andy-168-53555
Finished watching Britz and it was excellent on all levels. Another example of Kosminsky portraying multi layers of a complex, deep rooted, fragile sociopolitical issue (as he did so consummately in The Promise). He shows major flaws in opposing cultures but also wills the audience to see things from more than one perspective. By telling the story of cause and effect then revenge, on an individual's level, he portrays the bigger picture brilliantly.
rudeboy_murray
I watched the entire four hours plus of Britz in one bum-numbing session. It delivers exactly what you expect from a Channel 4 mini-series hard-hitting, topical, well-made edgy drama. Sadly it is also overwritten, more than a little preachy, and some of the acting is uneven.Episode one, Sohail's story, plays like an endlessly drawn-out episode of Spooks. It has it's moments, and Riz Ahmed is rather good, but the highlights are few and far between, and an awful lot of scenes feel padded. Part two, Nasima's story, is more compelling and at the same time more predictable. The ending is a long time coming and you may spot it a mile off, yet the motivations and attitudes set up for the character lead one to feel that the outcome doesn't ring true. I won't give away the game, but I didn't entirely buy it.This is the first of Kosminsky's celebrated contemporary dramas I've seen and while the quality of his writing and the power of the subject matter are enough to maintain interest for much of the story, it's hard not to feel he could have achieved more at half the length.
paul2001sw-1
'Britz' attempts to look at the psychology of contemporary British Muslims, a worthy subject in the age of suicide bombings. Two siblings feature in this drama, and both are viewed with sympathy: a man who joins the security service, and his sister, who become a terrorist. Unfortunately, episode one, centred on the former, is plain daft. MI5 is presented much as it is in 'Spooks': beautiful people, high tech-gadgetry, and a general air of cool. It didn't convince me one iota as real, and seemed as littered with false detail like a bad sci-fi film: for example, we see implausible network analysis graphics on the screens of the agents, whose sinister form was presumably preferred to taking any real network analysis package and putting a real network through it. It's still amazing to me that in the 21st century, films try to impress by simulating imagined computer technology with mock-ups less impressive than the real thing. This point may sound like a geekish digression, but it illustrates a more fundamental truth: that the world we see is a false one, right down to the old cliché of the supposed desk officer going out to find the terrorists by himself when his bosses won't believe him.Episode two, his sister's story, isn't as silly, but I didn't find that it completely convinced me that the character, who seems rational and sarcastic, would actually end her own life. The suggestion is made that she acts out of anger rather than religious belief; but I am uncertain whether a sane, intelligent and secular human being can really take a decision to commit suicide; her experiences, although tough, do not justify the extreme nihilism of her position. The aim is undoubtedly to make us understand the mind of a bomber; but while Nasira is understandable , she loses plausibility as a result. Additionally, the drama in both episodes is often heavy-handed, rather clumsily making its points. But 'Britiz' is not rubbish. In places, its an interestingand thoughtful look at certain aspects of life in Britain and Pakistan that are often unreported. But in its efforts to make a bigger statement about a greater and more terrifying mystery, this ambitious film over-reaches itself.
neil1690
The first part was good. The brother character was full of common sense and his rise through MI5 was compulsive viewing.The plot started to unravel in the second part. A policeman threatens to shove a ham sandwich down her throat. British policemen are politically correct to the point of ridicule. Then, she wears the headscarf on a bus in Bradford, which is strongly Asian. No-one will sit next to her. As if.It's unclear why the sister took the course of action that she did. Her arguments originally come from a civil liberties standpoint. But then out of the blue she becomes a suicide bomber, acting for people who have no concept of civil liberties whatsoever. What did it for me was the suicide tape at the end when the sister tells us all that we are responsible for her actions. How dare C4 repeat the lies of these extremists?Perhaps they should be reminded that the goal of Al Queda is to turn the world into an Islamic super-state. The first role of the terrorist is to portray themselves as the victim. Nobody thought to tell the writer.