Collateral - BBC2 Crime Drama

[Gretchen]

WinstonWolf said:

I'd say that's your age but you're a woman

I'm enjoying it...

Up until six months ago I’ve never really watched TV. I’ve watched more in the past six months than twenty years I think! Then it seems all the actors are being used in every drama.

I’m enjoying Collateral. There’s something dark and brooding about it, slow paced and grainy.

(I’m loving Endevour too. Who knew Morse was such a slag! - well not me, I never watched it)

[WinstonWolf]

Gretchen said:

WinstonWolf said:

I'd say that's your age but you're a woman

I'm enjoying it...

Up until six months ago I’ve never really watched TV. I’ve watched more in the past six months than twenty years I think! Then it seems all the actors are being used in every drama.

I’m enjoying Collateral. There’s something dark and brooding about it, slow paced and grainy.

(I’m loving Endevour too. Who knew Morse was such a slag! - well not me, I never watched it)

There's more good TV around these days if you look for it than there is time

[Mothersruin]

I'm done with the Beeb's drama stuff now - it's just a diversity awareness exercise nowadays with every ethnic, religious, MGBGT, race box ticked with a politically correct SJW written script.

[ape x]

Mothersruin said:

I'm done with the Beeb's drama stuff now - it's just a diversity awareness exercise nowadays with every ethnic, religious, MGBGT, race box ticked with a politically correct SJW written script.

Disagree to some extent as John Simms character is meant to be a tt and he is a tt, typical MP preaching to people.
Some of the script is daft but i think they are also playing for a 'crash' esq type thing, the Black policeman being very critical of refugees for example..its designed to twist peoples heads...
Also the very rich and posh ex of the MP living like some chav in a council flat (but the flat is a posh one) 2 kids no partner, taking drugs gambling etc and smoking inside etc....
I won't go as far as to say its clever..but i get what they tried...

[Swervin_Mervin]

It has potential but feels rushed. The script is incredibly clunky in parts - that bit with the MP's squeeze in the first episode where they're talking like they've been seeing each other for ages, but it's only their 3rd time together, and the letter?

It's like they're trying to squeeze character development all into far too short a timeframe and it's massively affecting the flow of the thing in my book. If they'd doubled it to 8 episodes and filled in the gaps I think it would work really well. At the moment though it's all a bit hard work and there's only Carey Mulligan that saves it and keeps it grounded.

[singlecoil]

Why do they need so many characters? Typical TV drama, far too many characters, almost as if it's a jobs for the boys (and girls) fest.

Not surprising that many of the characters in this simply didn't need to be there.

[marcosgt]

I enjoyed this greatly.

I thought it was well paced, something a few TV series seem to have got horribly wrong recently (Walking Dead, McMafia, etc).

The final episode did seem a little rushed, could have played out over 2 episodes I think, but generally I thought it was good.

People moaning about 'diversity quotas' - Well the world (especially London) is full of quite a diverse group of people.

I kind of agree with diversity being out of place, to a degree, in something like Midsommer Murders (most people in such places are middle class white people), but Lesbians, Asians, etc in London? Seems that NOT including such diversity would be flying in the face of reality!

M

[P-Jay]

I'm sort of enjoying it, but I'm watching it at the same time as 'Marcella' and it's not even close to that IMHO.

I don't know what it is but I'm not really gelling with it, but Kip / Carey Mulligan is the core of the problem, she's just completely robotic like she's reading the lines off the forehead of whoever she's talking at (not to).

Also, they established in episode 1 that Kip was pregnant, so why are they trying so very hard to hide it. Poor women spends all day with her hands in her pocket pushing her coat out as far a possible to hide her 'bump'.

[Europa1]

I enjoyed, but as a poster above noted, it did feel rushed, particularly the last episode.

[Swervin_Mervin]

P-Jay said:

I'm sort of enjoying it, but I'm watching it at the same time as 'Marcella' and it's not even close to that IMHO.

I don't know what it is but I'm not really gelling with it, but Kip / Carey Mulligan is the core of the problem, she's just completely robotic like she's reading the lines off the forehead of whoever she's talking at (not to).

Also, they established in episode 1 that Kip was pregnant, so why are they trying so very hard to hide it. Poor women spends all day with her hands in her pocket pushing her coat out as far a possible to hide her 'bump'.

See, I think Carey Mulligan saved it. It was all a bit of a mess tbh, and the script was fairly poor. She brought something new to the role of a TV detective I felt.

Regarding hte pregancy, I was talking to the other half about this and I wondered if it was a deliberate statement - she's still a committed detective and the pregnancy had no bearing on her ability to do the job.

[Brave Fart]

Agreed Swervin', but there were so many unnecessary features in this tale. The priest and her girlfriend, what was the point of that? Ditto the gay bishop. And the whole thing with the MP and Billie Piper, didn't affect the storyline one bit. Not to mention all the little PC digs that David Hare, the writer, decided to include - unfair treatment of asylum seekers, power mad party leader, insensitive security guard, dying mother let down by social services........all added up to a confusing soup of irrelevant stuff.
Are these things paid on how many episodes they can drag a simple plot out for?

[marcosgt]

There were lots of different plots - Not just the one, they intertwined around it (the Vicar's girlfriend sees the murder and the Vicar knows the local MP - The 'fling' between them seemed a bit far fetched, though - whose ex-wife is a clingy over-privileged loser, who regularly gets 'pizza' delivered, and who was the last person to see the victim).

I liked it - Some people seemed to want it to be something it wasn't, though.

I wasn't 100% sold on Mulligan - Sometimes she was good, but other times she seemed very uninterested.

M

[HorneyMX5]

The programme was called Collateral. The whole point of all the extra characters was to show the collateral damage inflicted beyond those immediately involved in the murder.

I thought it was quite good, although not outstanding.

[Swervin_Mervin]

HorneyMX5 said:

The programme was called Collateral. The whole point of all the extra characters was to show the collateral damage inflicted beyond those immediately involved in the murder.

I thought it was quite good, although not outstanding.

Exactly what I was about to post.