Bodyguard BBC1 Sunday

[Serial_Apologist]

As I understand it, titles cannot be copyrighted. That's why, for example, there are quite a few songs called 'Love Is All Around'. There are also numerous examples of films sharing a title, including 'Gladiator', 'Crash' and 'Twilight'. And there are at least two Pastoral Symphonies.

Hadn't thought of that!

[LMcD]

A famous example is Kreutzer Sonata (Beethoven and Tolstoy)

[eighthobstruction]

....guessed [easily] that it would be codswallop, codswallop, codswallop [so didn't watch]....(just like I knew [Oh you too] that Crossrail would be well behind sched')....Oh tiresome world why do you pain me so....grates me the sum....

[Stunsworth]

I’m hoping for some twists in the plot, so far it’s been a bit predictable.

[Conchis]

A very good third episode that left the necessary number of strings dangling - but, with so much masturbation in the world already, do we need even more on television?

[vinteuil]

.

... we're a tad disappointed so far.

I think Jed Mercurio is perhaps better in the 'chamber' setting of 'Line of Duty' : in the full orchestra of 'Bodyguard' - national politics, Westminster shenanigans, MI5, counter-terrorism, disaffected soldiery, terrorists - plus domestic dramas - wife, kiddies - and glamour bonking - it's all a bit of a mess...


.

[DracoM]

Lurching from cliché to cliché.

This is IMO well, well below Mercurio standard, and the insistence on so many yawning minutes of pretty predictable 'sex'. FGS, Mercurio had serious numbers of good actors on the books with whom you could be make so tense and very special a series of inter-related plot lines.

Clearly the Beeb has spent many many coins on this. But we are cutting so fast from under-developed scene to under-developed scene, over-crowded scene to over-crowded scene. These fast cuts are a substitute for any kind of ‘development’, plot clarification or subtlety, and not illuminating.

Yes, I will watch on, but I fear we are heading for a very unsurprising conclusion.

[DracoM]

.

... we're a tad disappointed so far.

I think Jed Mercurio is perhaps better in the 'chamber' setting of 'Line of Duty' : in the full orchestra of 'Bodyguard' - national politics, Westminster shenanigans, MI5, counter-terrorism, disaffected soldiery, terrorists - plus domestic dramas - wife, kiddies - and glamour bonking - it's all a bit of a mess...


.

Yes, never thought I#d ever say this of a Mercurio series, it seems to have bitten off a deal more than he can chew. Or maybe the Beeb insisted on fewer epis and some drastic cuts needed to happen??

[jayne lee wilson]

A very good third episode that left the necessary number of strings dangling - but, with so much masturbation in the world already, do we need even more on television?

Er..... what? Sorry....What?

***

Fascinating and gripping series which one suspects has quite a few surprises left - it's only halftime. Among other things it is a study of gender-stereotype and gender role, both within TV drama and film history (and reflectively, without, IRL....)

David Budd is part of a tradition reaching back to The Man with no Name, Terminator, Mad Max, Ryan Gosling in Drive, even Jaqen H'Ghar in GoT.....

Many of these seem - cold-eyed, godlike, or robotically efficient and indestructible, almost supernaturally aware of their surroundings and potential enemies, but at a certain plot-point they usually suffer some major setback - defeat, serious injury; or a revelation of their own vulnerability, often by a female character with sexual power and "hidden strengths"... after which they learn a deeper strength, if only: how to live with damage, or how to die.

We await the soul's journey of David Budd.....

[Richard Tarleton]

Left baffled by last night. Haven't a clue what's going on.

(Hardly a spoiler, but.....)



What was the trip to Chequers about? What Julia is plotting, and who is plotting against her, is obviously at the heart of it, but even so. Whose dossier was she reading on that tablet, given to her by the mysterious man (who he?), who was it who was on 50 units of alcohol and did sexual violence (I think it said)?.....


And given that they'd gone to such trouble to put Budd next door to Lavender, would it have been such a huge stretch to bug the room? (Then they'd have known what the saucy pair were up to). (Had they given Budd that listening device, or was it just something he had?) And for a cabinet minister up to her neck in stuff, it's amazing that the two are just left to get on with it at night (can't the guy in the corridor hear anything?), no PPSs popping in and out with stuff....

What did Budd see in the briefcase? Did he look properly? Was the aide a..... And it won't be long before they notice the sniper was a mate of Budd's (obvs)......

