Unforgotten Bingers - Spoilers Ahoy!

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

For people who have started this afternoon and aren't doing TV Pace! Spoilers allowed

I am on the last episode.

I wd like to watch Victoria Hamilton in tv programmes more often. She is exceptional.

Finished it all now. Better than the last two, but nowhere near as good as the first three. Too many issues and tick-boxing going on and by the end of the second episode. Lazy writing on the whole from Chris Lang.

Agree, a marked improvement on last series which I thought was crap but nothing like 1-3. I'm not a huge fan of Nicola Walker but she was so integral to Unforgotten it almost feels like a different show entirely without her

Victoria Hamilton is excellent in COBRA - highly recommend if you haven't watched.

I'm on episode 3 and a bit bored tbh

I've binged and thought it was probably one of the weakest ones.

I think this is likely due to the USP of the murders supposedly being from long ago, and the dead people long since forgotten, hence the name of the series, being the big hook for me!

A murder from not long ago is just another police procedural for me, so it lost something even before it started, if you get me. The previous series was similar, as it crept more away from the distant past.

The asylum seekers/refugees/illegal immigrant storyline was sooooooo weak! It seemed so unbelievable that Asif's partner would take the rap and end up with no legal consequences.

I also agree that as soon as the lecturer confessed it was obvious it had been her daughter. In fact, I had a feeling this is what had happened before that point, but this only confirmed it.

I couldn't have cared less about the Irish subplot, and surely Catholic priest shagging someone and getting them pregnant is a stereotypical trope done to death, and this one added nothing to that.

Sunny and Leanne? God! Just what we didn't need to add to everything else!

The only saving grace was Ram Sidhu who was a reminder of how amazing this series used to be, Series 4 being the last of the great ones.

I really hope if this series is renewed that we go back to looking at very old murders where the victims are really 'Unforgotten'.

There is too much going on and the murder is too recent

It's also obvious who did it

I agree.

Brexit - tick. Illegal immigrants - tick. Poor support for ASD - tick. British state treating people who've helped them like shit - tick.

I agree @TwentyKittens . And some of the earlier series’s were better because you could see and feel how the what some characters had done - killing the perpetrator, or covered up the killings, or had been victims of the perpetrator’s - had affected them over decades. It’s what used to give Unforgotten that emotional impact.

the end of the second episode

I meant to say earlier today that by the end of the second episode I’d guessed whodunnit and why (and I’m usually terrible with whodunnit’s).

Yes, absolutely.

Who could forget the elderly woman with dementia starting to blurt out about burying someone, even though she was completely mixed up about it, and the scene where she was in a home and her son deliberately witholding water. It really made you think about the moral question of her punishment for what she did combined with her state of mind and her lack of awareness in the present.

So many people in Series 1-3 were amazing in their parts. Series 4 was great but not as good as the previous three.

But as soon as they moved the plot to cover recent murders, it lost so much of what it had been.

While I still love the process of the disparate stories coming together, I feel as if this shift to make political statements, while powerful, comes at the expense of the structure of the thing. You know as soon as some characters are introduced that they won't be the killer; almost from the off, there were really only three possibilities here, so it meant that most of the six episodes were completely irrelevant, other than to keep reiterating that Gerry Cooper was a terrible person, and the world is a shit place. Not that the political points made aren't worth making, but at times it felt like a totally different series, clamped onto a detective drama.

As PPs have said, the earlier, better series made the point much more subtly that those left to live with the consequences, either of their own actions or the actions of the dead person, are also victims, maybe even more so than the subject of the investigation, but at least you were left to work that out for yourself. And I seem to remember I was still guessing right up until the end in previous series.

I thought it was extremely weak. Felt rushed. I didn't actually care who did it.

I think they worked out who the victim was too quickly actually, that surprised me a bit - I seem to recall that used to be a bigger part of it.

Yes and I think there were too many characters in this series so it was hard to ‘know’ them, care about their journey’s and be invested in which one of them
did it. But then fewer characters would have meant fewer issues to write about.

They used to start off with the random discovery of the body. Like the canal being dredged and the suitcase being found, or roadworks on the motorway and a digger digging it up, or the fridge at the local tip that fell open and exposed a body part.

This one began with the police being informed that the spine had been found, and the whole build up to their involvement was completely missing. I felt a bit robbed because that was one of my favourite parts.

And, like you say about the trying to work out who the body is, that working out was also a favourite bit. This seemed to go straight from them getting the body parts back to the lab, swabs being taken and lo! the guy was on the police database so easily IDd. I felt robbed at that too!!

Add the bit where it was a pretty recent death and altogether it was a disappointing series.

Marty says in his police interview that Gerry persuded him not to have covid jab, and in turn Marty persuaded his parents not to. Then Marty's dad died of covid, so he blames Gerry.

@TwentyKittens this is how I see it too. As soon as they said they'd already found remains I was 🧐

I like the old format. Accidentally stumbling on long buried/concealed body/remains. The intricate working out of who they were, who loved them/hated them, the story of their life.

This was just another crime show. Very disappointing. How did they get it so wrong 😔

I thought it was good and enjoyed it.

I wasn't keen on political opinions at first - I want to get away from them - but it made sense in the end and think it told a good story. Interesting to see how the victim changed over the years into an unpleasant person and this was in part due to his political views and the company he kept.

I do agree that recent murders aren't so good. Part of the enjoyment of this is the nostalgia and thinking back to that time. If there is a next one they should go back further.

I finished watching last night, and overall enjoyed it, but do agree that there was a lot of box ticking, and it was very formulaic.
The potential suspect looking out of their window to see Sunny and Jess getting out of their car, realising that they are police officers, and having a flash back. That happened so often!
Also, the widow's description of how she cleared up did not convey just how much blood there would have been!

Only on episode three , but why is Leanne now not speaking to Sunny ?

I think it was to establish something in common, she left her husband (was he abusive? I've forgotten), to set up a relationship next series. I sort of warmed to Jess a bit more this time. I thought Victoria Hamilton was the best thing about it, she was bloody brilliant. Binged the last four episodes last night.

The asylum seeker guy - was he persecuted for being gay? I was quite emotional when Sam asked him to marry him at the end.

As for the Melinda character in the church - well that's a different spin on Sister Sledge's twisted lyrics - just let me staple the vicar.

@Porcelainpig I agree, this wasn't a real cold case, only just had time to get lukewarm, too recent. I prefer the older ones - but you run the risk of suspects having popped their clogs I guess!

Superb acting from Victoria Hamilton. The dd looked away at the end so that’s going to be tricky to navigate.

I prefer the older cases as well.

I am on episode 3 and bored to tears.
We seem to have every cliche under the sun going on. So disappointing.
But can someone please explain where Sunni's partner has gone ( and did he have a baby or did I imagine that ? ) .

In the last series she had a miscarriage, then left Sunni as she wanted kids and he didn't

oh thank you. I must have missed a series somewhere as I don't remember any of that .