James Parsons

Well, it's not being shown in Australia on the ABC, the reason surely that this is full of bad Australian stereotypes probably made for the international market. The dialog and acting made me cringe, it just wasn't natural, funny enough or even tightly written enough. Did anyone review the script at all? It comes across like a first draft written by someone quite inexperienced. Uses 3 sentences to say what could be in 1. Look at Cohen brothers movies (clearly an influence here), the dialog is snappy, it never feels like space or time is wasted. If that had happened, the perhaps the pace would be such that the terrible plot holes and implausibilities be missed. Irish accent? Call the embassy! Bomb blast? Police interviews, every Sydney anti terrorist cop not bothered? Toilet key, but open door round the back? The Tourist really suffers as a result, as did I. Sadly it's one of the worst TV shows I've seen for a while, and sadder still because it could have been so easily been pretty good with a days more work in the writing stage.

Why so many dramas that hinge around violence against women. Count the number of dead in this one.

Well if you've watched any Poirot, or the Peter Usinov films, or any of the BBC adaptations of Agatha Christie and enjoy them, you'd probably like this. But once you've seen a few, you start to see the pattern and it all gets a bit boring. I was hoping that this movie would live up to its "whodunnit with a modern twist". Unfortunately not, other than it was set present day rather than 1925. To me, it just comes across as a bit of a lazy money-making endeavor rather than a good piece of cinema. Aside from the low-octane car chase it was pretty much standard 80's TV stuff.

Having channel surfed to catch the live coverage at the time (all 3 channels) as an 11 year old, I was interested to get a more adult perspective. It does that well enough. Not great, but watchable. Kate Aide is rather more glam than reality much as I love her, music is a bit obtrusive generally and not actually needed. Familiar with Scots accents but much of the SAS Scottish dialog was laughabley unintelligible. Not that it mattered particularly as they were actionot characters but still.

It's an interesting science fiction adjacent alternative multiple reality drama. The kind of thing I enjoy... if it had been done well. As it is, I found it really too irritating to watch. My reasons, in no particular order: Bad dialog, people just don't talk like that. People in London aren't all unconvincing Cockneys. I don't need to have everything utterly spelled out to me and unsubtly signposted - every shot of dead body injuries and markings accentuated with whooshing stings, just in case we missed it. Stupid stuff like a police officer asking where someone lives and "just around the corner" being a sufficient answer at a murder scene. Buildings half destroyed by Luftwaffer bomb and person in car in front walks away unscathed. No one in East London refers to any borough by name, just "East London" as if the viewer might get confused by Whitechapel or Shoreditch. Overbearing strident musical soundtrack, when hardly anything is really happening. I seriously think this show needed editing and tightening up. Half the dialog could easily be cut, the soapy family stuff and so on especially, learn how people really speak and just move the plot in a less laboured way. What are the writers, editors and directors actually doing? Bored, irritated and feeling like I'm watching something written by school kids is not what I want from a TV show. Can't understand why people are giving it 5 stars. It's not up there with Sopranos, The Responder, Cracker or even Happy Valley.