Overkill?
The BBC has plainly decided to power up Silent Witness this series. They've been floundering without Amanda Burton, so I suppose they were trying a new approach...
The thing that struck me at the start were the much more graphic scenes - both of 'killing action' and in the autopsy room.
They were focusing on a gangs/drugs and knife crime storyline, blatantly trying to make it 'current' while drawing in every other social issue they could manage.
It went on about inner cities and how there are no choices. How the Government and the police are trying but failing. Ultimately, how hopeless it all is. It was two hours of a rising tide, really.
I'm slightly conflicted about it. I like the new, faster pace of it - it was going a bit stagnant in the last series, and it never cast itself in an 'Inspector Morse' mould to begin with anyway. The quiet, careful lab scenes combined with more dynamic 'out-on-the-streets' stuff works okay...it has always has worked well in Silent Witness.
It's hard for me to comment in detail on the storyline as all I know about knives and crime is what I've seen in the media. It was just really brutal and relentless - not just knifings but a dog attack on a child, implied rapes, a tar & feathering, for example. The results of all of these were shown in detail, which was unexpected, but justified within the context, I suppose.
But they engaged in so much drum-banging by cramming in as many 'social issues' as they could - off the top of my head, foetal alcohol syndrome, disabled mother (apparently single) with four or five kids, immigration, racism, policing and bullying spring to mind. I suppose it's possible the racist paramedic may come back in a later episode as a stalker or something, so that one I'm willing to overlook, depending on what they do with him.
But generally it felt like they've spent the summer reading the papers, highlighting brutal stories and 'hot' issues, and then tried to shoehorn them all in, to build up as negative and hopeless a scenario as they possibly can. They are important issues, yes, but I felt it got a bit evangelical; in combination with the ramped up gory bits it was all just a bit much. Like some strange horror film/Jeremy Kyle/David Dimbleby combo. I was waiting to see who would die next, who they'd be killed by, and guessing which newsworthy issue/s would be raised as a consequence.
See, I don't necessarily mind the blood and guts - it's based in a coroner's office after all, but I can't help wondering if they're going to keep on with this new approach. I don't even mind them highlighting current issues, or even drawing on actual cases, but I'd like to see it done a bit more subtly - by that I don't necessarily mean it needs to be less violent or shocking - maybe shock tactics was the whole point of those episodes - knifings are brutal and they do have consequences.
What I mean is I want them to be less obvious about the social issue/s they're highlighting, and possibly less stereotypical. I still want to be entertained, and not in a predictable way, y'know. If I wanted to explore the crime and/or issue in a straightforward, blatant manner, I'd read articles and watch documentaries. Bits of it were more like 'Crimewatch' than a crime drama.
Eh, perhaps I'm missing something and it was a brilliant drama. I just know I'm thinking more about how it dazed and bothered me than the actual issues it was clearly trying to highlight.
But I now know exactly how to kill someone with a knife and make that knife almost impossible to identify afterwards. I didn't before. Good to be educated, eh? I suppose it did entertain and inform. I'm just not sure about the level and quality of the information.
Overall, though, it is a positive thing that the programme makers have realised they needed to try new things to bring it up out of the slump. But I want to get more engaged in the storylines and the individuals involved in them, not be hit over the head by issue after issue - it's too distracting.
After all that, I'm actually really looking forward to next week, just to see what they do.
The thing that struck me at the start were the much more graphic scenes - both of 'killing action' and in the autopsy room.
They were focusing on a gangs/drugs and knife crime storyline, blatantly trying to make it 'current' while drawing in every other social issue they could manage.
It went on about inner cities and how there are no choices. How the Government and the police are trying but failing. Ultimately, how hopeless it all is. It was two hours of a rising tide, really.
I'm slightly conflicted about it. I like the new, faster pace of it - it was going a bit stagnant in the last series, and it never cast itself in an 'Inspector Morse' mould to begin with anyway. The quiet, careful lab scenes combined with more dynamic 'out-on-the-streets' stuff works okay...it has always has worked well in Silent Witness.
It's hard for me to comment in detail on the storyline as all I know about knives and crime is what I've seen in the media. It was just really brutal and relentless - not just knifings but a dog attack on a child, implied rapes, a tar & feathering, for example. The results of all of these were shown in detail, which was unexpected, but justified within the context, I suppose.
But they engaged in so much drum-banging by cramming in as many 'social issues' as they could - off the top of my head, foetal alcohol syndrome, disabled mother (apparently single) with four or five kids, immigration, racism, policing and bullying spring to mind. I suppose it's possible the racist paramedic may come back in a later episode as a stalker or something, so that one I'm willing to overlook, depending on what they do with him.
But generally it felt like they've spent the summer reading the papers, highlighting brutal stories and 'hot' issues, and then tried to shoehorn them all in, to build up as negative and hopeless a scenario as they possibly can. They are important issues, yes, but I felt it got a bit evangelical; in combination with the ramped up gory bits it was all just a bit much. Like some strange horror film/Jeremy Kyle/David Dimbleby combo. I was waiting to see who would die next, who they'd be killed by, and guessing which newsworthy issue/s would be raised as a consequence.
See, I don't necessarily mind the blood and guts - it's based in a coroner's office after all, but I can't help wondering if they're going to keep on with this new approach. I don't even mind them highlighting current issues, or even drawing on actual cases, but I'd like to see it done a bit more subtly - by that I don't necessarily mean it needs to be less violent or shocking - maybe shock tactics was the whole point of those episodes - knifings are brutal and they do have consequences.
What I mean is I want them to be less obvious about the social issue/s they're highlighting, and possibly less stereotypical. I still want to be entertained, and not in a predictable way, y'know. If I wanted to explore the crime and/or issue in a straightforward, blatant manner, I'd read articles and watch documentaries. Bits of it were more like 'Crimewatch' than a crime drama.
Eh, perhaps I'm missing something and it was a brilliant drama. I just know I'm thinking more about how it dazed and bothered me than the actual issues it was clearly trying to highlight.
But I now know exactly how to kill someone with a knife and make that knife almost impossible to identify afterwards. I didn't before. Good to be educated, eh? I suppose it did entertain and inform. I'm just not sure about the level and quality of the information.
Overall, though, it is a positive thing that the programme makers have realised they needed to try new things to bring it up out of the slump. But I want to get more engaged in the storylines and the individuals involved in them, not be hit over the head by issue after issue - it's too distracting.
After all that, I'm actually really looking forward to next week, just to see what they do.