rabbitmoon — 9 years ago(January 13, 2017 09:18 AM)

The flaws of this series are so huge, I'm amazed anyone could give it a 10 star review. There is absolute zero chemistry between any of the characters. Roper trusts the spy hes bedding and the one he just befriended, but not his long time loyal friend. Hiddleston acts completely wooden and superficially throughout, there is no depth, nuance or complexity to his character or performance at all - its embarrassing to watch in places ("I only had half a life before - I have to finish this"). Laurie's character feels like a bad villain impression, with far too many cliched profundities squeezed into his lines ("Im going to play roulette" "Yes, lets see which one of us is lucky!") The girl's character is flat and phony throughout, just something to hang dresses from and make the show look classy. Colmans character was the same quirky/frumpy/grumpy outspoken character shes played many times before. David Harewoods accent and performance was phony as hell. The plot relied on far too many contrivances and sudden character inconsistencies to work. My gosh, the final episode where Birch uses the phone to explode the trucks, and Roper is watching his twitching fingers saying "come on, hurry up!" for a retina scan, its like a childrens drama. The weapons explode (which would send rockets and bullets propelling in all directions), and the buyer just inmediately and calmy says "I want my money back". It was like a sketch. The whole thing was like a series of phony spy sketches, I kept expecting Stephen Fry to step into scene and start riffing with Laurie. Terrible show, massively overhyped.