Roadkill - General Discussion

[chitowngirl]

Ambition knows no bounds, nor does corruption in a political thriller written by David Hare and starring Hugh Laurie as a scheming UK government minister. Crime may not pay, but politics sure does.
 

Series starts November 1st on PBS (Masterpiece)

[ApathyMonger]

This is all up on iPlayer in the UK. It's four episodes of them setting up dominoes, and then it ends without anything happening. It feels like they got cut off with two-three episodes left, but I think this was just all they had planned? It all felt a bit pointless.

There's also a weird disconnect where Laurie's character is clearly based on a bunch of far-right British politicians like Johnson and Farage, but they want him to be somewhat likable, so they give him positions that would never allow him to be a populist in the Tory party like being pro-immigration and anti-prison.

As an Agents of SHIELD fan, it was fun to see Iain De Caestecker basically doing a John Hannah impression.

[AZChristian]

I enjoy watching British programming so I can see who I recognize from other shows or movies.

Last night, we saw Narcissa Malfoy and Cho Chang from Harry Potter and Pip Torrens from everything else.  LOL.

 

[12catcrazy]

Not many comments on this show yet.  Hugh Laurie has something about him that makes him likeable as the Politician.   I'm still going "huh" about the Prime Minister's 1960s hairstyle (which must be a wig).  I mean REALLY?   Margaret Thatcher had serious helmet head but that was what, 40 plus years ago?   I also have to mention that it already seems that  everybody is screwing everybody else (and I mean that in both slang meanings of the word).  

So far I'm liking this show - it's much more watchable than COBRA, anyway.  

[sugarbaker design]

On 10/28/2020 at 9:29 AM, ApathyMonger said:

As an Agents of SHIELD fan, it was fun to see Iain De Caestecker basically doing a John Hannah impression.

But De Caestecker is Scottish born and bred, right?

[Driad]

https://www.primetimer.com/features/where-does-hugh-lauries-roadkill-character-rank-among-his-post-house-bastards

[Popples]

On 11/2/2020 at 11:00 AM, AZChristian said:

I enjoy watching British programming so I can see who I recognize from other shows or movies.

Last night, we saw Narcissa Malfoy and Cho Chang from Harry Potter and Pip Torrens from everything else.  LOL.

I recognized Hugh Laurie's barrister from episodes of Doctor Who and Lewis, one of the prison guards that was opening the cells to send the inmates to the cafeteria was Delia from Call the Midwife, but the one that's getting to me is the prison guard saying that lunch was being cut short because they found drugs. She looks so familiar to me, but since they never said her character's name, I can't look her up.

[12catcrazy]

Last night's episode went fast - the daughter is a mess, but her mother doesn't seem all that together either (or at least doesn't seem all that engaged as a mother).   The reporter - well, for a supposedly intelligent woman she acted pretty stupidly.  Yeah, every woman should be walking around in a city she doesn't know in an area that doesn't exactly look like it's Yuppie-fied and hoppin'.  That she was drinking so much (spiked drink and then the bourbon) and still standing, meant to tell us that she's an alcoholic, as who else could handle so much and not be puking in a corner?  

I'm not hate-watching this, as a good cast is saving it, but again, the writing could be less cliched.  Not incredibly impressed with this year's Masterpiece offerings.  

[AZChristian]

We've been bingeing a lot of stuff lately, and find that our old brains can follow a story better when there's not a week between episodes.  So we're saving all of Roadkill and will watch it all in one day when the season is over.

Just finished "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix.  Really good series!

[sugarbaker design]

On 11/4/2020 at 3:21 PM, Popples said:

She looks so familiar to me, but since they never said her character's name, I can't look her up.

Can't you just go imdb.com and look up Roadkill, see the pictures of the castmembers?

[zoey1996]

I missed recording the first episode, and would have to spend $2.99, so I read through this thread to figure out if I wanted to watch it. I’ve enjoyed shows such as Flesh & Blood that others didn’t, so I watched it.  Worth it, and looking forward to the rest of this series.

[Driad]

Can anyone explain the intro graphics?  They look rather 1960s to me.

[buttersister]

I watched Hugh Laurie because that’s what I do. But, meh.

[Joimiaroxeu]

This series should have been set in the 90s because most of the scandalous plot points and political maneuverings seemed trite to me in 2020, at least in the US. AFAIC it was mostly Hugh Laurie's presence that raised it above utter dreck but this wasn't among his best work IMO. Frankly I thought he seemed bored a lot of the time.

There probably could have been a lot more said about corporate prison systems and the different problems they've created.

I liked at the end though how the new prime minister's wife let him know she could destroy his career at any moment. Maybe he should've just had her signature forged. He picked the wrong time to be honest, lol.

[Driad]

It seemed as if they went on until they ran out of time, then stopped.

[Broderbits]

It was thoroughly underwhelming.

[zoey1996]

I enjoyed watching this. I thought it was a cynical, but realistic, take on modern politics. Loved his wife’s implicit threat at the end. 

I was sorry Charmian was killed halfway through; I liked the actor, Sarah Greene, in The Dublin Murders.

[CherryMalotte]

On 11/24/2020 at 2:56 PM, Broderbits said:

It was thoroughly underwhelming.

I wish I liked this more, because the acting is so good.  I've watched it twice now just to catch if I was missing anything...but it's just way too condensed.  It needed to be six episodes.