the netflix series GUILT

a: it's sort of based on the foxy knoxy case
b: but it's set in fancy fashionable london, with lots of lovely shots of places i know well (probably this is what's keeping me watching)
c: it stars anthony head as an american and BILLY ZANE, still reliably the worst big-name actor working anywhere
d: BZ plays a hard-ass lawyer with a shaven head and a variety of bad hats
e: interior mise-en-scene is hypnotic btw -- none of it looks like *any* bit of london i was ever in, just amazing places, like shoots from HIGH-END INTERIOR DECORATOR MAGAZINE
f: there is a northern irish dimension and the "for centuries you have been oppressing us" card has already been played) (not an unreasonable card to play but i seriously doubt it is going to play out insightfully
g: the police scenes are amazingly terrible (including the acting), full of crypto-procedural material in which normal procedure (suspect won't talk w/o lawyer present) is received as if it's startling information -- the hard-ass ladycop heading the investigation looks like a model, implausibly young, can't act (not alone in the last)
h: every ep so far has ended with a return to an EYES WIDE SHUT-style orgy at a sex club (the relevance of this not entirely clear)

it is very bad indeed so far (2 eps) but also compulsive viewing

a: it's sort of based on the foxy knoxy case

at this point i was in

b: but it's set in fancy fashionable london, with lots of lovely shots of places i know well (probably this is what's keeping me watching)
c: it stars anthony head as an american and

at this point, i still was

Billy Zane has been so terrible for so long why has he not been paid to stop

BITCOIN KLAXON

zane thinks bitcoin isn't safe

"unless this is defcon five" -- this is lowest state of emergency, aka normality, zane probably means "defcon one"

ep 3 has definitely ramped up the idiotic nonsense if anyone apart from me is watching this

tremendously, the slightly fey bad actor connected to the eyes-wide-shut orgies is currently being referred to by everyone as "your royal highness"

you have only yourself to blame if you are missing this, billy zane or no billy zane

the question "how would this wanted person" know where this cop (or suspect) lives (or is hospitalised) is not a question the makes of GUILT think needs answering

it arises three times in this episode alone

I'd like to watch vicariously via this thread.

that can be arranged

(tho not tonight, still recovering from the final ep of LINE OF DUTY)

e4: hard-ass loss ladycopper wants to bonk her underling in the evidence room

she's called gwendolyn btw

i mean boss ladycopper

foxyknoxy's boyf luke is a "brilliant artist" (acc.FK) -- we haven't seen any of the art yet, looking forward to that

the royal mentioned upthread is the prince of wales apparently, head still spinning a bit at this (he's in his twenties)

middle-aged cockney black woman obsessed w/jubilee memoribilia

the art boyf is called luc, not luke: luc pascal

his art is kind of bad but not delightfully so :(

bosslady cop is actually the crown prosecutor, bafflingly enough

(don't think the writers know much or care how investigations work in the uk)

recap ep 4:

suspects:
foxyknoxy = grace attwood, she is suspected of killing her flatmate and bestie molly (played by daisy head, tony head's daughter
tony head plays her stepdad (with american accent): there is something dodgy going on here, he probably had an affair with molly
molly's brother is making a LOT of the fact that he and molly are from belfast, tho it's quite unspecific (ie not clear if their catholic or protestant)
grace's sister natalie is an american lawyer, feuding somewhat with BILLY ZANE (who was anthony head's choice to represent grace, as she doesn't trust stepdad's motives)
the third flatmate is roz -- fancy club DJ, black, lesbian, (her gf is a reluctant high-end sexworker) who is UP TO SOMETHING, what not yet clear
grace's bf is a french artist, luc: he has just been arrested in a sting, for giving some blow to a passerby
grace's ex, a college professor who slept with all hsi female students, has been shot dead by his wife -- he may or may not still be a suspect re molly

