TheGreatDirector
Banned
A couple of weeks ago I had the misfortune of watching a show called Paranoid on Netflix due to the coercing of my family. Apparently it was being hyped up as the British True Detetive or something. Needless to say this is one of the worst shows I have watched in years and I honestly regret the time I put into it.
From here we go on a downward trajectory of character development. The female lead, Detective Nina Suresh( played by Indira Varma) has her boyfriend break up with her after a multiple year relationship. This leads her to pursue sexual relations with her ten year younger fellow detective, Alec Wayfield (played by Dino Fetscher). Of course he casually flirts with another officer in the department causing Nina to be jealous and act venomous to EVERY female character in the show.
Meanwhile, the male lead Detective Bobby Day ( played by Robert Glenister), starts seeking out the companionship of the main witness to the cirme, Lucy Cannonbury (played by Lesley Sharp), who happens to be both a Quaker and unfazed by the events of the crime. Bobby starts taking medicine to curb his panic attacks that happen for reasons and the drugs end up affecting his behavior in investigating the crime. Bobby is also getting information from a secret informant who suggests that the crime had reasons beyond the obvious and that it was part of a much larger conspiracy. Of course this leads them to seek help from "across the pond" which gives them contact with two German detectives who start solving the case from their ends.
The main problem with the show is the writing. Characters act and react in the worst ways possible given their positions. Indira Varma's character should not be this bitchy, needy woman who clings for male companionship. The climax of her character arc shouldn't have been her, in the greatest cliches of all, founding out that she's pregnant and subsequently keeping the baby to raise with her fellow detective. It's one of the most regressive character developments for a woman character I've seen.
The character Bobby shouldn't have been one of the most incompetent police detectives I've ever seen on television, failing to catch fleeing suspects multiple times, exposing himself when he should be undercover or covert, and getting romantically involved with a witness when he should be solving the damn crime.
The supporting cast is terribly written too. The German part of the show feels so out of place and unneeded. It feels like they could of taken the footnotes of what they did and send a fax to the the English police department on what happened rather show the most boring and stale parts of the show. There's also an actress who tries to put on an American accent for her character to most embarrassing results. Simply put, for an already bad show, they managed to make it worse.
Yet what's most insulting is how they completely undermine the opening hook of the show. The woman's murder doesn't even become the main mystery of the show and is put on the back burner for all these character arcs that are a pain to watch. Nothing in the show remotely comes close to level of thought put into the cinematography of that opening scene. Every other scene is bland in direction. The show even fails to reach that same level of intensity. Whenever the main cast is put into danger, you just don't care because you never really connect with them in any meaningful way at all.
The big reveal of the show shouldn't have been that a big pharmaceutical company was behind everything. The main message of the show shouldn't have been doctors, psychologists, and big pharma are evil and wrong, because that's exactly what the show seems to be saying.
I give this show a two out of five from across the pond. My family made me rate it 1 star on Netflix.
The show is about, or at least starts off, the investigation of a woman who brutally murdered in broad daylight. The opening scene is her getting stabbed in a children's playground. It's violent. It's disturbing. It's also the peak of the show.
From here we go on a downward trajectory of character development. The female lead, Detective Nina Suresh( played by Indira Varma) has her boyfriend break up with her after a multiple year relationship. This leads her to pursue sexual relations with her ten year younger fellow detective, Alec Wayfield (played by Dino Fetscher). Of course he casually flirts with another officer in the department causing Nina to be jealous and act venomous to EVERY female character in the show.
Meanwhile, the male lead Detective Bobby Day ( played by Robert Glenister), starts seeking out the companionship of the main witness to the cirme, Lucy Cannonbury (played by Lesley Sharp), who happens to be both a Quaker and unfazed by the events of the crime. Bobby starts taking medicine to curb his panic attacks that happen for reasons and the drugs end up affecting his behavior in investigating the crime. Bobby is also getting information from a secret informant who suggests that the crime had reasons beyond the obvious and that it was part of a much larger conspiracy. Of course this leads them to seek help from "across the pond" which gives them contact with two German detectives who start solving the case from their ends.
The main problem with the show is the writing. Characters act and react in the worst ways possible given their positions. Indira Varma's character should not be this bitchy, needy woman who clings for male companionship. The climax of her character arc shouldn't have been her, in the greatest cliches of all, founding out that she's pregnant and subsequently keeping the baby to raise with her fellow detective. It's one of the most regressive character developments for a woman character I've seen.
The character Bobby shouldn't have been one of the most incompetent police detectives I've ever seen on television, failing to catch fleeing suspects multiple times, exposing himself when he should be undercover or covert, and getting romantically involved with a witness when he should be solving the damn crime.
The supporting cast is terribly written too. The German part of the show feels so out of place and unneeded. It feels like they could of taken the footnotes of what they did and send a fax to the the English police department on what happened rather show the most boring and stale parts of the show. There's also an actress who tries to put on an American accent for her character to most embarrassing results. Simply put, for an already bad show, they managed to make it worse.
Yet what's most insulting is how they completely undermine the opening hook of the show. The woman's murder doesn't even become the main mystery of the show and is put on the back burner for all these character arcs that are a pain to watch. Nothing in the show remotely comes close to level of thought put into the cinematography of that opening scene. Every other scene is bland in direction. The show even fails to reach that same level of intensity. Whenever the main cast is put into danger, you just don't care because you never really connect with them in any meaningful way at all.
The big reveal of the show shouldn't have been that a big pharmaceutical company was behind everything. The main message of the show shouldn't have been doctors, psychologists, and big pharma are evil and wrong, because that's exactly what the show seems to be saying.
I give this show a two out of five from across the pond. My family made me rate it 1 star on Netflix.
