Trauma - example of a bad trailer

[nuttyslackster]

Anyone feel that TV trailers give away too much? I understand it's a balance but having watched the trailer last night for ITV's new three part drama Trauma I feel like it basically gave away the whole plot bar whatever the denouement turns out to be. Has really put me off watching!

the acting was great! John Simm conveyed his emotion! i think the lack of focus on the attacker is deliberate. Maybe there will be more about that later? Otherwise why focus on Alex smiling at that girl and then the loser on the bike following him to the cafe? Alex's dad has some issues and how many of us know how we would behave if our son was just killed!! He already had lots of stress from losing his job. Stress make you irrational!

Surely the whole lad staring at his son was just shorthand for jealousy over a girl?

I agree that grief and stress make you do irrational things but I just got fed up of the sloppy constant binary oppositions of their lives.

And anyone who has ever been to a teenager's funeral (and sadly I have been to several) knows they aren't like that: which was another thing that bugged me.

The protagonist's behaviour wouldn't have been the issue if there was dialogue from the rest of the family : or any acting at all really. The wife was so underdrawn and underscripted because of Bartlett's obsession with barely credible two handers (he did this a lot in Dr Foster, too)

Still The Times reviewer seemed to like it .

Oh yeah, the thing with the Bad Boys lurking on their bikes like tough guys in a corny Western, awful.
Agree Piggy, the funeral was far too formal and restrained.

John Simm has got that quality of being really watchable whatever he's in but that's not always a positive if what he's in is crap.

I have been thinking about Bartlett : he went to a vairy posh school. I think this is his first foray into portraying the 'working classes'. I don't think he understands them. Or likes them much.

He thinks all working class men have chips on their shoulder and are envious of private schools. And when he delivered his bleating monologue about privilege, I really wanted Lester to shout back ' thousands of years of oppression . Thousands!' But I get that Bartlett is attempting ambivalence as that's his MO.

On a side note, why does the doc's daughter not actually go to private school then? Or was than non uniformed school and her estuary accent meant to suggest she does?

There also weren't enough people at the funeral ruffian : it's like they had rounded up about 20 extras . The whole school (minus rent a chavs on their BMXs) would have turned up.

And the police who were conspicuous by their absence when the fight broke out!

Or any of the mourners/family coming to see what the hell was going on!

I assumed the girl was at private school given their lifestyle

I wonder if the twist is going to be that Adrian Lester came from a tough background and faked his way into medicine. Very obvious but would fit in with the rest of the crappiness. They made a point of saying his age and how long he'd been a surgeon 47 and 20 years. Is 26 unusually young to be a surgeon?

I wonder if the twist is going to be that Adrian Lester came from a tough background and faked his way into medicine

I hope not! Did anyone watch Undercover which was on the BBC last year. It featured Adrian Lester as a man who’d faked his persona for over twenty years. I think it might be overkill if this turns out to be similar.

I wondered this too. Trailer gave away whole story. Have recorded it, not watched it yet.

Savage i think the stark differences between their lifestyles are an integral part of this drama and what stuck out for me is the fact that two working class jobs will not pay for a decent funeral if a loved one dies.

Another point...........the police were asking if Alex did or sold drugs.

Would they have asked that if he had come from a middle class background.

Helena I totally agree. A friend of mine lost their daughter very suddenly. We all paid into a funeral fund as it was shockingly expensive.

Savage im sorry to hear that

Very unrealistic and quite “meh”. I want to find out what happens though so I shall watch tonight...

We turned over before the end. Load of dull boring crap. And I couldn’t get past Adrian Lester being an undercover cop from that series last year which ruined it slightly.

So pleased to have found this thread as I thought I may be the only person who found this opening storyline ridiculous. Although AL is VERY delicious

I can imagine there were a hell of a lot of doctors screaming at the tv last night as so many things, I feel sure, would never happen IRL.

I wondered if the father is perhaps trying to sue the hospital for money seeing as he had just lost his job and kept saying he had 3 kids to keep. 🙄 That would be incredibly bonkers though as suing the medical profession is extremely difficult and time consuming plus it would take YEARS to come to fruition.

I will watch again but only to ogle at the wonderful Mr. Lester. 😁

I was very disappointed by this, and you have all convinced me that yes! - it is crap. Won't be watching again, despite the wonderful Adrian Lester and John Simm. The dad bursting into the operating theatre, and not apparently caring who actually stabbed his son - ludicrous.

Have to wonder why such respected actors feel obliged to take on roles in such crap - do they not see the scripts first?

I am boycotting it. It's actually a bloody insult to my intelligence < strangely angry >

See, I thought that about Dr Foster too (unrealistic, insult to intelligence, plus ever-gurning Suranne Jones). I stuck it out for the first series but didn't bother after that.

Everyone else seemed to think it was wonderful.

I’m not a medic and even I know that if by some remote possibility the dad had got into the operating theatre, he would have been taken out pretty damn quick. Also that the surgeon would have involved Human Resources or his superiors about the situation with the father long before now. Both wives were pathetically drawn characters and totally unconvincing. Such good actors and such a missed opportunity. And seriously not enough kids at the funeral. Would have been most of the school there. When my friend’s son died, there were over 300 people there. Kids that didn’t even know him went and his friends were distraught. There was not one tear shed at Alex’s funeral which is ridiculous.

It was a programme where it felt no one else mattered, least of all the victim.

And talk about a seriously inappropriate eulogy! I'd be furious if I were the boy's mother.

Reluctantly watching again tonight though- talk about sunken costs!

I can't get past the dad walking into theatre. I've worked in theatres before and there's just no way someone not in scrubs would be able to get very far.

I can't quite believe I'm still watching this as it's so bad. The funeral, as others mentioned.... and the fact that no-one is mentioned why he was stabbed and by whom. Ridiculous.