Any piece of film/TV which left you disappointed?
Mar 9, 2018 15:37:02 GMT
Gene Hunt, Vienna, and 2 more like this
Post by Dirty Epic on Mar 9, 2018 15:37:02 GMT
With a few of the threads mentioning the disappointing nature of things the BBC made Auf Pet series and Nick Love’s cinema reboot of The Sweeney etc. I’ve just thought has anyone ever watched or bought a film or TV series which you’ve been disappointed with? Whether it’s just not lived up to your expectations, something didn’t quite work or simply just thought it was an absolute load of tosh what are the ones you’ve not really taken to?
Here’s a few of mine:
Gangsters
Maybe this should’ve been better left as a Play for Today. As a one off Gangsters is reasonably good and writer/part time actor Phillip Martin does have a good initial premise with it. The release from prison and return to Birmingham of John Kline (Maurice Colbourne) who for unknown reasons is persona non gratia amongst the city’s underworld like the Rawlinson’s, their thuggish enforcer Malleson (Paul Barber), previous associates like McAvoy (Paul Antrim), the rising influence of Asian immigrant gangs led mainly by Rafiq (Saeed Jaffrey) intertwined with Kline getting involved with a dodgy Pakistani police detective Khan (Ahmed Khalil) and striking up a love interest with Rawlinson’s heroin addicted associate Anne Darracott (Elizabeth Cassidy) works well and is almost… almost on a par with the likes of Out from Euston Films.
Series 1 isn’t as good but still reasonable with the introduction of Sarah Grant (Albie Parsons) avenging her sisters death at the hands of Malleson – although a CIA agent with a Birmingham ‘call girl’ sister is perhaps the first warning bell things are losing there way a bit. Still it isn’t a bad effort as Kline dodges the rising influence of Malleson who has taken over from the Rawlinson’s as the number one gangster in the city, being used by Khan to suit his own aims/bring down Rafiq… who Kline and Khan eventually team up with and the revenge Grant gets on Malleson in the then new NEC along with the scenes of 1970’s Birmingham/West Midlands are as I say fairly enjoyable. Should have ended it there but then we get Series 2 and it’s a case of why?
Phillip Martin gets way too clever with trying to break the fourth wall between the viewer, actor, writer, fantasy and reality. This can sometimes work well but doesn’t with Gangsters and the subsequent Open University case study on Gangsters bears this out for me. Things like scenes suddenly cutting to the writer, director, production crew, actors walking off set/dropping out of character, oblique/sarcastic/unfunny references to the BBC and Thames and rival police TV series like The Sweeney and other breaking the illusion stunts totally ruin Gangsters for me. Yes I know this was Phillip Martin’s intention and it should be watched with that mind set but it just felt for me a mixture of being too clever for it’s own good, irritating and overall a waste of my time/insulted my intelligence as a viewer. However it’s not just these things which go wrong with Series 2. We have Rafiq and a new character Lily Li Tang (Chai Lee) being totally unbelievable caricatures of Asian/Far East criminals (complete with Kung Fu stereotypes). Again maybe that’s the intention but they’d be laughed out of Birmingham even in more innocent times like the mid-70’s! Worse we then get the introduction of the hired assassin 'The White Devil' played by Phillip Martin who is generally just a WDC Fields lookalike and pretty much just recites him. He seems to have paranormal influence (sic) over those around him like Li Tang, Sarah Grant and others to kill Klein who succumbs in a rather long drawn out death by the end of Series 2. I’ve never really stopped watching something before the end because I feel it’s that bad but I got very close to it with Gangsters. With all these ironic nods to the film/TV business, unbelievable characters, ridiculous situations, slapstick unfunny comedy and a very poor making it up as they go along script Series 2 totally ruins things for me and from what would/could have been a short and punchy Play for Today/series about a outsider (Klein) up against it with friends (sic) and foes from Birmingham’s underworld it just unravels into a farcical fantasy or a criticism of the original idea behind it. Shame really if Gangsters had stuck to the plan could’ve been quite good but I do consider someone else viewing it and specifically Series 2 may actually like how things turned out for breaking the forth wall and being a bit different.
This was a real disappointing watch for me!
The Vice
Perhaps I’m being a bit unkind here as The Vice was one of those series I only really saw bits and pieces of when it was originally shown in the late 90’s/early 00’s and I’ve only seen it in full on DVD a few years back.
