set up as a safe room bolt hole... but the biggest somersault is Gemma's stoic unemotional character morphing into a weepy girl in the final scenes.

I know there were no female characters in Reservoir Dogs team, nor the Layer Cake team, nor the Snatch or Oceans 11 crews. I get this is targeting a broader audience in a different era and the obligations to include more female characters and gay characters - but you have to make it work. Genna is too young for the role, and the costume/hair/makeup departments got her character wrong, I get they were going for control and authority but it doesn't work... and then at the end they totally backflip on their initial intention and her character totally loses control and goes to water emotionally.

Pick a fvcking approach - if you want to write strong female characters, don't be such hypocrites and morph them into weepy emotional train wrecks when you are tooooo fvcking lazy and unimaginative to write a coherent finale without fatally compromising your supposedly strong female character. Shame on all of you - writers, director and producers. Pathetic.

The other characters are not worth mentioning.

So it's my genre, and I've watched to the end, and I'm still left dissatisfied and craving quality.

Really enjoyed this series which had a good balance of back story building and present day action with the story flitting between the past and present while keeping the viewer in the dark as to who did what and who is double crossing who along with who is good and who is bad but the only thing that let it down was casting Eddie Izzard on a gangster type role as all I can see Eddie as is Tony P from The Mystery Men movie which I s a shame. But overall an entertaining watch which kept me intrigued to the end . The acting was good and kept me watching until the end . Some really good parts in particular with Nathan Stewart-Jarrett showing a good range in acting and why he will be a bigger star in the future.

It's a decent watch, but only if you don't think too hard about the things that happen throughout it.

I'm only on episode 6, but already the things that have happened are far too unrealistic, if you were really to do a job like this, you'd have to have reconstructive surgery with the technology we have at our disposal today, David/Muscle only cuts an inch of his hair off, the rest are unchanged and are surprised they're getting found! That's is just one of MANY reasons not to take this series too seriously, so don't go into this thinking it's a hard core crime thriller, it's more in the realm of a light superhero scenario with the super powers being able to occur things they need as and when out of thin air almost.

But still enjoyable while you watch.

It's pretty refreshing these days when you see characters in a thriller/drama acting rationally in intense situations. They don't make dumb choices, they take excessive measures and doesn't half ass anything.

This show is definitely not breaking any new grounds, but is very well executed and never feels boring or stagnant. Production is good, about on par with your typical British drama and all that entails.

Some really satisfying scenes early on, especially the one where main guy gets kidnapped but realizes it's not by the people he thought it was.

Overall, highly recommend for those that like British shows, and crime thrillers in general.

The storyline of the show is very interesting. The beginning of the show is very promising, but as it progresses, the pacing feels slow, and many scenes seem to lack purpose. The story switches between the past and present, showcasing the planning of a heist in the past and a killer targeting thieves in the present. The show has been shot in different locations. I'm giving the show 5 stars. The characters are strong, the acting is good to a certain extent, the visuals are good, but the background score is average. The show is enjoyable, but don't set your expectations too high because you might be disappointed at certain points.