Author Topic: Inspector George Gently (and MS) (TV series, 8 seasons--2008-2017)  (Read 260 times)

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Offline agate

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Yet another well-acted drama from the UK, George Gently gives us Martin Shaw as Inspector George Gently, accompanied by his younger assistant, DS John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), as they try to solve difficult crimes.

The plots can be fairly convoluted.

Often the focus is on the tension and everyday interactions between Gently and Bacchus. Bacchus, with a very slight frame and a tentative, somewhat insecure demeanor, seems poorly suited for being a policeman, and his naïveté soon becomes obvious--as when he is open to being bribed in spite of having been cautioned on that very subject–his vulnerability to bribery–by Inspector Gently. Gently, on the other hand, is more secure, more deliberate and thoughtful.

Gently and Bacchus  resort to violence when a suspect is being recalcitrant, but Gently often is the one who exercises restraint, backing off from the violence readily enough.  Since this is a tactic the police use routinely, George Gently is just giving us the real world.  Still, some of the scenes are grim. It sometimes seems as if both Gently and Bacchus are almost too eager to flatten somebody out and to be mighty brutal about it in their zeal to wrest information from the person.

In season 7, Inspector Gently is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and the overly ambitious John Bacchus seems entirely too eager to see him retire.The final season is shorter than the others, and I had the distinct impression that whoever was making this series  wanted to shuffle George Gently off the stage by the time Season 8 came along.

However, the episodes are worth watching and well done. Perhaps because a US President’s case of multiple sclerosis had already been highlighted in episodes of the popular West Wing
fairly recently, George Gently’s MS, after being revealed in Season 7,  isn’t mentioned in Season 8.. It is clear that he is about to retire, and some new unsavory revelations about John Bacchus cast a pall over the situation–though it is clear that Inspector Gently tolerates John as a father would tolerate a son.

For more about this series:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430509/?ref_=fn_ep_tt_20a





« Last Edit: February 26, 2019, 05:42:52 am by agate »
MS Speaks--online for 17 years

SPMS, diagnosed 1980. Avonex 2001-2004. Copaxone 2007-2010. Glatopa (glatiramer acetate 40mg 3 times/week) since 12/16/20.

 

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