British drama has a bad rap round here, it has been a long time since a British show grabbed my attention, however in fairness it has not been since the second episode of Breaking Bad
The series opens with a bang, a policeman lying in the street having been shot during a tense stand off in a suburban street. The man responsible for the shooting claims he is the victim of identity fraud and that someone else has committed the crimes he is accused of, of course that doesn’t explain why he shot a policeman. Anyway when the siege has ended the Identity Fraud squad enter and start to chase down leads to find the man responsible. Paper trials and witness interviews all climax in an action chase scene around a school.
The problem with bad cop shows is that the protagonist can be a bit of a mystery, this is a classic example of not knowing who we are suppose to care about. Do we care about the man who had his identity stolen, but then shot a cop? Do we care about the investigators who are just doing their job? Do we care about the identity thief who had his own life taken from him? Me personally I didn’t care about any of them, no one really had to make a tough choice and there was no stake raising towards the end, nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Even though the camera kept whizzing around, at the end of the day it was all about following receipts and making connections that is all pretty dull when that is being spoon fed to you and crazy action chases mean nothing if you are not emotionally involved. In the end we learn that one of the Fraud Squad is leading a double life in a Turkish criminal gang, so we can presume that this will provide the series arc, but why just throw it in in the last three minutes of the show? It comes from nowhere and feels like an after thought.
Identity fraud can screw up your life, there is no doubt about that, but trying to capture that from the point of view of the investigators is just dull, no matter how many chases you throw in. With another five episodes to go it is unclear what more they can throw at the screen to fool me into thinking that identity fraud is a ticking time bomb of destruction. Watch the trailer below to see just how overblown this is…
Created / Written by: Ed Whitmore
Directed by: Brendan Maher
Starring: Aidan Gillen, Keeley Hawes, Holly Aird, Elyes Gabel, Shaun, Patrick Baladi
Date premièred: 5 July 2010 – ITV1
and followed by Treme, The Good Guys, Outlaw Country, the recently wrapped up 
and new entry Memphis Beat. Since these last two have more than little in common I will review both now.
the pilot sets up that all too familiar police dynamic and while Raylan maybe more gentleman than brute force, his unconventional methods still rials up his boss. With 
finishing on such a high last year, it was great to see the return of the brilliant Walton Goggins to the TV screens, he manages to infuse real character in what could a horrible stereotype in other hands. The pilot serves to set up the interesting characters and dynamics, but as a result feels a little back story heavy with many key events taking place prior to the first episode. With a setting that takes us out of the cities we have become use to in other cop shows, there is certainly scope for fresh storylines. However, although bold in the early stages highlighting the consequence of a policeman shooting his gun, by the end you get the feeling that as long as it is a bad guy getting shot, that is all the justification needed.
. Law enforcement will always be a popular choice for drama, like medical shows it allows for an easy, self contained story each week, but it is such a well trodden path that you have to throw in something new to win me over.
has left a hole that many want to fill. They think the trick is to hook an audience in with a big mystery with the promise that if they just keep watching all the answers will be revealed. Persons Unknown comes from the fine writing pedigree that brought us 
, an interesting study on character and how the individual’s unique skills benefit the group. This is not however where Persons Unknown is heading.
. Such a success was this multi generational look at one of life’s greatest challenges network TV rushed out to make a small screen version. Ed Begley Jr, David Arquette and Leonardo DiCaprio took on the roles of their big screen counterparts, unfortunately for Leo, the series followed the fate of other 80s and early 90s movies turned TV shows (
, 
, 
and Baby Talk (based on the film 
)) and lasted only on series.
star Peter Krause. Originally intended for a September airing it pushed back to the mid-season as actress Maura Tierney was diagnosed with breast cancer, as a result Mercy was brought up in its place. Tiernay went on to leave the series due to her treatment and Lauren Graham took her place.
and Party Down have enjoyed a moderate amount of success, but their latest addition is 
.
to cover manhood or lack there of. Starz looking to make a name for it’s original drama has created a series that promised much violence and plenty of full frontal nudity from both sexes.
, a 225 if you will, but this is only one piece of the puzzle – the slow motion fights. For dialogue they have thrown in the original Spartacus, while HBO’s 
provides influence for the explicit sex. Finally 
provides a great deal of influence for the series’ title character; Spartacus was a slave turned Gladiator turned leader of an army, here we have husband warrior sold into a Gladiator school. The Spartacus in this series has no bonds with slavery, there is no hint of what the man shall become which seems very short sighted. Away from the sex and violence the series feels like a movie of the week with melodramatic emotions and swearing thrown in just because they can.
, mainly because it gives credibility to some of the most evil people on the planet. Those who seek to exploit people in their most desperate hour, real police time is wasted and these charlatans are only too happy to profit off the back of someone else’s tragedy. For an insight into what these folk get up to check out Stop Sylvia Browne. Rant over.
burst onto the scene in 2008 with the idea of teaming a man with a unique skill (in the case a reformed TV psychic) with a bunch of detectives (now it can be argued that the idea for The Mentalist was stolen from comedy drama Psych – a fact not gone unnoticed by the show.) This was followed a few months later by 
which saw a crime novelist team up with detectives to solve crime. Finally we have 
, this time the guy with a skill is a expert conman Neal Caffrey, rescued from prison to help the FBI solve crimes.
, October Road and What About Brian.
