Year: 2011

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, BBC2. Available on the iPlayer

Writer/director/producer of BBC2’s new thriller The Shadow Line, Hugo Blick, would have us think of BBC2 as the UK’s version of HBO. Aside from the fact that there aren’t nearly enough repeats or boxing on BBC2 for that to be true, I’m not entirely convinced that just looking at drama – or even just as The Shadow Line – that you could make that mistake.

Sure, it’s got a good cast, including Christopher Eccleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lesley Sharp. It’s beautifully directed and concerns the kind of difficult subject matters that HBO used to be associated with, including drug dealing and contract killing. There’s the occasional bit of swearing, too, although nowhere near the levels of The Wire or Al Swearengen in Deadwood.

One might even stretch a point and say that although HBO doesn’t really do “Lynchian weird”, the general weirdness of The Shadow Line pales into insignificance compared to the weirdness of John from Cincinnati, even if that show was somewhat unique in HBO’s history.

But arguably, as a drama, The Shadow Line is so slow-moving, so off the wall and so anti-realistic, “BBC2 is the UK’s AMC” would be more accurate.

Here’s a BBC clip, because the BBC in their wisdom haven’t bothered to stick any decent trailers on YouTube. Sorry, US readers.

Continue reading “Review: The Shadow Line 1×1”