TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

dale-51649 The story is about a brilliant lady lawyer with a "perfect" family. She has a loving husband and kids. The writers insert so many hyper-affectionate scenes between the family members they could induce vomiting. Some more cynical viewers might label it "family values porn". They are sort of a "Huxtable's on steroids", but with a pomposity only demonstrable by the Brits. The Moms is breadwinner, and the one with most of the brains, and all of the nobility and integrity. She is so righteous , self and otherwise, that it would seem appropriate to make a sign of the cross after each diatribe. Since she is incapable of doing anything wrong, you know the betrayal is coming from somewhere else. She seems to follow the golden rule "she who has the gold makes the rules" because everybody does whatever she says, especially the groveling trophy hubby.I haven't completed the series yet, and don't know if I have the stomach to or not. It has an interesting premise and good acting, so I keep watching. Its kind of like when you start eaating a frozen dish with a bad aftertaste, you know you will regret it, but you keep eating anyway. The storyline re a undercover guy not telling his wife about his job and making up a past could be good, if they had only written them as real people. Seeing a woman who has everything and every body in control have a life that comes undone could have been good, but it looses too much cred to the PC, SYRUPY cringe inducing scenes before it can get off the ground.

Andrew Thelwell This show started out pretty well. Some cloak and dagger mysterious goings on, racial tensions, flashbacks to 20 years previous, various threads of story to follow. It seemed promising.Then it really all started going downhill...First, this show must take the award for literally the worst attempt ever (read: no attempt at all) to make actors look convincingly older/younger between two time periods. I know this is going to be challenging and there's only 'so much' that can be done, but at least do some work with hair and makeup, exaggerated fashion choices, etc. to try to convince us that these scenes are 20 years apart. Add a little grey hair and a few subtle wrinkles in the 'later' years, stuff like that. At least make some kind of attempt. This was pathetic. Everyone had the exact same hairstyles between 1996 and 2006... except Adrian Lester, whose hair is *slightly* longer in 1996. Even the restaurants in '96 have modern-day décor, and the kitchens look all glossy white and modern. Really, really poor.Second, in the all-time awards of "most actors pretending to be American who clearly are not American" this show comes up trumps. The accents are laughable. Surely the BBC could find one or two actual Americans to play actual Americans, thus ensuring they sound like actual Americans? Terrible.Third, there are several incredibly sloppy plot points. (Spoilers herein): 1) Adrian Lester's character deliberately breaks his wrist in the jamb of a metal gate. This is so he can get a plaster cast put on it, and use that plaster to hide a recording device to entrap the 'baddies'. Oooooh.... clever! Problem 1: In the scene in question, he closes the gate with all the force of a feather blowing in the wind. It would never be enough to break a wrist. Problem 2: Why would you need to break your wrist in order to have somewhere to hide a recording device? There are tons of other ways to achieve this. Absolutely nothing in the plot explains why wrist-breaking was necessary, nor does anything in the plot hinge on the presence of the plaster cast itself. Problem 3: Immediately after trying to trap the baddies, Lester's character smashes the recording device, claiming that it did no good. WHY? Problem 4: ...Oh God, I can't be bothered. I'm bored now.As for the ending... Well, I can only describe it as completely incoherent. I can only imagine there's another series to come because the major plot twist does nothing to tie up any loose ends and simply leaves more questions hanging in thin air.I have never been left more confused or bemused by a TV show. Thoroughly befuddled and disappointed with this.

Tweekums This seven part BBC drama opens in Louisiana where British civil rights lawyer Maya Cobbina is trying to get a stay of execution for her client Rudy Jones. She is unsuccessful and leaves as he is taken to the execution chamber. As she drives away she is stopped and told that Rudy is still alive following a botched attempt to kill him. This doesn't necessarily mean that he is safe and the state is determined to try again at a later date. She returns to her family in London… not knowing that her husband. Nick Johnson, of twenty years isn't the man she thought he was. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that that he was an undercover police officer who had been tasked with investigating her when she was part of a civil rights group led by Michael Antwi; a man who died in police custody shortly afterwards. Maya is determined to get justice for Michael but others are determined that what happened that day will remain a secret. Back in the present she is offered the position of the next Director of Public Prosecution; a bit of a surprise given that she always worked for the defence but she uses it as an opportunity to reopen the Antwi case. Nick thinks his past in the police is long over but his handlers contact him again and demand that he stops his wife from doing anything that could expose the truth of what happened that day. As the series progresses Nick must decide where his loyalties lie as it becomes apparent that the people he is working for are very dangerous.This was a solid series even if it did wear its heart on its sleeve a little too much; we were left in no doubt who we were meant to sympathise with. At times this could be a problem; the character of Maya was so self-righteous that it was hard to sympathise with her at times even though we know she is in the right! This was even true of her final plea for Rudy's life where she argues against the cruelty of execution by lethal injection; this seemed a bit too much like the writers telling us how they feel on the matter and grated even though I broadly agreed with the argument. Thankfully though these moments didn't spoil the story; this is largely down to the cast, especially Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester. These two made excellent leads do a fine job. There are plenty of tense moments throughout the series from the gruelling opening to the exciting finale. We do need to stretch our suspension of disbelief a fair bit at time; would such an outspoken and controversial lawyer as Maya really be made DPP and even though there have been real cases of undercover officers getting involved with people they were investigating it would take something to keep it a secret for twenty years of marriage. Overall though, despite its flaws, I found this to be a highly worthwhile series.

julesmoules Good acting but the storyline is pants - I simply don't believe this particular story, even though I know undercover agents have married or partnered-up with many women during their 'spying' years. The unalloyed 'goodness' of the principals in this series is cloying and unbelievable. I can't believe they scripted the Waltons in an story about deceit, scorn and cold-blooded treachery. The clunky dialogue just gives it away, badly.Yes, let's have a seriously deceitful partner, who's spent years undercover with a loving partner, But making that partner Nelson Mandela in drag is a silly and wrong-headed plot device. You gotta get more subtlety and mischief in there for this to work properly. And don't start me on the kids...All in all it's shame. And a huge opportunity gone sadly to waste. Should have got Jed Mercurio to write this one...