Overall it’s decent, well made TV but for some reason it doesn’t quite work for me. There’s some very good episodes mixed in with some weak ones (later ones particularly) and over the course of it’s five series The Vice feels a bit much of the same thing. This is felt more when Ken Stott (DI Pat Chappell) leaves the early on in Series 5. Like his presence in Rebus and Messiah (both of which he’s much much better in) it’s not quite the same without him and most of the supporting cast – Tim Pigot-Smith aside make it feel like the 2000’s episodes of The Bill and other similar series of that time. Also the idea of Tim Pigot-Smith’s Frank Vickers character being a convicted corrupt copper who is later exonerated, returns to his previous role and is later on promoted to Chief Inspector quite far fetched – but the double edged sword is it’s brilliantly acted by Pigot-Smith as is his rivalry with Chappell and DS/DI Joe Robinson (David Harewood). Also as for having a love affair with DC Kirsty Morgan (Rosie Marcel) and then getting set up by Morgan… soap opera scripting methinks here.
Overall it portrays the Vice Squad as more corrupt than many of the criminals they were trying to catch and arrest. Perhaps that’s true but I think in reality it’s a bit more subtle than what we get with The Vice. I think if it had run for three series, had better quality control, and perhaps a better supporting cast in it’s later episodes – the original Ken Stott, David Harewood, Caroline Catz and Marc Warren cast was when it is at it’s best it perhaps wouldn’t have faded away as much as it has done. Suppose these things do date and like anything never as good as you remember them. Still it’s worth a watch and is better than Thief Takers, The Knock etc. from that period and for the LoM/A2A fans you do get a 2000’s pre-Gene Hunt appearance of Phil Glenister as in a one off role as a pimp too!
Mitch
Mitch is not necessarily a bad piece of TV but it doesn’t quite gel together for me.
John Thaw as usual is good in the title role as an investigative journalist who likes putting his nose in places others wouldn’t but I feel that Mitch’s bi-polar bleeding heart liberal cum tabloid sensationalist a bit out of step, out of place and overall the episodes feel a bit like they’re missing something or aren’t really going anywhere. Again like The Vice there’s some good episodes here mixed in with some poor/weak ones and they also try and cover too much ground too from child abduction to race relations. It also feels a bit like John Thaw was still a bit uneasy of being typecast and trying to shed his Regan skin and probably what doesn’t really help with Mitch is despite the episodes despite being filmed in early ’82 LWT/ITV didn’t show them until late ’84 which dated them quite considerably at the time.
Generally Mitch feels like something is missing, not really going anywhere and a bit Sweeney-lite not surprising as it was written by Roger Marshall. However it doesn’t have the raw energy and excitement that arguably Thaw’s best role had/has and it would take Inspector Morse for him to fully lay the ghost of Regan to rest.
I’ve also heard mixed things about stuff like Hazell, Shoestring, Target and other similar things but having not seen these programmes properly I can’t really say whether these fall into this category. I’m sure there’s a few more we can add here and I do appreciate that one man’s meat is another man’s poison but just thought it’d be interesting to see if there’s anything people have viewed anticipating it to be good but didn’t quite work or live up to your expectations.
Any thoughts?
Here’s a few of mine:
Gangsters
Maybe this should’ve been better left as a Play for Today. As a one off Gangsters is reasonably good and writer/part time actor Phillip Martin does have a good initial premise with it. The release from prison and return to Birmingham of John Kline (Maurice Colbourne) who for unknown reasons is persona non gratia amongst the city’s underworld like the Rawlinson’s, their thuggish enforcer Malleson (Paul Barber), previous associates like McAvoy (Paul Antrim), the rising influence of Asian immigrant gangs led mainly by Rafiq (Saeed Jaffrey) intertwined with Kline getting involved with a dodgy Pakistani police detective Khan (Ahmed Khalil) and striking up a love interest with Rawlinson’s heroin addicted associate Anne Darracott (Elizabeth Cassidy) works well and is almost… almost on a par with the likes of Out from Euston Films.
Series 1 isn’t as good but still reasonable with the introduction of Sarah Grant (Albie Parsons) avenging her sisters death at the hands of Malleson – although a CIA agent with a Birmingham ‘call girl’ sister is perhaps the first warning bell things are losing there way a bit. Still it isn’t a bad effort as Kline dodges the rising influence of Malleson who has taken over from the Rawlinson’s as the number one gangster in the city, being used by Khan to suit his own aims/bring down Rafiq… who Kline and Khan eventually team up with and the revenge Grant gets on Malleson in the then new NEC along with the scenes of 1970’s Birmingham/West Midlands are as I say fairly enjoyable. Should have ended it there but then we get Series 2 and it’s a case of why?
