If you appreciate a good yarn, superlative acting and a story that will keep you riveted throughout its seven hours of screen time, then you could do little better than watch The Shadow Line.
The Shadow Line is a complex story of criminals who kill and double cross each other and of a police force that is as corrupt and violent as the criminals they are trying to put away. We are not spared generous doses of horrific violence and the villain-in-chief, a character who goes by the name of 'Gatehouse', is so frighteningly malevolent, that he has been compared to Hannibal Lector in his ability to put the heebie-jeebies into the viewing public.
I was very surprised to learn that about 2.5 million viewers abandoned watching this series after the second episode, and it has left me in despair as to what the modern audiences regard as good entertainment.
I truly wonder just what the length of the average attention span and the level of intelligence of the average viewer can be these days. Sure, on occasion, the plot moved slowly – but only in the interest of character development. Do we really want all our 'cops and robbers' to be purely two-dimensional people or do we want to be able to relate to them and try to understand what makes them 'tick', much as we can in TV series such as 'Sopranos' or 'Boardwalk Empire?
And just because a plot has several twists and turns, does that mean that it is incomprehensible to the average viewer? If this old codger can understand it, then surely the younger generation to should be able to follow it in their sleep!
Some professional reviewers claim that this is the best piece of thriller drama produced by British television in years, and I am inclined to agree with them. They certainly pulled out all their stops and the results were exhilarating. But a small word of warning; if you do hunt this series down and watch it – don't expect anything approaching a conventional ending. And there certainly won't be any sequels – thank God!
I was interested to note that the entire series was filmed in the Isle of Man, even though it is largely set in London with a few scenes in Ireland. Believe me, you would never have known it. There were no obvious signs that the producers cut any corners to save production costs.
It is a bit of crusade of mine to somehow get Hollywood to drastically reduce the obscene amounts of money they spend on movies. It just isn't necessary, as we have seen time and time again by all the low budget films and TV series that are every bit as good, and can attract equally large audiences.
If the principal 'players': actors, writers, producers and directors alike, refuse to drop their ridiculous pay demands, then go and search out new talent. I'm quite sure that there's plenty around.
And then Hollywood wouldn't be screaming so loudly about all the illegal downloads of their products and they wouldn't be obliged to charge far too much for the privilege of buying a legitimate copy. Get the movie costs down and then charge a sensible download fee that the average Joe can afford to pay. And everyone will be happy.
I know – pigs might fly
The Shadow Line is a complex story of criminals who kill and double cross each other and of a police force that is as corrupt and violent as the criminals they are trying to put away. We are not spared generous doses of horrific violence and the villain-in-chief, a character who goes by the name of 'Gatehouse', is so frighteningly malevolent, that he has been compared to Hannibal Lector in his ability to put the heebie-jeebies into the viewing public.
I was very surprised to learn that about 2.5 million viewers abandoned watching this series after the second episode, and it has left me in despair as to what the modern audiences regard as good entertainment.
I truly wonder just what the length of the average attention span and the level of intelligence of the average viewer can be these days. Sure, on occasion, the plot moved slowly – but only in the interest of character development. Do we really want all our 'cops and robbers' to be purely two-dimensional people or do we want to be able to relate to them and try to understand what makes them 'tick', much as we can in TV series such as 'Sopranos' or 'Boardwalk Empire?
And just because a plot has several twists and turns, does that mean that it is incomprehensible to the average viewer? If this old codger can understand it, then surely the younger generation to should be able to follow it in their sleep!
Some professional reviewers claim that this is the best piece of thriller drama produced by British television in years, and I am inclined to agree with them. They certainly pulled out all their stops and the results were exhilarating. But a small word of warning; if you do hunt this series down and watch it – don't expect anything approaching a conventional ending. And there certainly won't be any sequels – thank God!
I was interested to note that the entire series was filmed in the Isle of Man, even though it is largely set in London with a few scenes in Ireland. Believe me, you would never have known it. There were no obvious signs that the producers cut any corners to save production costs.
It is a bit of crusade of mine to somehow get Hollywood to drastically reduce the obscene amounts of money they spend on movies. It just isn't necessary, as we have seen time and time again by all the low budget films and TV series that are every bit as good, and can attract equally large audiences.
If the principal 'players': actors, writers, producers and directors alike, refuse to drop their ridiculous pay demands, then go and search out new talent. I'm quite sure that there's plenty around.
And then Hollywood wouldn't be screaming so loudly about all the illegal downloads of their products and they wouldn't be obliged to charge far too much for the privilege of buying a legitimate copy. Get the movie costs down and then charge a sensible download fee that the average Joe can afford to pay. And everyone will be happy.
I know – pigs might fly