BILLY ZANE is billy zane-- he's not a suspect, just a nuisance

coppers:
gwendolyn the crown prosecutor, tho british, went to school in a fancy american school where her best friend was bullied and beaten to death by rich girls whose daddy's lawyers got them off -- she has it in for rich american girls w/lawyers as a result -- she also fancies the main (white) copper, alex, and just tried to seduce him in the evidence room before realising he is having an affair with natalie (gwendolyn is black: this may or may not be consequential)
ds alex bruno: seems to be dodgy, cos connections with the prince of wales's heavy, is having an affair with grace's sister gwendolyn

eyes-wide-shut orgy narrative sub-branch:
the prince of wales, prince theo, is a massive perve who likes orgies and 50-shades-type sex, features a lot but quite why is not yet clear
^^^this element admittedly does not have an equivalent in the foxy knoxy case afaicr

ep 5 starts with a memory sequence of molly as a child wanting to a ballet dancer at the royal ballet: apparently in the 1920s judged by how she and her little brother are drressed, maybe this also explains why belfast is entirely fields and they are on a farm with chickens

pap-swarms not very well handled (they'd be bigger, for a start)

lovely use of odd london backstreets, different types of building right next to each other (london is the only winner so far in this farrago)

molly's brother patrick nearly failed to get entry into the orgy club bcz he has a tattoo on his wrtist that demonstrates he's an ira sympathiser (so i guess that question did get cleared up) (he kidnapped an MP and forced him to bring him in as a guest)

alex bruno to natalie: "it's social media, they hate everybody"

ok roz the dj also works at/helps runs the orgy club

where prince theo is also conducting arms trade business over the phone while he waits to be serviced

two new characters:

1: neville, molly's stalker from across the street, who is an amateur tailor and now arrested for molly's murder (also black: son of the jubliee collector mom mentioned above)
2: the super-sinister guy who runs the orgy club (patrick has stolen his little black book of clients)

^^^club owner is called finch: he's roz's boss -- she thinks he killed molly (who worked at his club) but daren't say/do anything as he has the chief of police and "half the judges in the city" in his pocket

omigod the prince theo narrative is basically an updated version of one of the jack the ripper theories :0

(and quite a lot of it is shot in or near whitechapel)

i: grace is now banged up, and being bullied by the other prisoners
ii: the sisters' attempts to fit up fitch has failed

russian mobsters now involved also (via tony head)

ep abt to start is called "eyes wide open"

bookmarked

e9: "The Crown vs Attwood"

trial about to begin, hoping billy z will shine in the legal cut-and-trust

looking good:
http://trackingboard1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/billy-zane-barrister-wig-gif.gif

trial not going well for billy, surprised at every turn

witnesses being bumped off
witnesses not saying what was expected
witnesses not being allowed to be called by the judge

even so the court scenes are so far quite boring

meanwhile patrick has rejoined the IRA and has a plan to take out a royal to right some ancient wrongs

he gets through the police cordon by appealing to a shared hatred for bus drivers

the prince theo story is in play

judge holds billy z in contempt (and jails him) for bringing it in evidence at all, which is not really how it works

the policeman who was sacked thinks that a body's dna is only preserved if it's wrapped in plastic

even grace's cell is stylishly distressed and lit

the actor playing prince theo is (a) terrible, and (b) insufferable

theo's sidekick is getting a conscience re what he's been asked to do (or possibly taken it on himself to do)

lol grace has smiled a prison guard into helping her escape (i don't trust his motives)

e10 and last this series:

a confession (not going to tell you: spoilers)

judge thinks defence council is responsible for delivering a prisoner from prison to court

lol well that was a travesty

YOU'LL HAVE TO WATCH IT YOURSELF TO FIND OUT WHY AND HOW

i can't wait to see this

none of you sods watched this did you

who sleeps on a roof outside in london?? it could rain on you

turns out that's not the worst of it

"what eez it spécifiquement about my style of painting zat is bahzering you right now"

his paintings not being hilariously terrible was a mild let-down

his hilariously terrible accent makes up for it!