Bloodlands

In ten years of reading Imdb daily, I've never seen more unfair, inaccurate, inexplicably negative reviews of one show. After reading a few dozen reviews, my spidey senses tell me someone's running a smear campaign on BLOODLANDS. Many reviews are factually incorrect. Many other reviews here are irrationally biased and critical where it's clearly undeserved.

Nesbit's acting is good. Camera work is not "shaky," certainly not as much as NYPD BLUE. There are no glaring "plot holes." BLOODLANDS is no more or less predictable nor cliched nor boring than any other british police procedural these days. This show does not "take itself too seriously," What does that even mean?

Why are so many reviewers comparing this to LINE OF DUTY? Is that the only british police proedural they know? That's almost like criticizing BOSCH, by saying "it's certainly not THE WIRE."

For a yank, I watch a lot of british police procedurarls, and I found this one refreshingly different in that it's set in Northern Ireland of today, and how the IRA issues still affect modern policing, like that special investigative commission that handles newfound remains of victims of the pre-peace agreement violence.

The supporting cast is good, though I found the acting weak link was the character of Nisbet's boss, who was his former partner from the pre-peace agreement days when the IRA was active. Either the actor doesn't fit here, or his dialogue is particularly clunky; either way, it comes off oddly rhythmed and toned.

It's really upsetting to see trolls on here talking so badly about James Nesbitt.

If you don't like something he is in then simply don't watch it but please for the love of God stop saying things like "does anyone want to smash James Nesbitts face in" this is absolutely disgusting to speak about another human being like this shame on you.

Ok you don't like a series or movie that's entirely your own opinion but don't make something personal. With everything that's happened recently in the press do you really need reminding to "be kind"

Just watched the first episode and really impressed with the quality. Interesting story of a modern crime while demonstrating the difficulty of policing in NI over 20 years after the GFA.

A solid police show with a nice steady stream of twists and reveals, the second episode just dropped on ROKU and it keeps up the intrigue begun in the first. Not so complex that you need a scorecard to follow it, yet it never seems to drag or leave you looking for the FF button. I admit to being a sucker for Irish police shows and this one hasn't disappointed. Edit: I have to withdraw my enthusiasm for this series since the writers decided to make so many characters totally unlikable or dead. They had a great start but I think they dropped the ball big time. For me a show needs to have someone I can root for and they've left me with no one.

This is a strange program -- all the ingredients seem to be there for a good show but it doesn't get there. Part of the problem is that the plotting is twisted and hard to follow, part of the problem is that the characters aren't very well developed, and part of the problem is that the writing is overly cliched -- way too many "'let's go get 'em" and "there he is!" and "this is an important case and we must do our best" kind of lines.

But the other issue is the strangest -- for whatever reason, the camera spends far too much time focused on James Nesbitt's face, as though the storyline depended entirely on his expressions. He's a good actor but do we have to watch him so closely, follow his every facial tic, watch his eyes watch other people? It's almost as if someone said, "hey, let's do a show about James Nesbitt's face and, sure, we can add some plot and some characters if you want." Weird.