By Any Means

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.

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)

Headed by a Miss G. Mckee a group of plucky young people bring "justice" to those previously denied it.

Actually the girl wants to just shoot them, but is told no we don't /can't do that sort of thing.

Why not? Oh yes, because then there would be no episode.

Of course the police can't win, the lawyers/criminal are too good, never make mistakes and of course there is the usual crooked cops helping the bad guys.

Of course after saying no we don't shoot people, later Plan B is said to be exactly that, kill him.

Our boys and girl bring down those nasty men . These clever youngsters use a lot of computers which of course involves "hacking".

By Any Means is a remake of Hustle with a slight alteration: they switched Hustle's con men who go after bad guys for a vague group of 'cops' who go after bad guys, and they have different actors.

It has the same writer and creator. The same core group of good guys who operate outside conventional rules. The exact same jump cut obsessed directing. The same desire to fool the audience with trickery. The same elaborate scheming. The attempts at being cool. The 'witty,' good looking protagonists.

And the same bad writing and sad storylines.

I have trawled the internet to see if a second season has been commissioned - but no answers found. After his very untimely demise in Luther, I was looking forward to Warren Browne in this, what seemed to be, black - ops - of - the - police - world drama. Browne was a much more sexy, controlling and formidable character than that of Sgt Ripley along side Idris Elba. He had a gun, slept around and killed people! Cool. I did think at times corny, but almost embraced it as the characters seemed to excel at playing corny anyway. I love the concepts: are they police/aren't they police ... the grey area ... shadowy characters that don't need to live by rules... criminals that were too far up the food chain (and there own arses) to think they were ever going to be caught. I think this series deserves another run to see if it can mature and grow on the critics. There is a place for this type of genre as there really isn't anything else like it from UK at the moment. Give it a chance - I think it has the potential!

From the makers of Hustle which may have inspired Leverage a few years later in America.

Now this is a combination of Leverage and Hustle (with many of the same visual tricks used.)

Warren Brown plays a kind of a cop whose team takes down criminals and other assorted bad guys in ways the normal law enforcement agencies cannot.

Each week a mysterious Gina McKee would hand over an Ipad containing a dossier of the latest target for the gang. Each week Warren Brown would take the Ipad and fail to return it!

The series will not be returning to the BBC because of low ratings. Where Hustle was sharp, entertaining and had a good team that gelled.

This was bland, a bit boring and Warren Brown is no Adrian Lester. The rest of the team were no match for the Hustle gang.

Maybe, this series should had waited for a few years while our memories of Hustle faded. The format needed more work.

As it is this was average with little promise, hence no renewal.