We’re of split opinions on it. But I like it and intend keeping with it, he is very meh.
He’s supposed to be meh, and is doing an impressive job of tamping down all of his usual colorful dynamism.
Now, do I want to spend my time watching meh? I haven’t decided yet. After the first episode, I needed a half an hour of Jeeves and Wooster.
Are we talking about the car show Roadkill or something else? I love the car show. I watched all 5 seasons in a weekend as well as all of Roadkill Garage and Engine Masters. Real nerdy gearhead stuff that I wish I was.
The OP may be referring to a four-part UK drama airing on PBS in the Masterpiece timeslot of 9pm Sundays. I think two episodes have aired so far.
I’ve been watching. It’s interesting in that it’s slowly turning the screws on the character.
Laurie is playing a different character than House or Wooster. That’s allowed. I suspect things will get even tense as the pressure is ratcheted up. It’s clear he’s been set up to fail and the question is will it be just his downfall or will he find a way to prevail?
Finished it here in the UK and without any spoilers:
- Finishing it was a bit of an effort - a nagging need to see plot threads resolved just about trumped the fact I didn’t care about anybody involved.
- It felt like a first draft. There were a lot of ideas - probably too many for the running time - but they didn’t all get developed. It meant that some characters were left high and dry, with stuff to do but no time to do it, and that some events just happened because the plot needed them to with the absolute minimum of plausible set up.
- It wasn’t at all clear what the point was. As a political thriller it lacked insight and plausibility; as a character study it was muddy and facile; as a state of the nation drama it was cliched and banal. A lot of its ideas about power and realpolitik seemed out of date and it didn’t really do anything new or interesting with them.
- The cast were very good, and helped hide a lot these flaws for a while.
Meh is about right, in short.
Or maybe to
https://www.motortrendondemand.com/show/roadkill/613/
(see also
Roadkill (web series) - Wikipedia )
since they call it a reality show?
Nicely done, Stanislaus, pretty much our feeling, but we’re intrigued enough to stay with for now.
Just so we’re clear, you are referring to the UK political drama starring Hugh Laurie, and currently airing on PBS? There’s been some confusion on which show you were talking about.
I can’t think of a show featuring both Hugh Laurie and Helen McCrory that I wouldn’t watch, so I’m sticking with this one to the end. I do gather that many reviewers have been less than bowled over, but…it’s still worth the time to me because of the great cast.
Finished it tonite. We were pretty pleased at how subtly you got the idea of the way it would end for Hugh Laurie’s character.
The first series did feel like a bit of a setup for something deeper, but I found it entertaining enough. It kept my attention. And I loved the theme music/motif.
The first series? Is there going to be a second series/season? I thought this was a one-off, four-episode program. Hugh Laurie was great as always, but it was weirdly unsatisfying. His character wasn’t entirely evil; I liked that he seemed to be establishing a relationship with the previously unknown daughter and he came clean about her existence to the public (after polling indicated it would help) but he was otherwise corrupt. And of course this daughter was the product of an affair. BTW, what was the meaning of the wife refusing to sign the paperwork dissolving the corporation that held the illegal profits? Was that her saying she was keeping the money for herself?
Yeah, I think she’s coming to a pretty heavy realization of what he is. And I think he used the recognition of his daughter as step to 10 Downing
But does he really have to keep deceitful Julie ? And I would love a UL doper to weigh in on the civil servant, Dame something, changing his orders to suit herself. Would that happen?
Think of it as Maddy’s recorder at the end of the UK House of Cards.
Yes–the existence of this offshore account (I think it was) is leverage for the wife to hold over the new PM’s head. She could make it public and then he’d be in trouble.
(If there isn’t a second series, then the writers are guilty of making the least-resolved “limited series” in history. Cliffhanger-o-rama!)
Oops, that was an assumption on my part! From what I can find via Google, there hasn’t been a second series decision yet – so there isn’t definitely not going to be one, but there might not be.
Bumped.
Just finished it last night and liked but didn’t love it. A different kind of role for Laurie, and he did very well with it. I really appreciated the depth and dimensions of his character: a conservative MP who speaks his mind and isn’t mealy-mouthed, who consistently favors individual liberty, who backs prison reform and is ready to take on the Civil Service, and who’s willing to acknowledge an illegitimate daughter (yes, he had a hunch it would be advantageous to him politically, but IRL that would be by no means certain for a Tory, especially given the interracial angle). I found the growing and obvious mutual affection between him and his jailed daughter to be quite touching. On the other hand, jeez, he’s clearly an adulterer, a perjurer, and a crook.
The coke-sniffing daughter was really annoying. Several times I thought of things he could say in response to her self-pitying whining but, probably realizing it would be futile, didn’t. Near the end, when she was angry that he didn’t say anything nice about her in his interview, I expected him to say, “Am I proud of you for getting caught snorting cocaine when I’m Minister of Justice? No. Would you complain that I was just using you as a political prop if I said anything more about you in public? Of course. We both know you would.”
Glad that his sneaky aide Duncan was apparently left out in the cold by the end.
Wiki says nothing about a second series, but there are certainly quite a few plot threads they could pick up on if there were: what happens next for each of the daughters; does his wife use her offshore-account leverage more aggressively; does the young barrister do something with the info given to her by the newspaper editor; does the death (murder?) of the reporter in Washington come back to haunt him; what other secrets does his driver have on him; etc.
And see: Roadkill series 2 release date | Will there be a second season? | Radio Times