You see at the risk of sounding like a boring old fart, I like programmes to be clear. Understandable. To start at the beginning, tell us the story and carry on in this fashion till the end. To reach a conclusion.
And for scenes to be in chronological order. Not jumping around in time like it's all happening in a time machine.
Trendies will say oh we are left to draw our own conclusions, we don't need it spelled out for us.
Bollocks. I don't want to be unsure what's going on or how it all ended. I want to KNOW!
And who was Maria and what the hell was all that about?
Wow. Watched the last eps in the b/g, which doesn't aid understanding, I accept, but even so... The makers assumed the seriousness of the story would command our attention, but it didn't because of the awful execution. Did we find out why the young soldier was going to kill himself? Perhaps because he was stupid enough to believe you can fire a real gun with 'rubber bullets', whatever they are. And what was the nonsense with Maurice Roeves's conspiracy theorist who thought he could tell the make of pistol from its shot (good luck with that). Did the thug who humiliated Steven get his comeuppance?
Not at all happy with that. I had confidence it would have some kind of resolution, and i don't mind a few loose threads, but EVERY thread was left loose! We know nothing. Absolutely nothing.
What on earth was that pointless sidetrack with the supposed brothel? I understand she was doing something that she thought her daughter would want her to, but what on earth were we supposed to do with it? And the rest of it was no better. What a waste of a fantastic cast.
To be fair the last episode was consistent with the others; I think it was fairly clear there was never going to be some kind of big reveal (despite Ch4's rather desperate attempt in the EPG to try and suggest that the gunman isn't dead.) But still, it was a slog for me, with Shirley Henderson seriously over-acting again. I have nothing against her as an actress but she really needs a director to tell her less-is-more sometimes.
I did think that the childhood flashbacks would become a bit clearer. I didn't expect them to contain some magical answer to everything that happens in the present day. But in the end they didn't serve any purpose at all beyond letting us know that Rory Kinnear's character was bullied as a child. The implication that there was some kind of bond between him and the killer was just a big tease, it seems.
Very poor, do not know where to start with criticism.
CASTING - sorry but cannot remember names but hopeless casting includes the nasty little chap (who jumped of bridge), small miserable wife with voice of a 5 year old and the Herman Monster gunman. Surely we should have been feeling empathy with the victims family but could not with those two. Also IMO the gunman would have been more believable if he had been a "normal" person turned bad by events, not a monster type right from the start.
SOUND - some scenes in audible, had to switch on subtitles when small miserable wife was muttering.
FLASHBACKS - maybe I am a bit slow but could not understand who was who and what was happening.
STORYLINE - virtually none. Only understandable plot was the reporter dwelling on his past life in the village. Otherwise everything else seemed just random filling.
Impossible not to compare with Broadchurch since common theme of how a crime can effect families.
Result BROADCHURCH 10 : SOUTHCLIFF 0
Comparing Southcliffe and Broadchurch, I think there is no contest, but I think they are very different from each other. I think Southcliffe did what it aimed to do.
I'm happy with the final episode on the whole. I never expected a full reveal of the whys and wherefores and was pretty sure there would be a lot of audience-filling-in-the-blanks by the end. I personally do think there were sufficient clues in there to enable us to have a good stab at that.
My feeling is that David, bullied as a child, himself turned into a bully and his victim was Morton. David therefore feels guilty that he may have been responsible in some way for the way Morton turned out and his crime. He also has a lot of unresolved grief for his father. He goes some way to exorcising these ghosts by preventing Chris from killing himself.
Claire's response to her loss was to try to finish her daughter's work, by helping the foreign girl who was being exploited. She seems to have had a minor breakdown during this episode - again, that's just one of many possible responses to grief.
Chris and Paul (the latter we have to assume did die when he jumped off the bridge) both succumbed to their grief in the form of suicide or attempted suicide.
Claire's husband - whose name I have temporarily forgotten - seems to have coped quietly with his loss, in an outwardly phlegamatic way, but confesses to being lonely. You know that inside he is no less devastated, but he handles it differently.
At the end of the day Southcliffe was not about Morton and why he did it and conspiracies theories and blame, it wasn't a detective drama, it was a study in loss and grief. I don't think it was perfect but I found it compelling and well acted, very atmospheric and very moving at times.
I didn't watch Broadchurch but I gather it wasn't like Southcliffe....
Surprised by the sheer weight of negative comments. Broadly I'm with the Telegraph reviewer quoted upthread: "Southcliffe’s power has been its unique insistence on bringing into our living rooms a harrowing sense of the grief, numbness and trauma of mindless murder, shoving it in our faces and refusing to let us look away. " That seems about right to me. Bleak depiction of a bleak reality. Loose ends schmoose ends...it *felt* right. I at least felt throughout that this really is the kind of way these kinds of things happen, the ways this kind of thing feels. Not flawless - what is? - but like I say, very good.
Surprised by the sheer weight of negative comments. Broadly I'm with the Telegraph reviewer quoted upthread: "Southcliffe’s power has been its unique insistence on bringing into our living rooms a harrowing sense of the grief, numbness and trauma of mindless murder, shoving it in our faces and refusing to let us look away. " That seems about right to me. Bleak depiction of a bleak reality. Loose ends schmoose ends...it *felt* right. I at least felt throughout that this really is the kind of way these kinds of things happen, the ways this kind of thing feels. Not flawless - what is? - but like I say, very good.
