By Any Means

This was the starting week for many series in USA and UK. Not any real diamond among them. Most of them are bad to mediocre but so far "By Any Means" is the worst.

There are many problem with this TV-series.

First and most important all the actors and actresses lack charisma. I don't know what they have done before B.A.M. but they are totally forgettable, performance wise, even their faces. The team of 3, have the usual snob/hype attitude, common in many series, but just doesn't suits them. No charisma at all.

Second and equally important the plot. Is about a "special team" and blah-blah, blah-blah, one of them is a hacker (!), the girl is the ...locks expert, the last one is the street smart and blah-blah, blah-blah, *YAWN*. And they will catch the bad guy in a mildly smart way.

Third the pace, editing, transitions between shots, photography, music and (obviously) directing are simply annoying. (If you now a things or two about editing there is something called "light spills" that is overused here.). To put it in 2 words: Poor execution.

There is an arrest (in the pilot) that introduces (kind of) to the team stolen directly from an Al Pacino movie were the criminals think they are going to participate in some sort of Sports event. I saw it and keep asking my self: Are these people the Special team? That's how uncharismatic they are.

Anyway this has nothing to do with other BBC series like "Sherlock" in terms of fun or intelligence and you can do perfectly well without it.

Overall: Better to avoid it. (Or you will lose 57' of your life)

hello fellow TV show addicts,

please excuse a little explanation at the beginning. this is the first time i feel obligated to write here on IMDb. For quite a while i am overall a little disturbed by the sometimes extreme ratings for shows here on IMDb. As if there were only tens and zeros out there. In my opinion one needs to learn to differentiate a bit in his life. To moan about an overall decline in values, the wasting of taxpayers money and other exaggerated, demagogic ranting just because of a TV-show? Really? Over here in many of central Europe's other countries public service broadcasting is still your granny's TV. Limited to two Channels, broadcasting News, some decent reports and besides that mostly breakfast television, dusty whodunit repetitions and other things with a slightly relicish feel.

All that in mind back to topic:

This TV-show may not be another Luther, Sherlock nor any other high end, ingeniously plotted, exquisitely acted, overall gorgeous, critically acclaimed, kick-ass TV-marvel. but, does it need to be? does it want to?

i stumbled upon this new format by accident whilst looking for new things to watch. I liked the leading actor quite a lot on Luther, so i gave it a try. Thankfully before reading any reviews. A decent meal can leave you quite satisfied after a long day, doesn't it? And like that this show works for me. Yes, you can see right through the webbing of this show. The lead, the geek, the eye candy. Does a twist even deserve to be called a twist if you expected it right on time? rather not. The almost comical black and white views on good and bad.

But still, i liked it. I liked to be right. I liked getting nothing unexpected. I liked the boastful appearance of the characters. I liked the snappy comments and the predictable one-liners.

So if you're looking for something to clear your head, ease your mind or have a smile now and then. I encourage you to try it.

Not every nice evening has to feature a six-course dinner.

greetings from the deep south of Bavaria

Briefly, I'd like to say that I agree with lots of the points raised in more negative reviews; By Any Means reflects styles that we've seen before, much of the content is quite lightweight and there have definitely been higher spec productions. However, because I enjoy the program I tend to view those as positives.

I've enjoyed some of the techniques previously seen elsewhere and hopefully if they opt for a second season they will refine them rather than overuse them. I think there is not just space but a continuing need for material that is lighter in tone within the TV schedule, to maintain a full range of options for people. Regarding the production quality, if you enjoy a program you make allowances at the same time as you suspend your disbelief and focus on the story; if I'd been forced to sit through the episode and had found it annoying from the off then every little thing would have compounded the frustration, but happily I enjoyed it.

Less rambling. By Any Means has characterisation that is writ large, the nods to recent events are fairly unsubtle and you can rely on the twist. It is what it is, which is a police procedural with flavours from a number of family friendly programs (most obviously Hustle, I am also put in mind of the sense of adventure fun in the earlier seasons of Primeval and Robin Hood, although that may be influenced by certain actors!) Simplest way to work out if it is of interest would be to watch an episode. If you start feeling the urge to rant about licence fees part way through, or the state of the BBC, how the world was better when you were 12 and so forth, I'd stop part way through and have a cup of tea :)

I really like Warren Brown, and I really like spy-style shows, so this one ticks a lot of boxes. I didn't know it was meant to be a comedy, so I guess all the laughs for me were genuine. It's a bit like Jonathan Creek crossed with Spooks, with all the hi-tech undercover save the day spy stuff laced with the light-hearted feel, and the 'how did they do that?' at the end.

Don't see why people should just flat out pan the show. If the actors had a laugh whilst doing it, good for them - can't do the serious roles all the time after all. It's light hearted, but that doesn't make it a waste of licence fee - I can think of a whole lot of other dross that wins that award hands down.

If it's not for you then fair enough, but that doesn't devalue the show for other watchers who are enjoying it.

I personally am hoping for another series or two.

As other reviewers here I've never written a review for any series. But what I read here made me get behind the keyboard. Clearly all the low voters have never had to endure public or commercial TV in other European countries. This show is part of Britain's BBC heaven. En indeed not every show is entitled to occupy center stage in the programming, but it definitely has the right to get shown. It's different, funny and generally fast paced. The young actors must have had a good time making it, and I certainly have a good time watching it. Yes indeed, sometimes it is somewhat taxing on your intelligence, and I would hope that the writers are less easily satisfied at a next occasion. For instance that fact that in one episode our dream team apparently has never heard of mobile telephone triangulation, only to apply it themselves in the next episode as if they've never done anything else. Please writers, don't do this to us. It puts us off from a show that is otherwise a pleasure to watch when we got nothing better to do, and, as said, many shades better than the skin cringing stuff we see elsewhere on TV screens.