Xine9g9

I watched Seasons One & Two, despite the disappointing ratings, because it stars Adrian Dunbar. Disappointing.

Dunbar (Ridley) is a retired detective, mourning the deaths of his wife and daughter, who is recalled to duty in an unofficial capacity, supposedly because his particular skills and insights are needed. But there is nothing special about the cases and his special skills seem to consist of riding over every one else, treating his colleagues like fools, making decisions based on speculative what-ifs that come out of the blue, and occasionally behaving like a total prat.

The mourning theme becomes irritating by Season Two, by which point we are treated to his pysch sessions which serve up pat comments on the grieving process.

Dunbar is a fine actor, along with most of the rest of the cast, but they are served with trite dialogue and stereotypical plotting.

Bronagh Waugh does the best she can as DI Carol Farman, supposedly the team leader, who apparently willingly takes a back seat to Ridley on even the most ordinary matters of police investigation.

In virtually every case the who dunnit is clear well before the denouement.

This is slow television, made slower by the thread concerning Ridley's part-ownership of a jazz bar in which he sings virtually every episode. While his voice is pleasant enough, this does nothing to tie into the cop drama and the songs are not profound enough to serve as thematic commentary. Perhaps in a third season this may become more fully integrated.

My irritation was ameliorated by the beautifully sere landscape, beautifully filmed. But that is far from enough to make this worth re-watching or recommending to others.

Reviewing Season One. Excellent thriller as a couple of innocents doing their jobs find that they've been unknowingly pulled into international underhand contestation over plans to have China build nuclear power stations in the UK. Professional colleagues keep turning up dead as the plane travels from London to Beijing to turn over the British citizen wanted for putatively murdering a young woman.

The hero's a bit of a bore and the heroine a bit too on top of it all for a mere Detective Constable. But casting generally works very well.

To me, the real rat seemed pretty obvious from episode 5 but there's enough uncertainty to keep the issue alive until near the end.

The puzzle of what really was at stake is satisfyingly solved towards the end. Having said that, the need to tie up every possible loose end results in a rather silly last quarter hour or so, with a final melodramatic outcome for one character and maudlin final scenes for others. Not enough to spoil the programme but enough to rob it of top billing.

A show that starts off well but becomes increasingly tiresome. Season One is interesting as Julia (Debra Messing) and Tom (Christian Borle) are inspired to undertake a musical about Marilyn Monroe and gather a cast of others, including the aggressive, womanizing director, Derek (Jack Davenport) around them to bring it to light. A second theme concerns the rivalry between Ivy (Megan Hilty), who's been striving on Broadway for years, and Karen (Katharine McPhee), the girl from nowhere whose brilliant singing and stage presence calvanizes all who encounter her. Among the other themes is the hostile end of marriage rival-producer hostilities between Eileen (Anjeica Huston) and Jerry (Michael Cristofer). Season Two introduces new themes and a raft of new characters. Bombshell is on its way to Broadway and the Tonys, Karen's love relationship with the appealing Dev (Raza Jaffrey) is on the rocks and other cast members deal with various other love and family crises. A second show begins to emerge--Hit List--written by two yound underdogs, Kyle (Andy Mientus) and Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan), the latter of whom becomes Karen's new love interest. The competition heats up, with the series culminating on Tony Awards night.

From the beginning the Karen theme undermines the show. Katherine McPhee can sing loudly but doesn't project anything near the brilliance needed to make her story of nowhere to Tony nominee feasible. And she is too weak an actor to convey the nuances of character and emotion. In Season One, this is somewhat disguised by her relationship with Dev. But by Season Two, she has become a kind of all-American Polyanna Redemption Missionary, intend on saving others (particularly the cynical Derek and awful Jimmy) from themselves. How on earth she managed to be starred ahead of Chrisian Borle, and even Megan Hilty, is beyond me. Jimmy is a horrible character who we are eventually supposed to come to understand and respect. Jeremy Jordan plays hime in a couple of monotones--monotone outrage, primarily, with occasional shifts to mono-sorry. The final episode is marked by a truly saccharine resolution of his and Karen's love affair.

As the final scene between them emphasizes, they were given some pretty poor material to play with. But, unlike the many of the other actors, neither of them has the skill to rise above their scripts.

For those who are not au fait with how it all works, the weaknesses of the show are partially overcome by the interesting issues of casting, pulling a musical together, the kinds of shenanigans associated with media attention and, sometimes, the music and choreography. And, along the way, we learn some things about Marilyn Monroe, although those could have been more fully drawn out, particularly in Season One, when Julia, Tom and Derek struggle to find focus.

All up, worth a look but not a second look.