The Deep

Having read some of the critics reviews, most of which were not very complementary, I decided to give this miniseries a go considering I like most of the cast. Minnie Driver, Goran Visnjic. Sacha Dhawan (who played a delightfully evil Master in the most recent Dr Who series) and Antonia Thomas (from the Good Doctor) as talented people I have appreciated for some time, so I gave this a go. And I was pleasantly surprised.

While I did pick up on some issues with scientific inaccuracies (show me a sci-fi show that doesn't for the sake of speeding the narrative up) I did find the story and intrigue compelling. The characters weren't one-dimensional, they (mostly) had depth (pun intended) and the themes of international politics interfering with scientific endeavour were quite accurate. While politicians mouth "save the world", they are often in the pocket of corporations, so the notion that they are motivated by a desire for world peace and lowering our dependence on fossil fuels is naive when you consider how much money is involved. If a natural biofuel was discovered that replaced oil it would be fought, pure and simple.

That theme was explored here in depth in imaginative ways.

There are high prices that are paid along the way, friendships are made and lost.

The CG isn't perfect, but even on my 4K TV it still looked good today.

So, don't let the nay-sayers turn you off. Give The Deep a go. It's value Sci-Fi with a modern tale to tell.

this series is inspired by the film of the same title, but starts out as flawed as the original film ends.

what else can i say. this series uses poor c.g. to amuse a somatose audience, and uses filler dialog in the same way.

whoever put this series together deserves a good old fashioned trip to the wood shed.

it has few plot points, obviously filled between with incongruous character reactions and stupid dialog which prompt time-filling conflicts, which stretches this tripe from a ninety minute show, into a British series length.

i was insulted by the watching, but unfortunately i kept viewing to see if it would get better or worse. the good news is it didn't get any worse. it played mediocre all the way through.

Mediocre - average: lacking exceptional quality.

The once great BBC has fallen foul yet again to that great modern British attribute; mediocrity. While usually I would applaud the BBC for it's policy on social cohesion the actors inclusion is just well......formulaic. The way in which the BBC put together this drama is almost as though it was drama-by-numbers.

All the building blocks are there:

Ethnic minorities represented (including the new kid on the British block the eastern European) check.

Evil state puppet to attract liberals: check

SF concept to attract males under 45: check

Unnecessary romance to draw in female viewers: check.

Complicated yet vague plot: check.

Sum of all it's parts....FAIL.

The dialogue was ABYSS-mal, the characters seemed to ALIENate the audience rather than draw them and I do understand why viewers might seem DEEPly LOSTed when watching it.

Unless they are known to actually exist there, putting volcanic vents under the ice caps seems like poor writing to me. Wouldn't they melt the ice?

Drilling deep through an 800 degree 'volcanic field' is more likely to produce hot magma, than oil. Drilling underwater, serviced by subs, seems problematic. Not 'cheep' energy at all. And could not be kept secret for long.

Unless they are known to actually exist there, putting volcanic vents under the ice caps seems like poor writing to me. Wouldn't they melt the ice?

Drilling deep through an 800 degree 'volcanic field' is more likely to produce hot magma, than oil. Drilling underwater, serviced by subs, seems problematic. Not 'cheep' energy at all. And could not be kept secret for long.

I liked the premise, unknown danger, underwater thus claustrophobic thus small cast (including Minnie Driver who I've always liked). I still think the idea could have worked. However what we got was an absolute disaster. It failed on every level I can think of. There were so many holes in the plot you would be hard pressed to find enough large underwater vessels to drive through them all. The personal relationships between the characters was shallow and unbelievable, and their responses to events totally absurd. It may have been slightly helped by reducing the run time from 5 hours to 90 minutes.

Where are the new BBC programmes to rival Doomwatch and Out of the Unknown, or the fantastic Edge of Darkness. Maybe I'm just getting rather old.

How many BBC executives are going to get a bonus for this one I wonder?

And as for one reviewer using this production to compare the BBC with HBO I just despair.