The Fades (2011)

Horrible characters and characterisation. Idiotic plot movements that are entirely predictable. Paul turns up to rescue his girlfriend and by episode 5 still doesn't know he is walking into an obvious trap. Who would have guessed. That is lazy silly plotting.God help us if all we have is a Paul to save the world. The main character is a half baked often pathetic idiot who wants be nice to everybody including the man eating zombies. In episode 5 he still spends half the time with a jaw dropped mouth wide open look of stupor as stuff happens all around him. Episode 5 and he still doesn't know whats going on!! I just found him irritating. How can anybody be so dumb. Constantly asking What did I do? What is going on? Right till the end.The only likable character is his sidekick, Mac who actually behaves like a clever teenager might.As usual the baddies are the strongest and cleverest outwitting the dumb Angelics at every turn. All the good people are pathetic. And why would the zombies be going up instead of down to hell? No answers. And who needs enemies when there is a psychotic angelical!The body count gets huge and yet there are no news bulletins, journalists or TV crews. Mobile phones but no cctv for the police to use. Since Paul knows what the evil leader looks like why doesn't he tell the police like any intelligent person would. And where is God in all this? Cant he fix his own system? Useless. The plot just does not stand up to the believability test.

I loved Merlin - great show, limited FX but great story telling, honest and good acting, good chemistry overall. This not so much. After wrestling myself through the 3 first episodes and fast forwarding the forth I found me left with awe in the bad way; not satisfactory at all this monster; stiff and disconnected acting, no chemistry between the cast or characters, some poorly directed scenes,... It was USA-series worst alike. For example Terra Nova was something with potential, relaunched Knight Rider was and many others but all of them killed of way to soon. This one was a just call to cut if of short since it wasn't going anywhere. Really.I hope next British productions are better.

I wanted to like the show, but couldn't make it past the third episode. Production values are high and the actors are compelling, though I get the sense they didn't have enough to work with in the script. Lack of character development is the biggest problem. With the exception of Daniel Kaluuya as Mac, who comes close to saving the show with an appealing gift of gab, the people don't feel like people. This results in little reason to care about the characters. The female characters are particularly one-dimensional. Perhaps the plot will turn in an unexpected direction, but so far seems to be unfolding as established in the first few minutes of the first episode.

I loved the first episode of this show, but then episodes 2 & 3 completely dropped off the pace and we had to wait until episode 4 for things to get interesting again.Looking back on it now, it seems obvious to me that the first 3 episodes could have been condensed into a single episode - in fact there are even events in those early episodes that have no real bearing on the subsequent plot development (just consider how the character of Helen, who features a lot in the opening episodes, actually serves very little purpose in the overall plot of the series, and she ends her time on the show well before the real story actually starts to unfold in the later half of the season).In many ways season one of this series could be described as two different shows. The early part of the season is much lighter, slower, and more like a teen drama than the second half of the series which is far more interesting, pacey and serious.One thing that disappointed me with this series was some of the early sexual content - is it just me or do the British seem to have a weird fascination with seeing teenage sexuality on TV? As an adult male I have no desire to watch young teens having sex, or young boys pleasuring themselves - and there was definitely no plot-related reason to include such content in the show.It'll be interesting to see if they can maintain the enthralling momentum and tone that they've finally managed to achieve in the last three episodes of season one through the second season.