Identity

Shallow and predictable. Perfect for an American TV equivalent. The writing is obvious and sensational. The core cast's acting is abominable. The foil, Keeley Hawes is employed as a prop. Her presence is insufferably stilted. The show is a sound effects bonanza. John Lunn's music is dated, generic, and aggressively overused. The most enjoyable moments of the series are in episode five, thanks only to Clive Russell.

The director, the writer, and the creator helped to make many episodes of the inspirational 'Waking the Dead', notably the final story, 'Waterloo'. But all the richness of that great show is lost to 'Identity'. This is the police procedural fallen victim to the lowest common denominator and, probably, decision by committee.

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!

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 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.

Stumbled on this show and was curious from the start. Although it took a few episodes to give the main characters some depth I did like the fact that it doesn't play off the Police = good, and criminal=bad routine. The balance that all characters have good and bad in them appeals to me, without giving to much away lets just say some lines get murky and even crossed but its where it ends up that counts according to this series. It would have been nice to see what would of happened in the second season as there were many directions the show could have gone.

The acting is pretty good, just the right amount of office politics and antics to make it interesting but not enough to make it sickly soapy. One thing some of the American cop shows should learn.

Well worth a watch and with only six episodes it moves quickly and is entertaining.