Identity

My wife and I watched two episodes in this series. The first left us stunned it was so bad. There seems to be a rule amongst actors that if the script is really awful then to try and improve on it you need to overact. Well, overact these actors did and I'm afraid that only made a bad TV show with a terrible and unbelievable plot a whole lot worse.

Why we bothered to watch the second episode on the DVD a week later I'm not sure. The two of us watched in stony silence throughout. When it was over, I said something like, "that was a lot better than the first one." My wife responded with, "I thought it was utter rubbish." The sad thing is we were both right. And that will tell you just how awful the first episode must have been.

I used to like Keely Hawes (from MI5/Spooks) but I'm afraid I've gone right off her after this experience.

The DVD went back to the library after the second episode so I'll never find out how the subplot with the undercover cop gone bad turned out. Somehow I'm not going to lose any sleep over this.

There's a great idea here -- a police dept dealing with identity theft.

I was keen!

But.

The female, in that skirt and the heels. She could barely walk, never mind run. Ok it's identity not street policing but still...makeup, tight skirts and heels, because of course, female.

Then, the scruffy rude ex-undercover one.

No-one does undercover that long. Ridiculous.

And this means it's ok to be rude. Disbelieving? Basically an a**hole?

This put me off right at the start.

He pretended, so he is the expert.

Sure, not the IT people, the cops doing the slog, no lets have the under dog, the on the edge character with his amazing flashes of instant insight.

Ugh.

Ruined it for me.

And then the thieves themselves: psychos who swiped identities and committed for the most stupid convoluted plot ideas.

It's not how and why it's done at all.

This could have been good if they hadn't tried to Hollywood this series.

I have only watched the first episode of the first series. I normally wait until the final episode of any series before putting finger to keyboard, but for some unknown reason I felt I needed to put in an early comment or two. Perhaps it was the bizarre comments of one of the reviewers on here, concerning 'police departments' that egged me on to write this.

Firstly, and probably my biggest issue with previous comments. I really don't think it matters much which police department is being featured in a drama. At the end of the day, it's the story that is important, followed closely by scripting. This drama has fast paced dialog, with facts coming at you at lightening pace, and more than once I had to press rewind on the remote in order to try to absorb the information being spoken. The fact that it was identity theft, for me, only made the whole thing more interesting, which is why I specifically sourced this box set, purely on it's subject matter...oh, and Keeley Hawes, who for me, could be the present generation Joanna Lumley! (sorry Joanna, that's not saying that you're not still a huge star and a most engaging orator...smiles).

The series could have been about murder, rape, corporate espionage, or perhaps just burglary, and it with this kind of script, and with the acting quality on show, it would still still have been interesting. It's good to see that Aiden Gillen is doing so well since his excellent performances in 'Queer As Folk'. I have a feeling his career is going to continue to move on upwards, and it might not be too far in the distance when his name will be a household name. As for Keeley Hawes, this lady surely has a huge future. Her performances in Spooks should alone have carved out an international movie career, and why they didn't have her play Lara Croft in the movies, I'll never know...her voice will always be the true Lara! On a more serious note, I feel sure Keeley also has a big future, as her beauty and speaking voice will land her international fame before too long.

Finally, just on the first episode, I can see that this was ITV's attempt to have a 'Spooks' of their own, and to some degree it works in that respect, although 'Spooks' is definitely the superior article, and focuses on an entirely different subject matter anyway. 'Identity' does succeed though, in bringing to ITV a more involved and complex story line, together with good acting, which I'm sorry to say, ITV doesn't generally compete with the BBC on. For those of us who like their stories more complex, this should certainly appeal. I really hope there's another series planned!

I couldn't get over the fact that Keeley Hawes' character, supposedly a top cop with her own department, is wearing truckloads of makeup and is quite unbelievable. I don't blame Keeley. What's disappointing is that British TV is perfectly capable of creating credible female bosses with gravitas. This production team obviously isn't.

There's a great idea for a TV series here -- a police squad that specializes in identity theft. But based on the two episodes I watched, it's been mishandled. Both centered on psychos who swiped identities and committed murder for reasons that were at best murky (and at worst ludicrous.) And in both episodes, extended chase scenes filled the gaps in threadbare scenarios. The cast isn't bad. And perhaps subsequent stories will suggest...surprise!!!...that not all identity thieves are homicidal wackos. They might even deal with the frightening and fascinating way in which lives can be stolen -- along with cash, credit ratings and reputations. But from what I've seen so far, I'm not hopeful.