Strike: Lethal White - what the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan share their thoughts on Strike: Lethal White.
The BBC One series is the latest adaptation of a novel by Robert Galbraith – the pen name used by JK Rowling for her detective series. It stars Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger…
Have you been watching it? What did you think? Leave your comments below...
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(Photo: BBC/Bronte Films/Steffan Hill)
Hayley says: "It’s cartoonishly bad."
“I love detective shows, even the terrible ones. Even the predictable ones you watch when you’re hungover. But despite the levels I will stoop to, this is unwatchable. It's cliché upon cliché. It's got awful dialogue. It's cartoonishly bad!
"It's like somebody has tried to do something dark and dangerous like a gritty Scandi-noir but they've got there via Murder She Wrote. We all love Murder She Wrote but it knew what it was and it did it brilliantly. This isn't smart enough or dark enough to be taken as seriously as it takes itself.
''It's pitched wrong. Strike has lost a leg in Afghanistan and keeps mentioning it, Robin's got PTSD after being attacked by the baddie in the previous series and she keeps mentioning it. It’s hard to find space to care about the crime in the middle of all of their soap opera drama.
"However, Holliday Grainger is amazing — we loved her in The Capture and want to see her in lots more stuff. She's far too good for this."
(Photo: BBC/Bronte Films/Steffan Hill)
Scott says: "It’s all about the ‘will they won’t they?’"
''This has fallen into the trap that many true crime shows and detective shows have fallen into, when it becomes less about true crime and more about the love affairs between the two main characters and the ‘will they won't they?’.
"It happened with Sherlock and many others and it's just a distraction. I wish they wouldn't do it!
''I think what people really care for is the ‘crime bit’, not so much about ‘talking about your job and your relationship at a wedding’.
"Pass."
(Photo: BBC/Bronte Films/Steffan Hill)
Strike: Lethal White is available on BBC iPlayer.
Must Watch is available as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds, or through your podcast app.
This week, the team also review Two Weeks to Live on Sky One and All Creatures Great and Small on Channel 5. They’re also joined by special guests Sian Clifford and Anna Madeley.
