When looking at trailers for this ITV Drama it was clearly an attempt at turning Nigel Harman (yet another ex-soap star jumping to ITV) into a Jason Bourne like character. Hell, it even had Brian Cox in it! I thought I'd give it a go. How bad could it be I thought...
But within 5 minutes of watching the programme it was clear that Jason Bourne wasn't the writer's only influence. As noted by others The Da Vinci Code was one of them. The list of rips-offs....or homages continued with Out Of Sight (and Don't Look Now), Alias, the list seemed to go on and on.
It's okay to be like another film or TV show, but at least try to do something different.
The Outsiders was a mess, the plot was all over the place, the characters were two dimensional and totally in-consistent. One minute Anna Madeley our attractive female lead seemed to be in total control of the situation, the next she was the new girl at the office wa-a-a-y in over her head....
The villains weren't anything special.
The few action set pieces were fumbled by the director.
Dialogue was turgid.
The tone was all over the place, was it meant to be a bit tongue in cheek or was it meant to be a down and dirty action thriller? It wasn't either.
It was a below average Sunday tea-time show put in a post-watershed time slot for no good reason.
Even the shows title made no sense.
The real annoyance was that only a few days ago ITV1 broadcast a new one-off special of Cracker. Which was 2 hours of TV gold. Proof that ITV can still (occasionally) do good drama.
In a world where shows like 24, CSI and The Shield exist there isn't any excuse for shows like The Outsiders to reach our screens.
I very much doubt it'll be turned into a full series, but if it does it really needs some re-tooling. Getting new writers would be job one.
Avoid, avoid, avoid. Instead put on the DVD of one of the Bourne films.
But within 5 minutes of watching the programme it was clear that Jason Bourne wasn't the writer's only influence. As noted by others The Da Vinci Code was one of them. The list of rips-offs....or homages continued with Out Of Sight (and Don't Look Now), Alias, the list seemed to go on and on.
It's okay to be like another film or TV show, but at least try to do something different.
The Outsiders was a mess, the plot was all over the place, the characters were two dimensional and totally in-consistent. One minute Anna Madeley our attractive female lead seemed to be in total control of the situation, the next she was the new girl at the office wa-a-a-y in over her head....
The villains weren't anything special.
The few action set pieces were fumbled by the director.
Dialogue was turgid.
The tone was all over the place, was it meant to be a bit tongue in cheek or was it meant to be a down and dirty action thriller? It wasn't either.
It was a below average Sunday tea-time show put in a post-watershed time slot for no good reason.
Even the shows title made no sense.
The real annoyance was that only a few days ago ITV1 broadcast a new one-off special of Cracker. Which was 2 hours of TV gold. Proof that ITV can still (occasionally) do good drama.
In a world where shows like 24, CSI and The Shield exist there isn't any excuse for shows like The Outsiders to reach our screens.
I very much doubt it'll be turned into a full series, but if it does it really needs some re-tooling. Getting new writers would be job one.
Avoid, avoid, avoid. Instead put on the DVD of one of the Bourne films.