They would never make this show in America.
And most viewers wouldn't get through the first episode, never mind click to see it again.
"The Responder" is dark. There are no characters you can identify with, root for. If you want an uplifting show, "The Responder" is not for you. If you see TV series as entertainment, "The Responder" is not for you. But if you view television as an art form, if you want to be enmeshed in a world that may be foreign, but truthful, if you like to be engrossed in a show sans interruptions...
You might love "The Responder."
I won't say "The Responder" is populated by losers. But most of its characters are struggling.
Marco, with his substandard intelligence. He knows he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. He's just trying to survive, making one bad judgment after another.
As for Casey...
She's a drug addict. Not to be trusted. We like the "Intervention" model, middle class denizen goes down the wrong path and is brought back to reality by loved ones and does their best to fly straight. But what if you were brought up in a group home? What if you've never known your father, never mind who he is, and your mother has mental health problems and...
You end up doing what is right for you, even if it's wrong. The immediate is more important than the long term. Your life is a constant whiplash from one bad scene to another.
Living on the bottom. It's glorified if you're an artist. Don't believe it for a minute. I've done it. All you can think about is money, survival. And let me tell you, desperate people do desperate things. Don't be surprised if a desperate person steals from you, double-crosses you, because when survival is everything...you are no longer a member of the middle class with traditional ethics.
The star of "The Responder" is Martin Freeman, as Chris Carson. A grizzled cop working the night shift, who is seen as a knobhead by the entire force and can never make it to daytime.
And being a cop means...you compromise. You don't take every offender in to be booked. You make judgments. You're not innocent, then again the legal system is not efficient, rendering the proper result in every instance.
But Chris has a good heart. He doesn't want to see drug addicts assassinated. He wants a modicum of peace. But can you have a good heart if you're policing the streets?
Chris is no longer sure what is right and what is wrong. And believes that by being bottled up he is protecting his family, whereas in truth his wife feels isolated and has a wandering eye and...
Petty jealousies. People out to get you. That's in "The Responder."
And seeing your betrothed with another person... Have you experienced this? It's mind-bending. It's done about as well in "The Responder" as I've ever seen.
And then there's Rachel. A cop who can't see the crime inside her own home. One of the best parts of the series is when her boyfriend Steve won't come pick her up because he's deeply involved in playing Xbox. You see people on TV being reasonable all day long, but that's not the way it really is.
What you've got here is the people no one ever talks about. The underclass going nowhere. And those who have to interact with them.
Everybody's got to live somewhere, you should see some of the sh*tholes these people reside in. While abodes get larger and larger in the U.S...we have a huge homeless problem. All these people, they're making more and more of them, how are they going to eat, where are they going to live?
You probably don't want to ask yourself these questions. You're probably looking for escape.
"The Responder" is not an escape, it's an assault. A world you become entangled in that creeps you out and makes your skin crawl. And this is not some high concept horror film, this is real life.
"The Responder" has a 100/78 rating on RottenTomatoes. I'm interested in anything that gets a 100 in the Critics rating, assuming enough critics have weighed in, in this case twenty two. As for the Audience rating...I can't see 100% of people loving this show. Then again, isn't it the shows most people dislike that ring your bell so loudly?
"The Responder" is set in Liverpool. Turn on subtitles to catch the dialogue. And the second season is not quite as good as the first, the concepts are a bit repetitive. But just when you think you have things figured out, believing the plot, the solution, the way forward, is obvious, it is not. And it's not the unforeseen twist of a mystery novel, but the way life works out, not according to plan.
Now chances are almost nobody reading this is going to watch "The Responder," because first and foremost you've got to pay for it, it's on BritBox. But you can watch the first episode with your Amazon Prime subscription, and you can get a BritBox free trial, but of those who dip their toes into this series, most won't even make it through the first episode.
This is gritty television. It has been nominated for and won awards in the U.K.
But this is not HBO. Which makes you feel good about being upper middle class, no matter how "edgy" the production is. "The Responder" is nearly a challenge. Are you willing to go into a world of people who don't really matter with a story that doesn't really matter and experience how many in this world live?
Then "The Responder" is for you.
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