Collateral

'Collateral', a new BBC drama, has been written by distinguisged playwright David Hare. Writing for the theatre, an author has to make great use of dialogue; they lack access to the inner monologue that a writer of fiction can call upon, or the camera and its access to varied surroundings of someone writing for TV or cinema. Hare has his own trademark style of dialogue; and he retains it even when television is his medium. So one thing one doesn't get is naturalistic dialogue. Instead, his characters talk in short, confident sentences, that are non-expository; or at least, the words tell us something about the overall moof of the moment, but can feel almost deliberately obfuscatory in terms of plot. But when it comes to plot, Hare gets one thing right that many authors of detective stories do not: a situation that intially appears bizarrely byzantine to its investigators is in fact less complex than it seemed; the complexity a by-product of what they don't know. There's a relatively simple story at the heart of the mystery, unlike so many stories, where an endless sequence of preposterous developments are required to make sense of it all.

So the writing is good. The underlying theme is thought-provoking too; the responsibility of those of us who live in the relatively comfortable world to those who do not. Hare clearly has strong opinions on this question; but his treatment, though partisan, is fair, and underpins rather than smothering the story. 'Collateral' is unquestionbly highbrow, and won't be for everyone; but I enjoyed its fresh approach one of our most common TV genres.

Can someone tell me why a likely assassin, after a well-executed mission, would leave a phone behind in a unsecured place?

The movie has some serious issues in its core. Now I understand that some may feel like the movie is a bit lacklustre and does not give you the whole picture on some things or goes all the way. It also feels for some that some of the actors may be wasted. But that is up to you to decide, I personally think they are all doing more than a decent job.

It's four parts and it works quite neatly. It tackles subjects that have many sides and blurry lines, because you don't have just black and white. There's a lot of gray areas and a lot of characters who may think they are doing the right thing, but ultimately, what is really a right thing? Who does judge and who can tell? So while it may not go too deep, it still has enough to be worthwhile

Collateral (2018), is a new four part limited mini-series that was made by BBC and presented to the rest of the world as a Netflix Original. We were thoroughly intrigued by the trailer which promised a lot with the stellar cast. The 4 episodes of this mini series occur over four consecutive days. They have tried to address too many issues in this short mini series, which in my opinion might have muddles the waters a bit. Carey Mulligan as DI Kip Gillespe, Jeany Spark as Major Sandrine Shaw, John Simm as MP David Mars and Nicola Walker (one of my favorite mini screen actors) as a gay clergy were stellar in their roles.

The series has bits about the pains of a homecoming soldier, the desperation of the refugees fleeing from their terror riddled home countries, drug abuse amongst young mothers, LGBT acceptance amongst the English clergy, rank abusing Army superiors and the immigration stance that has ravaged all developed nations. They have bitten off more than can chew and it becomes glaringly obvious when you watch the characters struggle with their problems.

To summarize, I would say its a decent watch which promised a lot more than it eventually delivered. Too many issues and too little a screen time (and yet there were a few boring fleeting moments in between) might have acted against in making this an exceptional watch. Its a nice enough watch but nothing earth shattering.

I watched this mini series in one sitting, not that it was thrilling or real edge of the seat stuff, but it did draw me in. Plenty of plot twists and turns and I think the BBC managed their full quota of diversity box ticking on this one. Good performances from all the leads and it isn't easy to predict the end. Wanders off with plenty of not really needed backdrop stories almost like a soap script at times but it does all fit together. Worth the watch, quite slow as the story unfolds, for me this isn't a bad thing as I prefer story rather than mindless action. The look at detention centre is quite disturbing, if indeed it is an accurate portrayal, the look at the military sexual harassment was quite disturbing but again, seemingly not needed but understandable why it was included. Not unmissable, but still a very competent thriller.