Great start to the season - The Bletchley Circle (2012) Discussion

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] alfa-16 12 years ago

The trick will be finding enough cerebral content for their investigations without turning into a police procedural and without turning them into The Marple Sisters.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] randommovies2002 12 years ago

Good point. I'm liking the code-breaking angle, but I wonder how long they can sustain it, and my interest. I'm not sure I'm up for a long, drawn out conclusion to each case. Too many red herrings would deflate my interest.

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[–] AlbaITA 12 years ago

It's not going to be long, it's just a three-part series.

It's not bad but I think they have missed the real story with this series. The story should've been about the frustration that these brilliant women - and many others- with their sharp intelligence skills must have felt returning to their "home duty" as wifehouses after a war spent doing "men's work".
That's the real story here and not 4 Miss Marples. At least, that's the story I would've cared about, and it would've been great.

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[–] randommovies2002 12 years ago

Oh, I didn't realize. Thanks for the info!

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[–] Husskade 12 years ago

I quite liked and will probably stick with it a while.
But.
It suddenly dawned on me that this is a post war James Patterson's 'Murder Club' series of books. (read 2 that was enough) ...with a nod to Eastenders book reading circle.

However,hopefully I will get away from that notion.

Don't worry ever, because this is just a ride.It's just a ride. Bill Hicks.

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[–] kevfaekdy 12 years ago

I switched off after half an hour of this utter codswallop. The fact it is made by ITV should have been warning enough (most of their tripe is aimed at the lowest common denominator) but as I am interested in the work done at Bletchley I thought I'd give it a try. After the briefest nod to what went on at Bletchley during the war this descended into a farce of mind numbing proportions. I am always told that I have to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy certain programmes and films. This is ok when the subject is out and out fantasy, but when the writers are expecting us to take a serious interest in the code breaking and puzzling skills of these women then at least make a good job of it and don't simply have them coming up with incredible feats of psychic guesswork and ask senior police officers to make leaps of faith which incredibly they do. Obtaining the full post mortem reports from the hospitals on the basis of the old pals act with no mention of why the officials there would risk their jobs for these sweetie wives beggars belief in the extreme. Let's not make excuses for it, just ignore it. There are immensely better programmes on TV that engage with the intellect of the audience.

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[–] sludgehound 12 years ago

Well by US standards it is very nicely done as to tightness, period, purpose.
The twists were enough to hold my interest, like not being afraid to point in side directions or kill a side player
(not a lead of course).
Just something refreshing about having four smart women working together with their separate personalities
and mutual respect.
Certainly creators can tone down the bit heavy handed treatment of the males but likely that's a factor of the time allowed. Episodes are mote like 42 minutes with the end filler.
There is ample subject material that could involve Communists, spies, ex-Nazis hiding in plain sight. black marketers,
druggers, medical butchers, etc.
Love to see such a circle take on contemporaries like the 'London whale' or Libor fixing corruption. But hey there's lots of 50s gov'r and biz dealings that could be traced by this circle.
Anyway it was so refreshing to have the logic circuits tickled for once, all done with fine players and atmosphere.

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[–] digitaldiva 12 years ago

Hi sludgehound,

The Bletchley Circle was a terrific series and I hope it gets a second season It's a wonderful period piece with excellent production values and a terrific primarily female cast. Above all, it's intelligent. Personally, I'm tired of serial killers and agree with you that there are are a number of plots that can be explored in future seasons. The final episode makes it clear that the police now value their work and that the lead character can now tell her husband what she has been involved in. I agree with you, "it was refreshing to have the logic circuits tickled for once" something that rarely happens on American network television.

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