Violet Weed
As a longtime REAL feminist, I take umbrage to this pile of poopy-ca-ca. (Real feminists believe that men and women are 'identically different', that women need men as much as men need women, and we DO need each other, but that women are not weaklings in every way any more than men are strong in every way. We complement each other.)There are three female leads in this show, the two DC's (Rachel & Janet) and their Chief (whose name escape me right now). Rachel is in her early 30s and Janet is pushing 50. The show starts out well enough, but very quickly begins denigrating men, making most of the men on the show appear to be weaklings and most of the women are either 'victims' or 'strong women' (aka SLUTS), apparent 'strong' is now equated with promiscuity, whereas I've long believed that promiscuity is a sign of GREAT weakness of character, not a 'strength' at all. Anyone can eff another person particularly if one is a weak-minded or terribly insecure or vastly self-center/narcissistic. It take REAL strength to be honest, self-disciplined, faithful and loyal. What has happened to this show is that the WRITER, whilst imagining herself to be Agatha Christie, has instead turned out to be 'just another Hollywood writer' incapable of creating MATURE ADULT characters. AND the writer is living in a dream world where women are exactly the same as men. Sorry, sistah! Women are TOTALLY DIFFERENT from men. But then, she can't even writer a good MALE character either. Sheesh. BTW, I listened to every episode on my roku, even though I didn't like the show. Because I have to 'compartmentalize' my mind when I'm writing (yes I write too, but not FICTION cr@p), I like to use TV or radio shows to distract the 'racing' side of my mind, while the calmer, more logical side is describing how to use Visual Studio or BigData. So there's this one episode that illustrates the schizoid nature of this show's writer. She actually thinks we buy into the idea that women are physically as strong as men, when in fact that is BULL (unless they are Russian 'female' athletes). I've been a student/practitioner of martial arts for forty- eight years now, and although I probably 'could' kill a guy using my karate techniques, the guy would have to be drunk, fat/unfit, smaller than me (5'4") or caught off guard. The most I can hope to do is distract him long enough for me to run away (we're not talking about guns here but about this particular episode of the show). So the police show up and arrest Rachel because her recently dumped boyfriend, a barrister who 'might' have wanted to have her 'contract hit')... was just found, seriously beaten up, via FISTS. He is now in the hospital with a completely severed spine and eventually during the episode he DIES of his injuries. Meanwhile, Rachel as a few scaps on one hand's knuckles which is supposed to 'prove' she beat this guy to a pulp. Rachel is a slutty drunk, who doesn't take enough showers, who is a brazen hussy type without any redeeming qualities other than that she is willing to eff any guy including guys she works with! Finally, it turns out she did not beat up her boyfriend, but just the idea that anyone would look at her TOTAL lack of muscle tone and think she COULD have done it just makes me 'vomit in my mouth a little'. ON TOP OF THAT, later her husband (of her 5- month marriage) shows up and punches one of Rachel's coworkers, who also happened to be the Best Man at their wedding. Then the female Chief of these bozzos doesn't seem to have ANY IDEA how to deal with Rachel, and as ANY GOOD manager could tell you, the only thing she SHOULD have done with RACHEL WAS FIRE HER IMMEDIATELY. Rachel is supposed to be some kind of 'brilliant' detective, but she's no George Gently or Hercules Poirot, she's nothing special, exactly as her older partner is nothing special. I was left feeling despondent to see how BBC has sunk to the level of 'hollywood productions', it's a real shame. Unless you too need a distraction to help you concentrate, I'd skip this series in entirety. You're better off listening to 'Murder, She Wrote'. At least THAT show, as predictable as each episode is, stars Angela Lansbury, who never swears or acts whorish. Even "Cagney & Lacey" is a much better show than "Scott & Bailey". I give it a 2 rating, because I managed to finish the draft of my book on DevOps while listening to it, otherwise I'd give it a minus 10.
lorriebeauchamp
Just binge-watched this show on Netflix, and loved how well it dealt with relationships on and off the job - certainly the Bailey character stretches the limits of credibility, but for some reason, it works, and by the end of Series 3, you find yourself rooting for her, hoping that she works out the dysfunctional kinks in her personality. I agree with other reviewers that the show is not kind to men - and it exaggerates the influence of women, in my opinion. Both female leads(boss Gill is a real scene-stealer, she ended up being my favourite)are decidedly not in the same realm as those who come from Hollywood's casting couch. Having been conditioned by the stiletto- heeled sex kittens featured in most US-based shows, I found myself having trouble seeing the Scott character as the alluring person the role was intended for, with men stalking her and wanting to be with her at any cost. Really?So, yeah - smart, supposedly-irresistible women coppers, unimpressive, over-reactive and not-so-smart male colleagues... perhaps the show is a bit guilty of exaggerated stereotyping, but at least the pendulum swings us into exploring women as problem-solvers, and good ones at that.
pquig50
This series looks very appealing,in the tradition of Cagney and Lacey. Unfortunately, I can't understand much of what the characters are saying. I tried to guess by just watching the scenes and trying to infer from what I see but I've given up on understanding what's going on.It is partly the English accents but I don't have a problem,for the most part, understanding Downton or Doc Martin or,actually any of the other English programs.I will tune in now and then to see if I fare better. It's a shame to miss what looks like a good series. At times, the characters seem to be mumbling and slurring words.
