Bodyguard BBC1 Sunday

[Conchis]

It's not perfectly fine by me if any second series is sold to Netflix and doesn't have a run on terrestrial TV. If memory serves, 'Mad Men' started off on BBC4 and was then snapped up by Sky. The same thing could happen with 'Bodyguard'.

With Bodyguard, I think the BBC was intimately involved in its creation and may have paid for most of the funding/development - whereas MadMen was an American import which became too expensive for the BBC to buy.

I agree, it's frustrating if you happen to be a fan of the series (I wasn't) but I don't think Bodyguard will share that fate.

[Conchis]

Musing on Budd's putative status as a 'can't die' character, I'm wondering what the likelihood of him taking an early bath is on Sunday?

If this is to become a franchise with an afterlife, I think the concept will have to be re-jigged with new characters - not unlike the way LoD was re-jigged, but with the previous characters constantly being referenced and even re-appearing.

[Serial_Apologist]

....yes it's a sort of fantasy black comedy....not to be taken at all seriously....don't quite know how they will create tension as it is obvious [seemingly] that Villanelle [Villain] will carry on killing in [well lets say] ingenuis/florid ways/flamboyant ways....Its unconnection to the real world is relaxing for me - a bit of a romp....'I'll give it another episode though of course the whole thing is available on iplayer....

Well there was definitely one in the eye for anybody who enjoys that sort of thing! One way to deal with consensual sexual harassment, I suppose...

[eighthobstruction]

....you suppose?....me too

[Stanfordian]

....yes it's a sort of fantasy black comedy....not to be taken at all seriously....don't quite know how they will create tension as it is obvious [seemingly] that Villanelle [Villain] will carry on killing in [well lets say] ingenuis/florid ways/flamboyant ways....Its unconnection to the real world is relaxing for me - a bit of a romp....'I'll give it another episode though of course the whole thing is available on iplayer....

It's a "fantasy black comedy....not to be taken at all seriously..." Then I'll pass on the series. Expecting another 'Bodyguard' (with 'Killing Eve' being mentioned on this tread) I certainly couldn't work out what it was!

[vinteuil]

....yes it's a sort of fantasy black comedy....not to be taken at all seriously....don't quite know how they will create tension as it is obvious [seemingly] that Villanelle [Villain] will carry on killing in [well lets say] ingenuis/florid ways/flamboyant ways....Its unconnection to the real world is relaxing for me - a bit of a romp....'I'll give it another episode though of course the whole thing is available on iplayer....

... yes, a stylish black comedy. I think tension will be created as we find ourselves more and more gunning for (ho ho) the baddie, even tho' (?) she is the baddie, and as Ms Oh gets closer and closer. As in film noir and some Hitchcock, where the viewer comes more and more to take the side of the bad guys (and girls).

.

[Richard Tarleton]

Episode 4 of Killing Eve went a bit Midsomer Murders.... But hugely entertaining.

As for the Siberian chiffchaff password, "not seen since 2008" or whatever it was, they're not uncommon, two spent the winter not 500 metres from my house the winter before last. Birds and birdwatching a curious blind spot with TV scriptwriters, I suppose they think it's so inherently comedic they never bother to check their facts .

[DracoM]

Last epi: utterly preposterous. A cynical piece. We've been duped by the third-rate.

[Conchis]

Hmmm....a bit underwhelmed by the conclusion, tbh.

I thought Budd was in the suicide jacket for a bit too long to sustain the dramatic impact....and it was around this point that it came home to me how excruciating some of the scripted dialogue actually was. 'Real' people just don't talk like that. You could tell the actors were doing their damnedest to own the words and make them real, but it was tough....

The underworld figure was introduced somewhat too late into the proceedings, as well; but I didn't rumble Craddock - the less conspicuous of the two spooks - as the master-villain.


The real surprise, though, was Nadja. I hope this doesn't lead to a crime wave against female Muslim engineers (I know two!).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oooooooooooohhh, I disagree, DracoM - I thought the finale (apart from the rather pat last couple of scenes) was as enjoyable as the rest; of all the various outcomes about who was up to what, I hadn't predicted the two "reveals", both of which had subtle hints planted early in the series.

Thoroughly enjoyable - and a generally better conclusion than I was expecting.

[Conchis]

Oooooooooooohhh, I disagree, DracoM - I thought the finale (apart from the rather pat last couple of scenes) was as enjoyable as the rest; of all the various outcomes about who was up to what, I hadn't predicted the two "reveals", both of which had subtle hints planted early in the series.

Thoroughly enjoyable - and a generally better conclusion than I was expecting.

Was I the only person watching who expected Budd's car to explode in the final frame?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Was I the only person watching who expected Budd's car to explode in the final frame?

- not I: by that time, the cast list for series 2 had effectively been "announced" (part of what I think DracoM meant by the "cynicism" of the ending).

[Conchis]

We never learned about Mrs. Budd's new bloke, did we?

I got the impression she'd just made him up so that Budd would stop bothering her.....

[gradus]

Was I the only person watching who expected Budd's car to explode in the final frame?

You weren't. Congrats to Mr Mercurio for an enthralling thriller. Nice twist with Nadia but odd though that she, who was evidently a skilled bomb maker was to be blown up by her own creation in episode 1. Are skilled bomb-makers two-a-penny?

[DracoM]

Was I the only person watching who expected Budd's car to explode in the final frame?

The whole elaborate suicide vest rigmarole was great for bomb makers, bomb de-fusers, must have brought back some very nasty memories for ex-soldiers / security staff, BUT in what way did it do anything to further / clarify PLOT? Took up time, oh yes but as Conchis said above - it just went on and on and on and on. It was the stuff going on BEHIND all that which I'd guess many viewers wanted elucidating, and not an illustrated bomb-de-fuser's handbook chapter.

The bomb stuff, the interminable police vehicles rushing about - was just NOT what this series was about, and frankly, IMO, they chickened on the detailed careful examination of who was doing what. Poor dears on BBC1 - can't concentrate that long.

Jed Mercurio not done it for me this time.

Bomb in car at the end................sorry, but if only