The Gentleman – Google

It was bad, with a disjointed story. The acting was good and the moody noir theme was gave it some initial edge but it never got going and was achieved artificially with people sat in dark rooms. I know the characters are all miserable but opening the curtains might help a bit. It is set in a place void of hope, where everything really is rusty, and where there is a drug addiction epidemic. However watching it makes one loose hope too and want also to pop some fentanyl to bare the unremarkable series’s vapid content. Spoilers ahead but I think the series does a good enough job spoiling it’s self not to care. It ended badly with many unanswered questions. The crime at the heart of it was unrealistic and uninteresting. We know who did it and why so there was no interest there, instead they tried to create interest around the detectives motives for not solving the case. But in dels execution he was clumsy, hiding the jacket where he did with prints on it and not going to try to collect it, as Billy was beyond stupid in leaving it there, again seemingly not concerned about doing so. Dels intent was also unreliable. Was it all to appease his puppet mouthed GF? Furthermore at the end Isaac returned anyway so he could could have saved billy, instead of exploring his bovine sexuality, as well as all our time. The anticlimactic climax where del moved to the drug dealers house left much evidence which he did not care to amend, ie the position of the bodies, how they must have shot each other at the same time, how the shotgun went off without hitting anyone? How did del find the location, it may have been explained but it was lost to me. In fairness the detectives did show at the end to question him but as with all the other story lines it’s left unresolved! Why did his associate kill himself? It was a worse version of Mare of Easttown which too ended badly but was significantly better until that point. I regret wasting my time watching it. The characters in the end were just all so asinine and grey. Everyone was just so disillusioned, it was hard to relate to, or sympathise with any of them. Issac’s character was disillusioned, Billy's was, del’s was. Are they mistaking misery for good character or are we just not supposed to care what happens to them. I actively hated the selfish and entitled Lee English, but understand her dad killing himself at the end to not be such a sarcastic burden. I am completely indifferent about Mrs Poe, but don’t know why she burned her house down and again left obvious evidence and her husband who was supposed to be a antagonist at least wasn’t as utterly destitute as literally everyone else. If it was the point of the writers it was a bad point to make, and one which was an unpleasant jab to my ribs!

This is with regard to the second series, as I have not watched the first. While it moves along alright with regards to the story of crisis management, referencing the genuine COBRA committee, it is too woven with a Blairite and 'globalist metropolitan elitist' consensus (to use their own language) to be taken credibly. Many abhorrent lines that try to be edgy and relevant are actually overt propaganda, written by people who's politics they no doubt reflect. It has a political agenda and consistent mention of the 'Tories' makes it seem like Momentum were responsible for the script. It is possible to write about politics without making it political and as it fails with this obligation, its intentions are see through. I say Blairite because I also notice condescending and sanctimonious jabs left, to Corbinites and a cleansed Labour party. With virtually all the characters apart from the 'bad' ones making similar observations that being anything other than 90s new-labour makes you an extremist. Shallow beneath it all is contempt for the brexit voting majority of the electorate. It's just full of tired tropes and stereotypes that are so incorrigible in these types of programmes. The extinction rebellion child telling off his mum for her generation destroying the planet, the child with union jack tattoos in a grubby bedroom watching some right wing conspiracies about the 'poison berries' lol that are actually real. The podcaster who apparently is really powerful in spite of the small nature of his platform. Oh and the Russians being typically the bad guys. Clearly the producers were happy with their fake labour rose logo too because its in the shot half the time, but I think they just pasted it off the confectionery tin, and yes, their fake motto is 'unified together' I suppose as opposed to being unified apart. It tries to be edgy, but trying to be edge necessarily never is. While the script is actually not too bad, such sentiments and its agenda spoil it.

This genuinely is utterly atrocious. Very unrealistic, its plot is absurd and it is full of second rate actors, who nevertheless turn up again and again in other terrible programming. Why not give someone else a chance in the roles? No doubt they would perform better and make the programme feel more genuine. Furthermore its line discrediting someone as incredible for 'sharing brexit memes', demonstrates the kind of condescending and sanctimonious prejudice for the majority of the electorate, that made them vote against such middle class elitism in the first place. It is offensively bad, insulting the intellect of its audience, the fact the script was ever commissioned is astonishing. Even worse than most of the other dramas ITV regurgitates out.

I have seen the second series which I liked and was done well. However this series has started off poorly. It's very hard to overlook some stup-idity from the characters. Furthermore what happens is fundamentally unrealistic. Spoiler alert, faking ones own death is a serious criminal offence, this would draw the police into the case and the shop CCTV would be checked. Going on a wild chase would solve nothing without the authorities. And one would be willing to give up 10% of a fortune you haven't got to help secure it, but only a single character is willing to offer this to get someone on board who would actually help. It would not be up to a single lady from the lottery to follow it up. Furthermore the timing at which things happen is unrealistic, they would have returned to the shop much sooner as securing the lottery win would be a far bigger priority for the syndicate than all of them going to look for a missing dog instead. I know it borders comedy but it's honestly just frustrating and irritating to witness the senseless plot.