Phillip Martin gets way too clever with trying to break the fourth wall between the viewer, actor, writer, fantasy and reality. This can sometimes work well but doesn’t with Gangsters and the subsequent Open University case study on Gangsters bears this out for me. Things like scenes suddenly cutting to the writer, director, production crew, actors walking off set/dropping out of character, oblique/sarcastic/unfunny references to the BBC and Thames and rival police TV series like The Sweeney and other breaking the illusion stunts totally ruin Gangsters for me. Yes I know this was Phillip Martin’s intention and it should be watched with that mind set but it just felt for me a mixture of being too clever for it’s own good, irritating and overall a waste of my time/insulted my intelligence as a viewer. However it’s not just these things which go wrong with Series 2. We have Rafiq and a new character Lily Li Tang (Chai Lee) being totally unbelievable caricatures of Asian/Far East criminals (complete with Kung Fu stereotypes). Again maybe that’s the intention but they’d be laughed out of Birmingham even in more innocent times like the mid-70’s! Worse we then get the introduction of the hired assassin 'The White Devil' played by Phillip Martin who is generally just a WDC Fields lookalike and pretty much just recites him. He seems to have paranormal influence (sic) over those around him like Li Tang, Sarah Grant and others to kill Klein who succumbs in a rather long drawn out death by the end of Series 2. I’ve never really stopped watching something before the end because I feel it’s that bad but I got very close to it with Gangsters. With all these ironic nods to the film/TV business, unbelievable characters, ridiculous situations, slapstick unfunny comedy and a very poor making it up as they go along script Series 2 totally ruins things for me and from what would/could have been a short and punchy Play for Today/series about a outsider (Klein) up against it with friends (sic) and foes from Birmingham’s underworld it just unravels into a farcical fantasy or a criticism of the original idea behind it. Shame really if Gangsters had stuck to the plan could’ve been quite good but I do consider someone else viewing it and specifically Series 2 may actually like how things turned out for breaking the forth wall and being a bit different.
This was a real disappointing watch for me!
The Vice
Perhaps I’m being a bit unkind here as The Vice was one of those series I only really saw bits and pieces of when it was originally shown in the late 90’s/early 00’s and I’ve only seen it in full on DVD a few years back.
Overall it’s decent, well made TV but for some reason it doesn’t quite work for me. There’s some very good episodes mixed in with some weak ones (later ones particularly) and over the course of it’s five series The Vice feels a bit much of the same thing. This is felt more when Ken Stott (DI Pat Chappell) leaves the early on in Series 5. Like his presence in Rebus and Messiah (both of which he’s much much better in) it’s not quite the same without him and most of the supporting cast – Tim Pigot-Smith aside make it feel like the 2000’s episodes of The Bill and other similar series of that time. Also the idea of Tim Pigot-Smith’s Frank Vickers character being a convicted corrupt copper who is later exonerated, returns to his previous role and is later on promoted to Chief Inspector quite far fetched – but the double edged sword is it’s brilliantly acted by Pigot-Smith as is his rivalry with Chappell and DS/DI Joe Robinson (David Harewood). Also as for having a love affair with DC Kirsty Morgan (Rosie Marcel) and then getting set up by Morgan… soap opera scripting methinks here.
Overall it portrays the Vice Squad as more corrupt than many of the criminals they were trying to catch and arrest. Perhaps that’s true but I think in reality it’s a bit more subtle than what we get with The Vice. I think if it had run for three series, had better quality control, and perhaps a better supporting cast in it’s later episodes – the original Ken Stott, David Harewood, Caroline Catz and Marc Warren cast was when it is at it’s best it perhaps wouldn’t have faded away as much as it has done. Suppose these things do date and like anything never as good as you remember them. Still it’s worth a watch and is better than Thief Takers, The Knock etc. from that period and for the LoM/A2A fans you do get a 2000’s pre-Gene Hunt appearance of Phil Glenister as in a one off role as a pimp too!
Mitch
Mitch is not necessarily a bad piece of TV but it doesn’t quite gel together for me.
John Thaw as usual is good in the title role as an investigative journalist who likes putting his nose in places others wouldn’t but I feel that Mitch’s bi-polar bleeding heart liberal cum tabloid sensationalist a bit out of step, out of place and overall the episodes feel a bit like they’re missing something or aren’t really going anywhere. Again like The Vice there’s some good episodes here mixed in with some poor/weak ones and they also try and cover too much ground too from child abduction to race relations. It also feels a bit like John Thaw was still a bit uneasy of being typecast and trying to shed his Regan skin and probably what doesn’t really help with Mitch is despite the episodes despite being filmed in early ’82 LWT/ITV didn’t show them until late ’84 which dated them quite considerably at the time.
Generally Mitch feels like something is missing, not really going anywhere and a bit Sweeney-lite not surprising as it was written by Roger Marshall. However it doesn’t have the raw energy and excitement that arguably Thaw’s best role had/has and it would take Inspector Morse for him to fully lay the ghost of Regan to rest.
I’ve also heard mixed things about stuff like Hazell, Shoestring, Target and other similar things but having not seen these programmes properly I can’t really say whether these fall into this category. I’m sure there’s a few more we can add here and I do appreciate that one man’s meat is another man’s poison but just thought it’d be interesting to see if there’s anything people have viewed anticipating it to be good but didn’t quite work or live up to your expectations.
Any thoughts?