The Control Room

Glasgow based thriller. An emergency call handler takes a call confessing to a murder, from a girl who then recognises his voice. So begins a frantic journey as the story unfolds, mingled with his backstory.

It started well but it's a bit far-fetched and implausible. It has some good tense moments.

This is better than some whilst not brilliant. Would I recommend? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to watch it again.

Gabe is an emergency call-handler in Glasgow with dark secrets from his childhood which unexpectedly come back to life when he takes a call at work.

Production values were OK, it was well cast and acted for the most part but it had problems script and direction wise. I watched all three episodes and gradually fell out of love with it.

I'd agree with other reviewers that the flashbacks were really overdone and disrupted the storyline. There were also just too many improbabilities in the plot all the way through, yes we can take a few coincidences and strokes of luck once in a while but storylines can't entirely rely on them.

Overall disappointing. For me the story didn't pan out well and the ending was a bit of a damp squib that you could anticipate coming.

Have to agree with the majority of the previous reviews.

Wanted to switch off after first episode and wasn't bothered to find out the ending. Why?, because after Gabe makes the most obvious of "no, you didn't just agree to that" moments, it goes from bad to worse. Every twist and turn in the first 2 episodes have me screaming at the TV "nooooooo".

But as a dutiful husband, having had my wife watch some of the stuff I like, I repaid the debt a million times over to watch this to its conclusion.

There were a few more twists in the final episode that we didn't see coming which kinda redeemed it a bit, but not enough for me to recommend it.

IDC was ok in Marvel agents of Shield but he almost felt the same in this, with his nervous affectations.

So glad it's over and hopefully no sequel..... Sounded good on the radio adverts but in reality a MISS rather that a HIT.

Would give it a 2.5 for the little twists in the last episode.

This has an interesting premise and starts well. But, as so often, a good premise is not enough. There are far too many flashbacks, many or most of which could have been cut with no loss to the story. But there were three episodes to fill and I expect those repetitive scenes with the two children were quite cheap. The plot is unconvincing to put it mildly. It is one of those where a leading character continually fails to do an obvious action, thus prolonging the story to fill its allotted hours. I can't say more without introducing spoilers. And what about the control room? Isn't the ambulance service very busy? Erm, not in this case. The working hours seem extremely flexible, too. The one saving grace of the show is the acting of Iain de Caestecker. He does a good job as a well-meaning man going through extreme stress.

Promising cast , good cinematography and an interesting hook to start the drama got it off to a good start, but the endless twists and turns just made it a confusing mess of a storyline with plot and continuity holes all over the place. It should have been another top BBC drama but I've ended up generously giving it a 5. Wasted potential.