The Bodyguard

Cockney Mackem said:
See also: Stephen Poliakoff. But at least Jed Mercurio stuff is fun to watch instead of Poliakoff's dreary mannered shite
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I was a huge fan of Poliakoff and Shooting The Past is superb but his latest offerings have been very poor. Almost forgetting what made him great in the first place.
Not television but Don Winslow has gone the same way. Wrote some fantastic novels but now he's allowed to get away with overblown cliched nonsense.
 


Sandboy said:
There have been many much better dramas that got nothing like the coverage. I think the interesting thing in hindsight may be to study the marketing behind it and how they managed to generate such hype about something so average.

I was suckered when I heard a reviewer on 5Live say the first 20 minutes of the first episode was possibly the best television he's ever seen. It patently wasn't and he'd been told what to say imho. They've just done exactly the same interviewing one of the plod.
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I would suggest anyone who's watched the last season of Breaking Bad could pick a couple of dozen 20 minute segments better than that. Or Game of Thrones. Or the Wire. Or Boys From The Blackstuff, Edge of Darkness, original House of Cards, original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the original broadcast of Orwell's 1984, first series of Walking Dead, pretty much all of Firefly, rebooted Battlestar Galactica, Sopranos, Twin Peaks, Deadwood, The Shield, Homicide: Life In The Street...
 
rentaghost said:
You can punch holes in all of the above for not being real life (that's because believe it or not they aren't) it doesn't make them any less entertaining. The only thing with any certainty is those hammering it will be the first in the queue to watch the second series even if today they say they wont.
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I would argue that it does. Entertainment works on many levels and realism is crucial in a drama like this.
They attempted a Usual Suspects type reveal at the end but it had no impact because of what had gone before. Nobody cared that the lass had made the bombs. The twist about the copper on the inside made no sense because the reason for it was 'just because'.
Not sure if anybody else noticed the ham fisted nod to the original House of Cards. That's clearly where they think the writing is but it's a million miles apart.
If a bunch of nobodies on the SMB can pull the script apart, how can the paid professionals whose job it is not manage it.
Being fiction is not a big enough excuse. Would you have accepted Mike Ashley as the man behind everything with Gina Mckee saying 'Ya divvunt understand'? Or the kids from Grange Hill rushing into the park singing 'Just Say No' until Budd put the bomb down? There has to be a line on realism.
 
RestlessNatives said:
I would argue that it does. Entertainment works on many levels and realism is crucial in a drama like this.
They attempted a Usual Suspects type reveal at the end but it had no impact because of what had gone before. Nobody cared that the lass had made the bombs. The twist about the copper on the inside made no sense because the reason for it was 'just because'.
Not sure if anybody else noticed the ham fisted nod to the original House of Cards. That's clearly where they think the writing is but it's a million miles apart.
If a bunch of nobodies on the SMB can pull the script apart, how can the paid professionals whose job it is not manage it.
Being fiction is not a big enough excuse. Would you have accepted Mike Ashley as the man behind everything with Gina Mckee saying 'Ya divvunt understand'? Or the kids from Grange Hill rushing into the park singing 'Just Say No' until Budd put the bomb down? There has to be a line on realism.
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Indeed
It's a message board with people of different options discussing things
 
RestlessNatives said:
I would argue that it does. Entertainment works on many levels and realism is crucial in a drama like this.
They attempted a Usual Suspects type reveal at the end but it had no impact because of what had gone before. Nobody cared that the lass had made the bombs. The twist about the copper on the inside made no sense because the reason for it was 'just because'.
Not sure if anybody else noticed the ham fisted nod to the original House of Cards. That's clearly where they think the writing is but it's a million miles apart.
If a bunch of nobodies on the SMB can pull the script apart, how can the paid professionals whose job it is not manage it.
Being fiction is not a big enough excuse. Would you have accepted Mike Ashley as the man behind everything with Gina Mckee saying 'Ya divvunt understand'? Or the kids from Grange Hill rushing into the park singing 'Just Say No' until Budd put the bomb down? There has to be a line on realism.
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Fully agreed, especially on both reveals. They were utterly worthless.

The only decent part of last night's episode was the brief second where Budd did a runner. In reality he would have been caught within seconds though.
 
RestlessNatives said:
That was bloody dreadful.:lol:
Possibly the most ridiculous television I have ever watched.
The dead man's switch taped down. Did not one person in the whole production crew think 'hold on...'?
Moved him to a park to avoid blowing up buildings then let him wander through the whole of London? The exclusion zone in that park was interesting as was the ridiculous notion that they would let his lass just loiter about.
There were hundreds of other holes in the plot and the 'big' twists toward the end meant nothing as everything was so ridiculous.

As someone mentioned earlier, the marketing obviously worked but I think there's also a discussion to be had on audience expectations. If people genuinely see that as some of the best television they have ever watched, it is a very worrying development.

I suspect, as happens with a lot of writers, Jed Mercurio has become so successful with Line of Duty, nobody dares challenge him and reign him in. He must be overruling editors who highlight the holes in his plot as the writing was atrocious.
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Meanwhile in countless impossibly tasteful loft apartments scattered across northern Europe, script writers switch off their B&O television sets and slowly pour themselves a coffee from a handy thermos flask.

