Tue 20 Apr 2010
A British TV Series Review by Geoff Bradley: WAKING THE DEAD, Series 8.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[3] Comments
WAKING THE DEAD. BBC, UK, Series 8: 06-07, 13-14, 20-21, 27-28 Sept 2009. Trevor Eve (Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd), Sue Johnston (Dr. Grace Foley), Wil Johnson (DI Spencer Jordan), Félicité Du Jeu (DC Stella Goodman), Tara Fitzgerald (Dr. Eve Lockhart), Stacey Roca (DS Katrina Howard).
This long running series (back for four stories, each spread over two one-hour parts, no adverts) is as barmy as any that is currently being shown.
Detective Supt. Peter Boyd, who runs a cold case squad, is so far over the top, irrational and prone to outbursts, that you wonder why anyone would work for him at all.
However the stories are usually very watchable and often set up an intriguing premise. The problem is that the resolutions are always a complete letdown and never bother trying to explain who has done what and why.
Boyd is never supervised and seems unbothered by his methods but this series went a step further and set Boyd up as some sort of avenger. Illogical and beyond reason but it can be entertaining.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:37 am
I’ve seen a couple of these. They make no sense, but they are entertaining even if you aren’t always sure what happened when its over.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:46 am
I’ve seen several episodes of this series and it is of great interest. But I agree with the criticism concerning Peter Boyd. In real life I think he would have been fired or transferred to a lower profile job with no supervision duties, etc. He just rocks the boat and causes too much trouble, even though he gets results. Somewhere along the way, one of his employees would have filed charges against him. His bosses certainly would not have put up with his actions. Sometimes he appeared to be acting as though he was crazy.
April 20th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I always get the feeling that there is a little internal clock in his brain which says “Ten minutes have gone past AND I HAVEN’T SHOUTED AT ANYONE!!!” He definitely needs to sit down, have a cup of tea, and try to relax.
The thing that has always irritated me about the programme is the way that it takes itself so buttock-clenchingly seriously. If programmes aren’t secure enough to poke fun at themselves, then they run the risk of appearing pompous. It is telling that the drama NEW TRICKS (also about a cold case unit)is able to mix humour in with the serious stuff, and is far more popular. RAISING THE DEAD always seems like melodrama, whilst NEW TRICKS manages (however ridiculous the story line gets) to feel more like real life.