The Outsiders

When looking at trailers for this ITV Drama it was clearly an attempt at turning Nigel Harman (yet another ex-soap star jumping to ITV) into a Jason Bourne like character. Hell, it even had Brian Cox in it! I thought I'd give it a go. How bad could it be I thought...

But within 5 minutes of watching the programme it was clear that Jason Bourne wasn't the writer's only influence. As noted by others The Da Vinci Code was one of them. The list of rips-offs....or homages continued with Out Of Sight (and Don't Look Now), Alias, the list seemed to go on and on.

It's okay to be like another film or TV show, but at least try to do something different.

The Outsiders was a mess, the plot was all over the place, the characters were two dimensional and totally in-consistent. One minute Anna Madeley our attractive female lead seemed to be in total control of the situation, the next she was the new girl at the office wa-a-a-y in over her head....

The villains weren't anything special.

The few action set pieces were fumbled by the director.

Dialogue was turgid.

The tone was all over the place, was it meant to be a bit tongue in cheek or was it meant to be a down and dirty action thriller? It wasn't either.

It was a below average Sunday tea-time show put in a post-watershed time slot for no good reason.

Even the shows title made no sense.

The real annoyance was that only a few days ago ITV1 broadcast a new one-off special of Cracker. Which was 2 hours of TV gold. Proof that ITV can still (occasionally) do good drama.

In a world where shows like 24, CSI and The Shield exist there isn't any excuse for shows like The Outsiders to reach our screens.

I very much doubt it'll be turned into a full series, but if it does it really needs some re-tooling. Getting new writers would be job one.

Avoid, avoid, avoid. Instead put on the DVD of one of the Bourne films.

What can one say about this vehicle for Nigel Harman. It was acted as well as could be expected with a very lumpy script and cliché ridden plot that seemed to have been lifted from a weekend of watching loads of DVD's from Blockbusters. The undeniable talents of Brian Cox were wasted trying to add weight to very thin dialogue. The characterisation relied too much on narrative, IE: "I know all about your history, you were born in 1962, had went to a convent, felt alienated because you were clever, etc etc." The best element of The Outsiders was the very watchable Anna Madeley who despite also being let down heavily by the writing, manages to shine through with credibility in tact. Despite the downs of the script and direction, it should be noted that this was written as a pilot and as such has to lay a lot of foundations very quickly and so a certain amount of spider blinding should be expected. Suspend disbelief. Leave cynicism outside. Have a glass or ten of wine and enjoy.

Touted as being in the genre of " The Bourne Identity" (and Supremacy), this film had a lot to live up to, but failed miserably. Nigel Harman plays a former spy now running a lobster restaurant. He is seduced into bed, and wakes up chained to it. He is "kidnapped" into going on the very clichéd "one last job". The task is to steal a painting from a very secure place. The idea of this provokes thoughts of a good action thriller, but the film was almost 40 minutes in before any action took place. After 55 minutes I was getting bored, so went for a bath. My wife stuck it out till the end , and assured me that it didn't get any better. Prime time TV? Sorry but this one really did disappoint. What made it worse was the TV guide giving it an unmissable rating. If ITV do screen further episodes (as previous reviewer mentioned), then I may give it a second go, but if it was no better 15 minutes in, I would turn over without question.

The Outsiders was actually better than i thought it would be although there was room for some improvement. It was an entertaining 90 minutes and the producers certainly made the Mersey locations believably foreign. The whole premise of Nigel Harman playing a retired 'agent' for Minus 12 was well handled and made for a good start to the story as we picked up on what was going on. I think there is definitely room for a series out of this, but hopefully the producers will drop some of the daft effects that hurt the overall feel of The Outsiders. The wholly unconvincing table based viewing screen and naff looking underground complex for Minus 12 to start with! Overall it was well worth watching and I do hope we get to see more...

I saw this tv yrs back loved it-but typical itv1 ib them days axed it,,,abtibe know where i can get a copy or watch again.thx.