The Game

Great 4 episode drama, I watched it in a week and I'm not normally a TV binger. 'The game' between the two main characters, a returning ' gold blend' stalker and the freshly retired cop who didn't quite manage to catch him and is now adrift and restless playing gold.

The plot was a little predictable at times but just drew me in, plenty of 'aghhh' edge of seat moments when moves are about to be uncovered and you're desperately hoping the hero can stop unraveling in his frustration before more havoc is wreaked in this quaintly friendly neighbourhood.

Great acting all round. It wouldn't surprise me if we get a season 2.

I really started watching this for Robson Green and his acting did not disappoint. Huuw, the retired cop, although well acted, was absolutely idiotic and no way portrayed a retired cop of any substance. He was more like Columbo, all that was missing was the scruffy coat. He caused the deaths of two people with his idiotic behaviour. It was, however, a fantastic cat and mouse game. Huuw's wife, played by Sunetra Sarker, was excellently cast. She added some much needed grounding. I thoroughly enjoyed the series, despite Huuw's flaws.

Catch You Later or in the U. S., The Game, isn't brilliant TV. It's a rather derivative cat and mouse thriller that doesn't have much new to say. There are performances though that really elevate this tired material: Robson Green, a longtime favorite actor of mine, is appropriately reptilian and charming when he needs to be. It is bonkers though, that the neighborhood group don't clue in sooner, the one exception being Sunetra Sarker as Huw Miller's wife.

By turns, she is angry, frustrated, tired, ultimately loyal and very strong in defense of Huw, seasoned enough to intuit a predator in their midst. It's a performance that works on several levels of believability and ultimately satisfying.

Which brings me to the incredible performance of Jason Watkins, who I bet I've seen in many a British movie/TV show but just don't remember. He gives a full bodied, fleshed out performance of a man obsessed with the one that got away, his white whale. And all his selfishness, determination, frustrations, anger and near hysteria at times, filtered through such human ticks, to get this killer off the streets burns through you. I thought he was just magnificent.

The show isn't required viewing, but if you're an actor, you can learn a lot by just sitting back and watching Jason Watkins work.

The first episode was good but, if seemed as though all thd efforts had been put into the opener. After a poor middle couple of episodes, the series comes to a better finale but still struggles to show any originality or any real dramatic effect.

Robson Green seems to be cringing to the viewing audience but somehow seems to be the best mate to nearly all of his new neighbours.

Jason Watkins does show some great acting in parts but not enough to save the overall hum drum of the show.

Things manage to come to a satisfactory conclusion just when the truth seemed futile Another run of the mill channel 5 release.

Newly retired detective Huw Miller (Jason Watkins) who failed in finding the killer stalker, before he retired at the grand old age of 55, following a nervous breakdown. Anyway, he need not worry, as the stalker Patrick Harbottle (Robson Green) has found him. In fact he's killed his neighbour, living directly opposite, purchased his house, and moved in, all in a space of a week or so. Sounds far fetched? That's probably because it is. The pace of the drama is too quick after episode two, it appears they have sacrificed character development while also compromising on a good storyline, so the whole production can be wrapped up in just four episodes, I speculate for budget reasons, which is a shame. Really strong acting as you would expect from two actors of this calibre, but on the whole an anticlimax.