Roadkill

I have watched the 4 episodes of this show and I think it has some ups and downs, but as someone who is not British and mostly centralist in my own political views I felt I needed to give my thoughts in hopes of offering some fair perspective. Now in ep 1 I really felt the show was biased and anti-right wing, so for people who only saw ep 1, I see where you are coming from, but I did feel later episodes sort of shifted that narrative, Peter's personality is layered and his ambition isn't ideological, they do make an effort to show he's coming from a place of conviction not just greed or hate, he sees his actions as for the betterment of his country, the story isn't even about the ideology it's about how politics and scandals go together and I think the way the story concludes is quite effective. Is it amazing or earth shatter, No. Is it leaning a certain way politically, yes. Is it an entertaining 4 hours of content where you find yourself rooting for the "bad guys", absolutely! I wish everyone would give it a fair shake! but also acknowledge that people have different political views and it's ok if they like/dislike a show for the way it handles them, it's fine, but what's not fine is when those views completely cloud your judgment.

I find it humorously ironic that the consumer reviews section highlights one of the main subtexts of this well crafted show. A lot of sensationalist polarised opinions based on political allegiance rather than acknowledgement of a well written script and some standout performances. I agree that the characters are a bit 2D but the show needs to form a base from which to develop. I hope the BBC comissioners give this show the future it deserves as there's a lot of interesting and engaging stuff here.

It's evident that there has been a concerted move by far right anti-BBC reviewers to downgrade this drama, giving very low marks that are contrary to the majority of reviewers not related to the Daily Mail et al. In fact, after watching just one episode l think this appears to be an absorbing political drama, not wholly unconnected to events at the present time. l know the idea that certain politicians are nasty pieces of work who are strangers to truth upsets some people, but not the majority of people and I believe this is going to be a very good series based on what I've seen so far.

As an expat Brit who grew up in the reign of Queen Thatcher this resonates.

David Hare is at least consistent, mostly from the self-righteous Tony Blair worldview.

You know you'll get some disparagement of the Tories but God knows if you're paying attention you know it's well deserved...

Political venality isn't party specific so he does a good job with lightly sketched characters.

I liked the music, no idea why so many didn't.

It's not House of Cards, but Barbie isn't Oppenheimer...so what?

Well acted and filmed, yes there are cliches and tropes here. In political drama thus will it ever be so.

A good use of four hours of your leisure time.

Watch this!!!!

Thought I'd write something as I saw a rant about tropes of people of colour and "white men bad"- That person has issues and is projecting. There is a female PM (she's no Angel) but the majority of the politicians are depicted as white men, it's Britain so this should be expected. The people of colour are side characters and the majority are in prison, the other notable main person of colour is a morally bankrupt barrister and that's it so I'm not seeing all this good that PaulSpencer chose to see. I'm also confused as to what could have been the expectation considering they're supposed to represent the Tory party. Also, I didn't think of the main Hugh Laurie character as bad, he's just a politician, has done no worse if not less than our current politicians, but his character is very likeable. After the things our ministers have done they still manage to survive and carry on- This is no different. Despite his failings he still manages to make us like him and even root for him. The portrayals of some of the female characters are a bit 2D and questionable, something seems unfinished so I can understand people having issue there. As a Brit I didn't see the anti-right sentiment, I simply see snippets of what we have now with the Tory government and I don't think it would been much different if they were portraying a labour government - These are the political workings of our government.

Overall this isn't groundbreaking but it's a decent watch, it's entertaining. They could have done better with the material and stretched it out over a few more eps but for the talent alone I'd watch another series.