But I'm not watching Vanity Fair, no matter what.

[kernelbogey]

*SPOILER ALERT*

For a discussion of the plot, see this Guardian series recap.

For my money, none of the hanging threads mentioned lead to the bomb attack: I think it will be revealed to be related to something we knew (suspected) nothing about.

[DracoM]

Left baffled by last night. Haven't a clue what's going on.

(Hardly a spoiler, but.....)



What was the trip to Chequers about? What Julia is plotting, and who is plotting against her, is obviously at the heart of it, but even so. Whose dossier was she reading on that tablet, given to her by the mysterious man (who he?), who was it who was on 50 units of alcohol and did sexual violence (I think it said)?.....


And given that they'd gone to such trouble to put Budd next door to Lavender, would it have been such a huge stretch to bug the room? (Then they'd have known what the saucy pair were up to). (Had they given Budd that listening device, or was it just something he had?) And for a cabinet minister up to her neck in stuff, it's amazing that the two are just left to get on with it at night (can't the guy in the corridor hear anything?), no PPSs popping in and out with stuff....

What did Budd see in the briefcase? Did he look properly? Was the aide a..... And it won't be long before they notice the sniper was a mate of Budd's (obvs)......

But I'm not watching Vanity Fair, no matter what.

Yep, all that and more.
How the heck they have not yet found out that Budd and sniper are from same unit in the services totally flabbergasts me. I mean, what sort of deep, deep background checking do you do to a PC who is to become 24/7 bodyguard to a....erm........a HOME SECRETARY?? And if we know he has PTSD, how the heck has kept it from like....erm....EVERYONE except his mates and his wife / partner? No background sifting and gathering of references from all and sundry IN THE ARMY in AFGHANISTAN ...........yes, Afghanistan, so obvs NO issues there are there?.......behind the scenes on that?

The cocaine / violence etc stuff might be HER dark web documentation on Budd? So she lusts after him for the rank danger he presents? Oh...and she has no home / people / lovers at all - given how she is with Budd - like ever, of course?

Come off it, Beeb. What do you take us for, Jed?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What was the trip to Chequers about? ... who was it who was on 50 units of alcohol and did sexual violence (I think it said)?.....

I presumed that the dossier was on the PM, and this explained her visit to Chequers, and the subsequent suggestion that the PM was stepping down? But perhaps that was what I was expected to think.

As for the other details - yep, taking audience credibility so far over the cliff that it cannot be taken seriously (disbelief suspended so long that the pulse has stopped). But Jed has "form" in this respect (remember "Dot" Cotton's escape from Headquarters in Line of Duty?) - and, for all that, I wasn't at all expecting the climax of the episode. And it's still good fun.

[Conchis]

Some of the criticism above strikes me as hysterical and just plain wrong.....you're critiquing the series as if it's just ended and left all these loose wires hanging, forgetting that the damn thing has barely begun!

I aslo wondered about Budd's assignment to the HS, given his PTSD and his association with someone who turned out to be a (would be) assassin. But his employers also have issues with the HS, so maybe that was deliberate....

Do British cabinet ministers know when they're bugged? I'm not sure, but I'd hold my tongue before I started dissing this plot detail, which I'm sure occurred to the programme makers.

WE ARE NOT MEANT TO KNOW WHO THE DOSSIER RELATES TO. This has deliberately been left mysterious to arouse our curiosity and ensure we tune in next week. Has anyone seriously never watched a thriller before?

People are saying 'my cat knew who planted the bomb.'. Really? It almost certainly wasn't the clueless Tahir but there's no saying it's his sinister and more competent colleague, either. I've even read speculation that the bomb was an inside job by the HS herself, designed to ramp up her leadership campaign (shades of Bob Roberts).

The fact that you're talking about it, albeit in semi-outraged tones, means the series is working.

I never watched Line Of Duty, so am unaware of Mr. Mercurio's 'form' but I think Bodyguard is, so far, pretty good. I do expect the ending to be unsatisfactory, though, because endings to these things usually are.....

Presumably the masturbation will be cut for sales to America.

[Pianorak]

I presumed that the dossier was on the PM, and this explained her visit to Chequers

That's my presumption too.

(Had they given Budd that listening device, or was it just something he had?)

Craddock (Pippa Haywood) had arranged the listening device for Budd.