The Shadow Line

TheIrishGrover · 16-05-2011 12:36am #1

Haven't seen any threads on this yet. Just watched the second episode (of seven) on BBC2. Great cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Eccleston, Stephen Rea. A crimelord gets killed and the prog so far is following both sides (and in the second episode, it seems a third side) trying to figure out who did it.
It's part of BBC's drama series: expensive, starry shows that BBC do well. Worth checking out. 'Cos if I see one more thread about some tweeny, CW, generic-lowest-common-denominator US sitcom, "celebrity/reality" show I'll f*cking scream. Seriously, it's like spam at this stage.

Anyway, check out The Shadow Line. Thursdays on BBC1/HD. Repeated Sunday nights BBC2

mike65 · 16-05-2011 10:21am

Ha! I'm afriad boards televsion forum is basicly for fools these days

Check out the guardian series blog for serious discussion of this series (and others like The Killing (Denmark)/Spirial/Rubicon etc).

Shadow Line so far is quality, I like Hugo Blicks approach - be it comedy or drama, some probably find it too stylised or obtuse but thats half the fun. He obviously has wanted to do a chase scene for quite some time! It was very well worked as the mysterious Gatehouse intersected with the hapless Andy Dixon.

TheIrishGrover · 16-05-2011 11:41am

mike65 wrote: »

Ha! I'm afriad boards televsion forum is basicly for fools these days Check out the guardian series blog for serious discussion of this series (and others like The Killing (Denmark)/Spirial/Rubicon etc).

Shadow Line so far is quality, I like Hugo Blicks approach - be it comedy or drama, some probably find it too stylised or obtuse but thats half the fun. He obviously has wanted to do a chase scene for quite some time! It was very well worked as the mysterious Gatehouse intersected with the hapless Andy Dixon.

Hah, yeah, I loved that bit:

I'm on foot. Typical....****ing....british...car....chase

Plus, yeah, The Killing was good. Must check out the others. Cheers

SVG · 16-05-2011 5:37pm

I've watched the first two episodes but I'm not sure about it yet. It's stylish with a quality cast but some of the dialogue seems kind of clunky to me- things like "the bullet that killed my son is in your head" or "rhymes with country" are a bit groany. I'll keep watching but it hasn't really gripped me.

I have to agree that the chase scene was fun though!

Lux23 · 06-06-2011 5:42pm

I think this is fantastic, the cast are fantastic. I think Rafe Spall is amazing, especially after seeing him in Pete Versus The World, he just seems like a completely different person. I wonder will there be more of it?

SVG · 06-06-2011 6:53pm

I'm finding it a bit of a slog at this stage but I'll probably keep watching since it's nearly over. Their depiction of "Dublin" last week was so bad. It looked like a fifties village!

mike65 · 06-06-2011 7:17pm

It was filmed in Douglas, so yep the 50s! The scene in the shop was brilliant though.

SVG · 06-06-2011 7:34pm

mike65 wrote: »

It was filmed in Douglas, so yep the 50s!

That explains it! They probably would have been better off trying to pass it off as a small town rather than Wicklow St.

Lux23 · 07-06-2011 10:46am

SVG wrote: »

That explains it! They probably would have been better off trying to pass it off as a small town rather than Wicklow St.

I think that was part of it though, taking the mick out of what some people think Ireland is like.

I don't see how it was Douglas though, there was a Lloyds TSB on the corner?

mike65 · 07-06-2011 11:01am

Douglas, Isle of Man. Not Douglas, Cork. Which looks positively 22nd century!

Lux23 · 07-06-2011 11:21am

mike65 wrote: »

Douglas, Isle of Man. Not Douglas, Cork. Which looks positively 22nd century!

Ah I see, it did look medieval.

ejmaztec · 07-06-2011 11:54am

I liked the Anthony Sher/Stephen Rea double-act, they were clones of each other.

