Leaving aside the dysfunctional family the criminal elements to the story were just ridiculous. Colour by number one dimensional characters carrying out joke crimes.
Do organised gangs really carry out armed raids on Cash & Carry stores?
Why put a rival gang member down a hole? Why not just kill him and bury him on a farm?
I can only assume the writer has never know a real criminal and hasn't bothered to do much research.
When the fat cat BBC executives look at American TV why do they not die of shame?
Last week I was left with a headache as it was so tense. Last night I felt a little disappointed at how it ended and some of the things that happened. We had the typical Ooopps moment.
How could the timing be so spot on after the sons phone call. How did the police know when to act?
Apart from that I did enjoy it.
Yes I had high hopes after the first two.
It seemed much grittier than US dramas, a real feel of the reality of fatherhood, rude boyfriends, poor pay, vile customers. Lets sell that to them, I am sick of watching imports. I kept noticing Morriseys bad hair dye job, though, the tell tale ginger brown. Couldnt work out if it was for character or really him.
The third was bit of a letdown though, like trying to pack too much into it.
I cant see witness protection working so well now, it just takes the daughter to like a facebook comment or something.
There was definitely something awry with the way that the first two episodes set up Vince's involvement in a gang that was about to pull off a major crime, and then the third revealed that it was actually a cash-and-carry robbery. We were sold a really exciting third episode but what we got was something else.
To be fair, what we got was a very tense finale and Morrissey's acting kept us hooked until, well, the last minute or so when it all petered out. But it wasn't more than the sum of its parts, which is what we've come to expect from great drama.
I was a bit disappointed with the series. Its started really promising and I enjoyed thd car chase at the beginning of the first episode and wished there had been more car chases, he was a driver after all. I thought the gang would be planning bank robberies or robbing bigger, nastier gangs. David Morrissey is also capable of so much more, acting wise. In this he just seemed to be going through the motions. He warned his pal Colin away from doing the robbery but chances were the gang members would give him up for beating up the rival gang member and putting him down the hole. At the end afyer Vince picked up his son and they should you the back of the car I had convinced myself there was going to be a twist and there would be someone in the back of the taxi with a gun. All in all, good idea but I still felt quite let down by it.
At the end afyer Vince picked up his son and they should you the back of the car I had convinced myself there was going to be a twist and there would be someone in the back of the taxi with a gun. All in all, good idea but I still felt quite let down by it.
I thought that also, but then breathed a sigh of relief when he and his son drove away, on the way back to mum and sis.
But then I also felt quite let down.
I had enjoyed the first two episodes, and the build up in the third episode, but the ending was unconvincing (there are coincidences and then there are plot get-out clauses) and too abrupt.
Sure, life itself does not have completely tied-up conclusions to problems, and we can be left wondering 'what happens next?'. But the ending of the driver left too many questions. It could have done with another 15 minutes to sort a few things out.
Leaving aside the dysfunctional family the criminal elements to the story were just ridiculous. Colour by number one dimensional characters carrying out joke crimes.
Do organised gangs really carry out armed raids on Cash & Carry stores?
Why put a rival gang member down a hole? Why not just kill him and bury him on a farm?
I can only assume the writer has never know a real criminal and hasn't bothered to do much research.
When the fat cat BBC executives look at American TV why do they not die of shame?
I thought they were doing a large bank job with all the maps and planning they were doing. That was quite laughable finding it was a cash and carry.
I thought they were doing a large bank job with all the maps and planning they were doing. That was quite laughable finding it was a cash and carry.
I think the problem is the poor writing. You can blame British TV's obsessions with 3 to 6 part dramas but you don't need more than 180 minutes to tell a great story well.
The basic story, ordinary Joe fed up with his position in life turns to crime and finds himself in over his head and his wife goes mad when she finds out is not new but it was poorly told.
I didn't think any of the main characters was believable and it felt like the story had been bolted together.
Villains present great opportunities for writers. They can get their teeth stuck into them and make them really vile, disgusting and frightening characters. Horse and his gang simply weren't fleshed out.
But having said that so low is the expectation of UK drama viewers they announced the DVD is available on pre-order and it has 8.0 rating on IMDB!
If I was Ros then I would've told Vince that he'd have to go to prison (I doubt if it would've been as long as 10 years, I think the detectives were just saying that to frighten him in to going along with their plan as they were desperate to get Horse). I wouldn't be prepared for me & my kids to have their lives turned upside down like that; the marriage won't last anyway.
Liked this, thought it was up there with Luther, and Prey so far as British dramas go, don't usually watch UK stuff, apart from these and Hinterland, most of them were whizzed on Sky+.
Big Boss named Horse, wonder homage to Banshee - Rabbit.
The ending was OK, I think its one of those where they let you choose what happens, one way out for the family with the gang would be them believing Col was to blame for the tip off, having taken a beating, and that The Driver sped off in panic - so they all lived happily after - apart from Col.
In three episodes its never going to be The Wire or The Sopranos - I think it was very good for what it was.
Just caught up with the end of it. I'm in two minds. It was very watchable but there again it was more like something out of the Sweeney era. Like others, I was surprised that the big job was a raid on a cash and carry. How quaint? Even muggers don't bother going for cash any more as there's so little of it being carried around. They go for mobiles. After drugs that's where the money's at. You ship them out to Asia and Africa where many western models are hard to acquire and expensive. A raid on an gangster warehouse of stolen electronic goods would make more sense but you'd need a truck driver I guess.
I thought this was excellent at portraying the tension that would be present in both aspects of his life in this scenario.
