xhidden99 Takes shaky cam to a whole new level. It induces motion sickness. The average shot is one second or less. Combined with extreme closeups, bizarre color schemes (blue on blue on blue) or sepia or pastel washout for no reason it's nearly un-view-able. The upside is that this gives the writers an opportunity to slack off and dash together a script that's as scattered and incoherent as the visuals. You rarely have a scene that's connected with any other scene and the notion of a plot is pretty much tossed out. But so what?It's a BBC production so the basic premise is that the US is a giant sewer of ultra right wing psychopathic anti Muslim bigots and the only the sane people in the world are of course, the Brits and their gently nuanced love of all Muslims. If it turns out the Brits really are behind it, well then it's for our own good. Oh and throw in Florida's death row conviction of a Brit who's, you guessed it, completely innocent. I wonder if they pull an MI-5 and just blame everything on The Jews.

bob the moo Seconds after taking off from Washington, flight 113 to London explodes over the city, causing loss of life in the sky and on the ground. Outgoing UK ambassador to Washington Mark Brydon is on the ground when it happens and witnesses first hand the tragic events. US Secretary of Defence Lynne Warner is giving a speech at a business event and is rushed away when she learns of the "attack". A former UK ambassador to Turkistan criticises the US and UK for ignoring human rights violations there. A military training exercise in Virginia sees a solider dead, stripped of ID and dumped in a river. A British prisoner on death row sees the hours ticking away on his appeal. The news that flight 113 was bombed by a British Muslim sees the Governor of Virginia rounding up British Muslims in his state. Meanwhile in Washington, Brydon's attempts to minimise the political fallout sees him drawn into a bigger conspiracy than he could have imagined as connections between the bomber and US interests in Turkistan come to the fore.The first episode opens quickly, matching the dizzy speed that the camera moves around, with a bomb bringing down a passenger plane. This opening looks to grab you and hold you because the writers know that they all viewers are going to be thrown into the middle of a lot of detail and be asked to keep up with it even though the connections will not start coming together for an episode or two (baring in mind this only was six episodes long). Obviously I didn't know this at the start and I confess I did find the first two episodes to be demanding of attention without giving a lot back. However sticking with it does see all the pieces fall into place in a rather convoluted but engaging web of twists and developments. The conspiracy is sadly believable and the series builds a plot that 24 would be proud of – albeit with a bit less action.The delivery is solid and enjoyable with an intelligently building narrative that does reward paying attention. Aside from the early plane crash grabbing attention, there isn't 24 levels of action and some viewers may find it quite talky but the series doesn't seem concerned with this – to its credit. The whole production looks professional and expensive but at times the shaky camera-work is a distraction – in moderation it isn't a problem but some episodes felt like it had been filmed during an earthquake! The narrative does have one glaring problem within it and that is the issue of political bias. If you are right-wing and believe that the Iraq war was right and that it was all about WMD (or regime change or whatever the official reason is as you read this) then you will probably hate this series because the whole plot is essentially a very unsubtle parallel with Iraq (in regards US going to war obviously – the whole "fabricating the war thing is total fiction!). As a bit of a liberal, this element didn't bother me that much but at times it was all a bit obvious and unimaginative in regards the underlying ideas.The cast is a strange mix but mostly pretty good despite some of them betraying the limited budget of the piece. Isaacs runs the show and he delivers a solid leading man who holds the attention well. Below him the biggest name is Sharon Gless; she is OK but somehow she doesn't convince in her role. Ben Daniels is as good as Isaacs in his rather shadowy role. O'Reilly is very so-so while James and Pearson were surprise finds in supporting roles. The rest all do well enough in their various characters as this isn't a story that asks a lot of depth from the supporting actors so much as it asks for solid turns.Overall then a pretty enjoyable and engaging conspiracy thriller. The cast are mostly good and work well with a script that rewards paying attention with a satisfying story. The basic idea is a bit obvious and will annoy hawks with its obvious political bias but mostly it should be good enough to please casual viewers as long as you don't expect it to be action packed and contain all the gloss and budget of 24 (for example).

marymcbth We're at episode four - and I'm like a kid with a new book dying to get to the end and yet longing for the story to carry on indefinitely. A rare title - one that describes the film perfectly - states within at all levels; from political perversion to commercial greed to personal persuasion. A huge onion of a script!The plot is an artistic reconciliation (thus far) - the more complex the situations become,the more clearly we can distinguish personal facets of characters. But I think that there are yet some darker horses preparing for a gallop.The story started fairly slowly and we were able to watch as individuals were drawn into the web of lies and deceit, many simply there to be trapped and killed. However I'm not sure whether or not we've met the master weaver yet or whether that will remain a mystery even after the final title has rolled.I'm not worried about the end being a let down - unless Britain (or any other country for that matter) suddenly produces Sir Lancelot - and I don't think that's likely to happen.I hope you've not missed it! If you have - watch out for the second showing - this is a really big treat.

pfgpowell This is something of a departure for British TV (being rather less in the clover than TV moguls Stateside) because the productions values are VERY high for UK homegrown produce. I imagine they are hoping (or were hoping) to sell it in the U.S. too. Whatever, it has set the yardstick high and so has set itself a lot to live up to. Will it do it. I have a sneaky suspicion it might (even though much of the excitement is just down to fancy editing). Somewhart trendy in its choice of subject matter, but then these days that"s the name of the game. But as I say, if they carry it off they carry it off. If they don't — well memories are short. So either way it's a sure bet.