Sorry but I think your comments are as confusing as the program. It is late however.
Surprised by the sheer weight of negative comments. Broadly I'm with the Telegraph reviewer quoted upthread: "Southcliffe’s power has been its unique insistence on bringing into our living rooms a harrowing sense of the grief, numbness and trauma of mindless murder, shoving it in our faces and refusing to let us look away. " That seems about right to me. Bleak depiction of a bleak reality. Loose ends schmoose ends...it *felt* right. I at least felt throughout that this really is the kind of way these kinds of things happen, the ways this kind of thing feels. Not flawless - what is? - but like I say, very good.
I didn't think it did achieve those things so I'm not surprised at the negative comments.
Originally Posted by rachelgata
My feeling is that David, bullied as a child, himself turned into a bully and his victim was Morton.
What made you think that? (I was waiting for a scene along those lines)
There was certainly evidence that David was bullied. He raised the possibility that Morton was bullied in a conversation and we later had a flashback to his childhood when he was wandering around the outhouses near Morton's house. It looked as if the child Morton was acting distressed in the child David's presence.
They didn't spell it out more because a lot of this was going on in David's mind and was more about his sense of guilt about what happened than what actually happened. He either bullied Morton or didn't support him when he was bullied. Stopping Chris from going on a rampage or committing suicide helped lift this sense of guilt.
There was no simple cause and effect for Morton's rampage and people were asking themselves questions about whether they were in someways responsible and, in some cases, this added to their sense of grief.
Comments
And for scenes to be in chronological order. Not jumping around in time like it's all happening in a time machine.
Trendies will say oh we are left to draw our own conclusions, we don't need it spelled out for us.
Bollocks. I don't want to be unsure what's going on or how it all ended. I want to KNOW!
And who was Maria and what the hell was all that about?
Answers on a postcard...
What on earth was that pointless sidetrack with the supposed brothel? I understand she was doing something that she thought her daughter would want her to, but what on earth were we supposed to do with it? And the rest of it was no better. What a waste of a fantastic cast.
Irritated. Really irritated.:mad:
Sorry, 'background'.
there seemed to be too many things going on that didnt appear relevant to the main story,
disappointing for what had the potential to be a very good programme
Thanks, I couldn't cope with more intrigue
I did think that the childhood flashbacks would become a bit clearer. I didn't expect them to contain some magical answer to everything that happens in the present day. But in the end they didn't serve any purpose at all beyond letting us know that Rory Kinnear's character was bullied as a child. The implication that there was some kind of bond between him and the killer was just a big tease, it seems.
Huh????
CASTING - sorry but cannot remember names but hopeless casting includes the nasty little chap (who jumped of bridge), small miserable wife with voice of a 5 year old and the Herman Monster gunman. Surely we should have been feeling empathy with the victims family but could not with those two. Also IMO the gunman would have been more believable if he had been a "normal" person turned bad by events, not a monster type right from the start.
SOUND - some scenes in audible, had to switch on subtitles when small miserable wife was muttering.
FLASHBACKS - maybe I am a bit slow but could not understand who was who and what was happening.
STORYLINE - virtually none. Only understandable plot was the reporter dwelling on his past life in the village. Otherwise everything else seemed just random filling.
Impossible not to compare with Broadchurch since common theme of how a crime can effect families.
Result BROADCHURCH 10 : SOUTHCLIFF 0
My feeling is that David, bullied as a child, himself turned into a bully and his victim was Morton. David therefore feels guilty that he may have been responsible in some way for the way Morton turned out and his crime. He also has a lot of unresolved grief for his father. He goes some way to exorcising these ghosts by preventing Chris from killing himself.
Claire's response to her loss was to try to finish her daughter's work, by helping the foreign girl who was being exploited. She seems to have had a minor breakdown during this episode - again, that's just one of many possible responses to grief.
Chris and Paul (the latter we have to assume did die when he jumped off the bridge) both succumbed to their grief in the form of suicide or attempted suicide.
Claire's husband - whose name I have temporarily forgotten
At the end of the day Southcliffe was not about Morton and why he did it and conspiracies theories and blame, it wasn't a detective drama, it was a study in loss and grief. I don't think it was perfect but I found it compelling and well acted, very atmospheric and very moving at times.
I didn't watch Broadchurch but I gather it wasn't like Southcliffe....
Thank God !!I thought it was just me,never understood a thing
Sorry but I think your comments are as confusing as the program. It is late however.
I didn't think it did achieve those things so I'm not surprised at the negative comments.
What made you think that? (I was waiting for a scene along those lines)
There was certainly evidence that David was bullied. He raised the possibility that Morton was bullied in a conversation and we later had a flashback to his childhood when he was wandering around the outhouses near Morton's house. It looked as if the child Morton was acting distressed in the child David's presence.
They didn't spell it out more because a lot of this was going on in David's mind and was more about his sense of guilt about what happened than what actually happened. He either bullied Morton or didn't support him when he was bullied. Stopping Chris from going on a rampage or committing suicide helped lift this sense of guilt.
There was no simple cause and effect for Morton's rampage and people were asking themselves questions about whether they were in someways responsible and, in some cases, this added to their sense of grief.