But like most recent BBC output it stumbled at the end. If they wanted a happy outcome he should have told/took that one guy in his car and said he panicked when he saw the police. The rest were caught and would need a witness to put them there? If only there was another character with loose morals who'd already let them down and wouldn't mind a new life in witness protection.
The rest were caught and would need a witness to put them there?
To be fair, they needed a witness to prove the Horse's involvement as he didn't take part in the actual robbery. And I guess it was him they most wanted to get.
They do arrest Horse in a shady warehouse at the same time though, if that was a seperate operation what put him there, the phone?
Regardless, Ian Hart's character could account for all of it and let the driver repair his life. It would have made a nicer cap to the story if Hart was rewarded with a move away from his non-existent family and Morrissey was back to square one with his.
That Horse bloke was a bit of a thicko. He instructed the bloke to do away with a rival gangster knowing he had no transport, did he think he would take him on the bus to dump him down that hole?
...agree with all of the above posts - I was totally underwhelmed by the ending. When it finished, me and my wife turned to each other and said, "....is that it"?!
The fact that he managed to get all the criminals arrested, he found he son, and then went back to his wife (who would now be whole again, now that her beloved son was returning), and they all lived happily ever after, was a complete let down.:(
I was expecting some kind of twist at the end. When he got into his taxi, with his son, I was expecting one of the gangstas to be sitting in the back holding a gun or something - but alas, no.:(
Really enjoyed this and was satisfied with the ending. Usually these serials start well enough and then wane towards the end - not this one though. It was just about the right length - any longer and I probably wouldn't have bothered. Cleverly written a,s as much as condemning him for getting into this mess in the first pace, had he not, he may well never have been reunited with his son and his family life would have contuinued on a downward spiral
Comments
Leaving aside the dysfunctional family the criminal elements to the story were just ridiculous. Colour by number one dimensional characters carrying out joke crimes.
Do organised gangs really carry out armed raids on Cash & Carry stores?
Why put a rival gang member down a hole? Why not just kill him and bury him on a farm?
I can only assume the writer has never know a real criminal and hasn't bothered to do much research.
When the fat cat BBC executives look at American TV why do they not die of shame?
Yes I had high hopes after the first two.
It seemed much grittier than US dramas, a real feel of the reality of fatherhood, rude boyfriends, poor pay, vile customers. Lets sell that to them, I am sick of watching imports. I kept noticing Morriseys bad hair dye job, though, the tell tale ginger brown. Couldnt work out if it was for character or really him.
The third was bit of a letdown though, like trying to pack too much into it.
I cant see witness protection working so well now, it just takes the daughter to like a facebook comment or something.
To be fair, what we got was a very tense finale and Morrissey's acting kept us hooked until, well, the last minute or so when it all petered out. But it wasn't more than the sum of its parts, which is what we've come to expect from great drama.
But then I also felt quite let down.
I had enjoyed the first two episodes, and the build up in the third episode, but the ending was unconvincing (there are coincidences and then there are plot get-out clauses) and too abrupt.
Sure, life itself does not have completely tied-up conclusions to problems, and we can be left wondering 'what happens next?'. But the ending of the driver left too many questions. It could have done with another 15 minutes to sort a few things out.
And no organised gang would risk 10 years each in prison for a couple of thousand quid each.
I thought they were doing a large bank job with all the maps and planning they were doing. That was quite laughable finding it was a cash and carry.
I think the problem is the poor writing. You can blame British TV's obsessions with 3 to 6 part dramas but you don't need more than 180 minutes to tell a great story well.
The basic story, ordinary Joe fed up with his position in life turns to crime and finds himself in over his head and his wife goes mad when she finds out is not new but it was poorly told.
I didn't think any of the main characters was believable and it felt like the story had been bolted together.
Villains present great opportunities for writers. They can get their teeth stuck into them and make them really vile, disgusting and frightening characters. Horse and his gang simply weren't fleshed out.
But having said that so low is the expectation of UK drama viewers they announced the DVD is available on pre-order and it has 8.0 rating on IMDB!
Big Boss named Horse, wonder homage to Banshee - Rabbit.
The ending was OK, I think its one of those where they let you choose what happens, one way out for the family with the gang would be them believing Col was to blame for the tip off, having taken a beating, and that The Driver sped off in panic - so they all lived happily after - apart from Col.
In three episodes its never going to be The Wire or The Sopranos - I think it was very good for what it was.
The last episode was pretty poor.
As for the ending - what a load of rubbish.
I was kind of disappointed with ep 3. Kind of ended with a ...... whimper.
But like most recent BBC output it stumbled at the end. If they wanted a happy outcome he should have told/took that one guy in his car and said he panicked when he saw the police. The rest were caught and would need a witness to put them there? If only there was another character with loose morals who'd already let them down and wouldn't mind a new life in witness protection.
Regardless, Ian Hart's character could account for all of it and let the driver repair his life. It would have made a nicer cap to the story if Hart was rewarded with a move away from his non-existent family and Morrissey was back to square one with his.
...agree with all of the above posts - I was totally underwhelmed by the ending. When it finished, me and my wife turned to each other and said, "....is that it"?!
The fact that he managed to get all the criminals arrested, he found he son, and then went back to his wife (who would now be whole again, now that her beloved son was returning), and they all lived happily ever after, was a complete let down.:(
I was expecting some kind of twist at the end. When he got into his taxi, with his son, I was expecting one of the gangstas to be sitting in the back holding a gun or something - but alas, no.:(
For me, that was the twist - I expected it to end with his murder !
Films/TV dramas rarely end with the death of the hero/main character.