It's good stuff, and I can't see one character who has any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

jessup · 10-06-2011 3:40pm

mike65 wrote: »

Ha! I'm afriad boards televsion forum is basicly for fools these days Check out the guardian series blog for serious discussion of this series

Thanks for the heads up on that Mike65. I'm loving this show even if it has gone somewhat theatric/caricatured in the last few episodes. Here's the link to the Guradian BTW.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/09/the-shadow-line-episode-six

mike65 · 10-06-2011 7:13pm

I love it, Hugo Blick is clearly having great fun developing his world of kill or be killed melodrama.

James T Kirk · 12-06-2011 8:57am

Been watching this from the start. Great to see an original and intelligent cop drama for a change.
Even though the Pinteresque stuff can be a tiny bit annoying at times, this show is head and shoulders above any of the CSI crap that's usually pumped out of the screen.
Stephen Rea and Rafe Spall are brilliant, amongst a very strong cast.

Neffa2 · 12-06-2011 9:05am

Got to this late. Is it finished. Freesat+ box has recorded 3 - how many episodes in total?

mike65 · 12-06-2011 10:50am

7, the climax is on Thursday.

Doodah7 · 13-06-2011 9:26am

Unfortunately I've missed a couple of episodes, but I must say last night was pretty gripping...

ejmaztec · 17-06-2011 7:36pm

What did everyone think of the final episode?

I thought it was a bit of a damp squib.

If they ever do a remake of Edward Woodward's Callan though, Stephen Rae would be the man for the job.

SVG · 17-06-2011 8:37pm

ejmaztec wrote: »

What did everyone think of the final episode?

I thought it was a bit of a damp squib.

I wasn't a big fan of the series and the ending didn't change my opinion. I thought it was a bit over-written; a lot of heavy-handed symbolism and groan-inducing dialogue. The plot was wrapped up neatly but I didn't really care about any of the characters.

ejmaztec · 17-06-2011 10:15pm

SVG wrote: »

I wasn't a big fan of the series and the ending didn't change my opinion. I thought it was a bit over-written; a lot of heavy-handed symbolism and groan-inducing dialogue. The plot was wrapped up neatly but I didn't really care about any of the characters.

I didn't care if any of them lived or died either, and the big masterplan revealed in the final episode was a yawn.

I gave the writer the benefit of the doubt on the dialogue, and assumed that there was going to be a clever ending, but It didn't materialise.

Kay_80 · 21-06-2011 8:37am

I was extremely dissappointed by the last episode everything was wrapped up almost too neatly & the killing of Jonah by the female cop at the end WTF I saw that coming from the first few mins of the episode & it was a crap way to end of his journey at least have had gatehouse finish what he started. I couldn't stand her as either a character or actress at all & to be honest all I could focus on was the fillers in her lips, she seems to be cropping up in alot of dramas lately I'm not really a fan of her acting & she was the weakest link in the cast for sure.

Rafe spall & Stephen Rae were standouts by far. Stephen Rae had that psycho demeaner down pat I wished he'd had more screentime in the last ep though. he was brilliant.

giftgrub · 21-06-2011 8:43am

Chiwitel Ejiofor is great, loved him in Serenity and Kinky Booty, he's the reason i started watching.

I enjoyed it for the most part but was a little underwhelmed by the ending

And as for the motivation behind this conspiracy?

It was basically to protect their pensions? come on

ejmaztec · 21-06-2011 10:57am

giftgrub wrote: »

Chiwitel Ejiofor is great, loved him in Serenity and Kinky Booty, he's the reason i started watching.

I enjoyed it for the most part but was a little underwhelmed by the ending

And as for the motivation behind this conspiracy?
It was basically to protect their pensions? come on

Mind you, it could have been a credit union and not a pension fund

Garda credit union bucks the trend with €150m to lend

By Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor

Monday June 20 2011

THE country's largest credit union is bucking the trend for lending here: it has a staggering €150m to lend.
While 80 credit unions are at risk of collapse, St Raphael's -- the garda credit union in Dublin -- is now the largest non-state-owned lender in the country
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/garda-credit-union-bucks-the-trend-with-euro150m-to-lend-2800497.html

The Shadow Line

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