Glistening in the carefully subdued lighting, tears from suppressed giggles run down their collective cheeks as they simultaneously splutter ‘fuck me gently’ in Scandinavian.
 
His hair did more accomplished acting than him. Perfectly coiffured early on when everything was good. Brushed forward to show that he'd been blown up. Somewhere in between when he wasn't quite down and out but was still in a bit of bother.

The whole blanks in the gun thing. If they really went to all that trouble to stop him shooting himself, did they also blunt all the sharp knives in his kitchen, place a bouncy castle under his balcony and replace any pills he had in his house with smarties? How could they know he was going to top himself? How did they know he would stop after one failed attempt?
How did Chanel get a job with so much access with no checks about her associates?
Why, after he has been a major suspect, broken a shit load of laws, rules and regulations and is going to be subject to an investigation, was he allowed to sit in and watch the interviews?
 
RestlessNatives said:
His hair did more accomplished acting than him. Perfectly coiffured early on when everything was good. Brushed forward to show that he'd been blown up. Somewhere in between when he wasn't quite down and out but was still in a bit of bother.

The whole blanks in the gun thing. If they really went to all that trouble to stop him shooting himself, did they also blunt all the sharp knives in his kitchen, place a bouncy castle under his balcony and replace any pills he had in his house with smarties? How could they know he was going to top himself? How did they know he would stop after one failed attempt?
How did Chanel get a job with so much access with no checks about her associates?
Why, after he has been a major suspect, broken a shit load of laws, rules and regulations and is going to be subject to an investigation, was he allowed to sit in and watch the interviews?
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The thing was a complete shamozzle. They were narrating to the viewer what was going to happen before it actually happened. It was like Jermain Jenas on MOTD when he is providing the words Lineker used in his question to provide his answer.

It was utterly shit and my disappointment is with the BBC who can knock out a tremendous drama but instead got a bunch of money and blew it up in smoke. The latter at least would have been real.
 
Pepe said:
The thing was a complete shamozzle. They were narrating to the viewer what was going to happen before it actually happened. It was like Jermain Jenas on MOTD when he is providing the words Lineker used in his question to provide his answer.

It was utterly shit and my disappointment is with the BBC who can knock out a tremendous drama but instead got a bunch of money and blew it up in smoke. The latter at least would have been real.
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Yet you watched 6 and a bit hours' worth if it?
 
RestlessNatives said:
I would argue that it does. Entertainment works on many levels and realism is crucial in a drama like this.
They attempted a Usual Suspects type reveal at the end but it had no impact because of what had gone before. Nobody cared that the lass had made the bombs. The twist about the copper on the inside made no sense because the reason for it was 'just because'.
Not sure if anybody else noticed the ham fisted nod to the original House of Cards. That's clearly where they think the writing is but it's a million miles apart.
If a bunch of nobodies on the SMB can pull the script apart, how can the paid professionals whose job it is not manage it.
Being fiction is not a big enough excuse. Would you have accepted Mike Ashley as the man behind everything with Gina Mckee saying 'Ya divvunt understand'? Or the kids from Grange Hill rushing into the park singing 'Just Say No' until Budd put the bomb down? There has to be a line on realism.
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They did though - millions were pretty enthralled with what they thought was an excellent drama and a great finale. At work today loads were talking about it in that sort of manner. Every drama I have ever seen is unrealistic to a point and you can pick them all apart if you want to. I loved happy valley but that stretched the bounds of reality even further but was still great entertainment.

Temp0101 said:
Yet you watched 6 and a bit hours' worth if it?
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And he will watch 6 and a bit hours of the next one and still twist on about it.
 
rokerexile said:
Enjoyed it up to a point but there's only so far you can push the suspension of disbelief and the finale went beyond it I'm afraid. They've been bulling it up all week on the Beeb and someone tonight said something like it was the most compelling drama of the decade! Sorry? Didn't you watch Happy Valley? Nowhere near that quality of writing or acting. Taboo was much better too.
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I'd agree that both of those two were better, but this certainly wasn't as bad as some on here claim it was. He isn't the bad actor that some are claiming either.

The Great MES said:
Grrr. So it was the muzzies afterall
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Not exactly. It was state sponsored gangsters, and jihadists working together. Something that most just can't bring themselves to believe actually happens.
 
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RestlessNatives said:
I would argue that it does. Entertainment works on many levels and realism is crucial in a drama like this.
They attempted a Usual Suspects type reveal at the end but it had no impact because of what had gone before. Nobody cared that the lass had made the bombs. The twist about the copper on the inside made no sense because the reason for it was 'just because'.
Not sure if anybody else noticed the ham fisted nod to the original House of Cards. That's clearly where they think the writing is but it's a million miles apart.
If a bunch of nobodies on the SMB can pull the script apart, how can the paid professionals whose job it is not manage it.
Being fiction is not a big enough excuse. Would you have accepted Mike Ashley as the man behind everything with Gina Mckee saying 'Ya divvunt understand'? Or the kids from Grange Hill rushing into the park singing 'Just Say No' until Budd put the bomb down? There has to be a line on realism.
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Honestly, do you think that means anything. You're totally missing the point of the exercise. Write a series, get the ratings, sell series on to other countries. They don't give a toss what we think on here, as long as millions tune in.
 

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