ShangLuda Admirable film.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Sherwood Botsford Did not finish first segment. In terms of plot it's a jigsaw puzzle. A piece here, a piece there.Filled with hidden menace and foreshadowing. But also long stills of not much happening. Background sound enough to make conversation hard to hear. Music atonal. Lighting low contrast, and low level. There is not a sharp edged shadow in the entire show. If designed to give the impression of dirt, and sordidness it was successful. Camera height is consistently at chest level. This adds to menace, but it all seems so pointless. Yawn.

beep-58514 Disappointing. No real plot twists until the end and even the end doesn't make sense. Lots of zig-zagging with background details throughout the four episodes but details like the laptop with the "help desk" information and the death of Gina's lawyer parents don't get connected in the end to vindicate Harry with the authorities. Lots of points are lost for instance: the cell phone with the text message about "Cogburn". If Gina's phone was traced and Styles was directed to trace the cell phone that sent the text message, why was Gina's phone the only one they showed being discarded so they wouldn't be located. Granted, Harry's brother called and said get rid of Gina's phone. But, Styles still had been directed to locate the other phone.

rwade-944-564529 Someone asked what the murder 20 years earlier had to do with the events in this series. I think it was just one of many hits by the "Help Desk", and it got Venn and his brother into the story. Mark and Hillman hadn't been sitting around waiting for these events. Hillman told Venn that he had been kept around to do jobs for the Help Desk, and was well taken care of for it. I suspect the same was true for Mark (who I also suspect killed Hillman before Hillman killed Venn). Now they were called out to deal with Gina because she wouldn't let her parents' deaths go, and maybe they were after Venn because he wouldn't let his brother's purported death go. Then they were to assassinate Wentworth, maybe to open a way for Morpeth to move in. That part's a bit murky. But Mark took out Morpeth and Styles to, once again, protect his brother. I suspect that Venn went back into the prison at the end because he didn't want to be on the run for the rest of his life, but it would have wrapped things up nicely if he'd turned in that direction.The length of this was good (four episodes); plenty of time to build a story and build tension, but not so long that it dragged out (like the French series Spiral that carries one case through about a dozen episodes).

ldlazarus I enjoyed the acting, Philip Glenister reminded me more of an updated "Callan", disheveled, unshaven, half asleep etc.. It was good to see David Suchet out of his "Poirot" skin for a while, although I had hoped to see more of a role for him. Anna Chancellor is a fine actress who I have seen do justice to many roles was underused,given her talents. Nevertheless the cast was well thought out and worked well together.The storyline was another matter. The plot zig-zagged all over the place. I appreciate the need for suspense, but many questions went unanswered. Why were Gina's parents killed? (Because they were a brilliant legal team?) What had the earlier crime, the killing at Braddock House have to to do with the events 20 years later? Maybe I missed something but there seemed to be quite a few loose ends that never got resolved. And, what happened to Elspeth? The ending was not satisfying. Maybe there will be a fifth episode.Or perhaps a new PI series based upon Philip Glenister's character. With a better plot and no loose strings, it could probably go somewhere.