Blackouta

[SilverLining]

Am I missing something or is it complete rubbish?? What a disappointment - such a great cast or maybe I'm being impatient....

I am still trying to decide... maybe it will get more gripping as it gets going? Seems slow and unengaging so far....

Absoultely! Maybe it's setting the scene?! I'll have forgotten it all by next Monday!!!

A cheating husband seems to be a prerequisite for a BBC drama these days.

I turned it off after half an hour, couldn't get my head round the fact that he was a local councillor and seemed to be living the life of some kind of international playboy, thought it was ridiculous

Agreed that it wasn't very good - it certainly packed a lot of cliches into the first few minutes, eg missing the child's dance performance.

But the part that amazed me was the scene after he's been out all night and had the blackout, when his wife angrily confronts him about his drinking and blackouts. After yelling at him about how he's got a drinking problem, she then casually adds "Oh by the way, could you drive Charlie to school?"

I mean, WTAF? If you think someone you care about is an alcoholic and has been drinking heavily the previous night, surely you'd try to stop them driving anywhere, rather than asking them to drive your child?

Well, that was... disappointing. I was really looking forward to it but too many things just didn't work.

Too much scene-setting, for me, for what is only a three-hour drama - yet somehow they still didn't manage to set the scene enough. We were hammered around the head with the fact that Eccleston is a drunk, yet I still don't feel confident that the blonde was actually a prostitute. I thought she was just a woman out for a good time, yet everyone assumes she is a prostitute. And the copper husband was so randomly introduced with the whole 'are you seeing someone? I'll find out!' I get the impression that it will be his virtual stalking of her that will shine the light on Eccleston killing that man, but there's not enough believable set up for it (which was a shame, as after an enlightening viewing of Sherlock the other day I was quite looking forward to some Andrew Scott ).

With no one seeming to have liked it too much I doubt anyone wants 4 or 5 parts, but parts of it seemed to be that it needed to be a longer show if it is going to start so slowly.

Oh, and God yes, melpomene, why the hell did they have her ask him to drive the kid to school?! Utterly ridiculous.

I don't think it's a great sign that my main spark of interest in the whole thing was thinking, 'Ooh, are those Anglomania by Melissa plastic shoes with the big buckle? They're going to melt' as she was dangling them over the fire.

I clocked the shoes too wildfig!!! Knowing me I will still watch it - glutton for punishment!!!!!

A case of style over content, sadly.

I couldn't get past the ridiculous only-on-television logic of someone who knows they've got this murder charge just waiting to land on them (evidence a-go-go left around the crime scene, probably - I can't even remember where I've put my earrings when I get into bed pissed, let alone whether I left fingerprints on anything vital to a prosecution) deciding that the logical next step would be to stand for public election with all the concomitant press interest. Really? Is that likely? Really?!

Also, I spent the first ten minutes wondering if this was in some way a continuation of the dodgy councillor storyline from Our Friends in the North. Was a bit disappointed when it wasn't.

Yes it was rubbish - really disappointing, I was shouting 'oh God not again' at the screen by the time they had shown the scene with him arguing with the Scottish guy for the 43rd time.

Was also amazed at the 'drive Charlie to school' moment. And what was that hospital all about - there were only two patients - Chris Ecclestone and the guy in the coma, - and they were at opposite ends of the worlds longest corridor - you'd think for practical nursing reasons, they'd have put them side by side

Ah, I see this has been done already. I must have had some kind of blackout. FFS.

It was IMHO a failed attempt to do something with v high production values that didn't look like British drama. Well, it didn't. It was all a bit sub The Killing, with all that rain, and a bit Blade Runner, all that rain and noise, and trying so hard to be so very stylish I think they forgot we actually need to be able to follow this story
Nice try but back to school with you.

Glad it's not just me.

Also, being a local councillor is not actually a job.

completely lost interest in this tonight. Hard to keep track of it. One minute he's a councillor next a mayor ffs.

I forgot all about it!! Shows how interested I was!! Might watch it tomorrow when I tackle the mountain of ironing.....

Meh. Just... meh. It felt like a different show this week, what with all the debates about the cooperative and that company who are apparently rigging everything and hiding the murder. I'm not a fan when a show changes so dramatically.

I was slightly pissed when I watched it last night which didn't improve things.

I think being pissed might have actually helped matters limitedperiodonly! Might try that for the last episode but agree with NellyBluth - think it will be like another programme entirely....!

Did anyone finish this? Wasn't it absolute shite?! I swear at least half the scenes were cut. Nothing made much sense, everything was disjointed and half-hearted, and then it just sort of... stopped.

The bones of a really good show were in there, with the blackmailed alcoholic mayor, it they had just made a decent 4-part show and stopped fannying around with trying to be all gothic and gloomy (which would have been fine if it worked, but it didn't).