Stonemouth

Putting a crime fiction novel onto the screen can be difficult and this one was done mindfully. It didn't drag. The locations were great. The sex and violence and soapiness and rude vocab weren't overdone. The narration was used really well. We liked it.

Christian Cooke really is pretty though. I can't tell if it was the dialogue or the acting that was the problem of if it was the pretty people who made it feel so soapy but it was pretty bad if somewhat exciting at a couple points.

When the British get crime drama right, no one does it better, and this is an excellent example

Stonemouth is an adaptation of Iain Banks penultimate novel. It's the first to be televised since The Crow Road. Like The Crow Road it has a dark undercutting and plenty of flashbacks as well as on screen narration.

Christian Cooke is Stewart Gilmour, returning to Stonemouth. A fictional port town for the funeral of his childhood friend Callum Murston who committed suicide and who helped Stewart out as a child when a mentally deranged boy ran amok with a sword.

Callum's father, Don Murston (Peter Mullan) a local crime boss and his two other sons had chased Stewart out of town five years earlier for messing around with his daughter Ellie.

Stewart has been allowed back in to attend the funeral and is expected to scamper back to London fast. However Stewart is suspicious of the death and decides to ask uncomfortable questions. He also gets together with Ellie thus incurring the wrath of the Murston's.

Stonemouth the town is like a place from the wild west. It is run by Don Murston and his two sons are his lackeys and enforcers. The sons are referred to at one point as the Chuckle Brothers, seemingly incompetent and lacking in brain cells. No wonder then that someone else is easily manipulating them.

I could never get over why they were so upset that Ellie who we see snorting cocaine and is caught fooling around with Stewart is expected to be so pure and kept away from boys. She is a good looking lady and Stewart is supposed to be Don's Godson.

The two part series had an interesting set up. Plenty of good looking actors but not much cop in the acting stakes. For that you rely on the older cast members. The second episode got a bit silly. It relied too much on coincidence, luck and people doing stupid things. It all felt underwhelming and undercooked.

The Crow Road although a longer serial was better.

As a self-contained miniseries of just two episodes, there had to be a lot of explaining and exposition. This was done by the main character Stewart Gilmour doing a voiceover at many points in the story to explain what had come before or why certain relationships had soured. It's hard to transfer a novel to screen with so little time and this was the formula the screenwriters chose. It wasn't that satisfactory.

The story was complicated with twists and turns. I haven't read the novel but I surmise it handled them better than the show.

The younger male actors were beauteous hunks with a modern proclivity for polysexuality. Chris Fulton playing Ferg was a prime example although Christian Cooke's so blue eyes fascinated too.

We knew the purported crime would be sorted out but it was just so truncated doing it in two episodes.

As for personal relationships, I just can't understand why Stewart never told Ellie to hold on a minute; he'd seen her snogging another guy at the party. Like one of the other reviewers I'd have preferred to see him end up with Ferg.

I watched over two nights. Yes, I enjoyed it but I wouldn't say it's the best.