Low Winter Sun (new AMC police drama starring Mark Strong & Lennie James)

[djariya]

I liked the Pilot, but it did feel like you were just jumping into the middle of an episode without much setup.

Lennie James and Mark Strong were solid. I liked Joe Geddes speech to Agnew about things that are black and white. James IMO is a brilliant actor.

Funny to see Michael McGrady here as the "victim" He's also on Ray Donovan as Frank.

Athena Karkanis isn't really well known in the States except maybe her role in the Saw movies, but I've always found her quite hot. Nice to see her here.

[Lemmy Lugosi]

I didn't hate it, but it seems soooo lacking when you follow BB with this.

[Black Mamba]

This should be interesting. I'll follow along for a few more weeks and see how it plays out. I want to like it, I was happy with the pilot, so we'll see. I have high standards though, a cop(s) killing another cop draws automatic comparisons to The Shield.

[djgeneral]

Originally Posted by djariya

Athena Karkanis isn't really well known in the States except maybe her role in the Saw movies, but I've always found her quite hot. Nice to see her here.

I loved her in The Best Years it was a great college drama series back in 2007. She was one of the leads along with the incredible Charity Shea.

[djariya]

I know AMC put this after Breaking Bad to give it a good lead-in. But, it's kind of unfair to put a new "dark" rookie drama after something that has a solid fan base and is critically acclaimed as Breaking Bad. It's just going to lead to really unfair comparisons. Plus, it's on at 10pm and most are pretty tired by then and from what I saw last night, this is a slow burn show that you kind of need to pay attention to and not half ass watch it.

Hopefully AMC will be patient. This show won't automatically get heated message board and water cooler talk right away.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by djariya

I liked the Pilot, but it did feel like you were just jumping into the middle of an episode without much setup.

As I said before this pilot is pretty much exactly like the original. Even a lot of the dialogue is reproduced verbatim. Well, allowing for "translation" from Scottish idiom to American.

The original used the in media res narrative approach, which means it starts off "in the middle of things", and what comes before is revealed in flashback and exposition. So it's not surprising that the US version is doing the same.

There will have to be some changes made, though. Without going into possible spoiler territory, the original was definitely written to be a one-off mini-series (it aired in Britain in two 90-minute parts). If AMC intends this to be more than just a 10-episode remake of the mini-series, it'll have to play out a bit differently. Which is fine by me.

Actually, it's already playing out slightly differently. The criminals that McCann was dealing with are introduced earlier in the US version than they were in the UK version. It remains to be seen how close the young drug-thugs and the "Old Man" are to the criminals in the original.

[djgeneral]

I didn't really understand who the other young criminals were. But I guess we don't really know much? Or did I just miss something? Like how are they related to the main characters and what are there current attentions...basically what is everything we know about them? I got the rest of the story, but that was puzzling to me a bit. Mainly because I was too excited after watching Breaking Bad lol

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by djgeneral

I didn't really understand who the other young criminals were. But I guess we don't really know much? Or did I just miss something? Like how are they related to the main characters and what are there current attentions...basically what is everything we know about them? I got the rest of the story, but that was puzzling to me a bit. Mainly because I was too excited after watching Breaking Bad lol

From what happened, this is what seems to be the case: The young criminals were working with McCann (the detective who Agnew and Geddes killed). They tipped him off about the coke in the house, and he was going to raid the place, bringing in a little of the coke as evidence, and giving the rest to the criminals to sell. Dialogue suggests that the man in the house they shot worked for "the Old Man", and for reasons that admittedly seem vague, busting this operation was going to help put the Old Man away. Which is what the young criminals wanted. They appear to be under the thumb of "the Old Man", and don't want to be. I assume that they move product for him, which would account for the payment that the woman gave him. Unless that's just a pay-off they make so that he lets them operate on their own.

[djgeneral]

Thanks. I was thinking it was something along those lines.

[N8DOGG]

As a rule, TV shows only have one episode to impress me. My time is valuable and television is filled with such garbage. Most of which leaves me wondering how it even gets aired. How the hell someone can dedicate their time to be entertained by things so brainless is beyond me. With that being said, I'm hooked!

[bootsy]

Originally Posted by N8DOGG

As a rule, TV shows only have one episode to impress me.

Many great shows wouldn't make it under 'this rule'.