DVD REVIEW Paradox

We should have seen this coming

2009 • 15 • 295 mins • £24.99 • OUT NOW!
Creator: Lizzie Mickery
Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Mark Bonnar, Emun Elliott, Chiké Okonkwo, Lorcan Cranitch

They say war is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. That being the case, Tamzin Outhwaite’s character ought to command a squad of Royal Marines rather than a detective unit, because her investigations in Paradox are utterly mundane for 80% of the time. The other 20% is nail-bitingly spent watching people plummet off buildings or struggle with rapists.

This could have been Britain’s answer to FlashForward, but for the plodding pace and my-last-gig-was-a-victim-on-Casualty support acting. A Ministry Of Defence reconnaissance satellite receives digital pictures which seemingly show crimes taking place in 18 hours’ time. Outhwaite plays DI Flint, summoned by the MoD to locate the people in the photos and prevent each tragedy. Sometimes she succeeds; sometimes she fails. Mostly, she and her team gaze at grainy JPGs of fire hydrants and ask themselves inane questions about God’s purpose.

It isn’t just the crushing predictability of each episode which makes watching this show a chore. The characters don’t develop morally interesting personalities until about the third instalment – only enigmatic boffin King (Emun Elliott) looks like he truly belongs from the start. Much of the dialogue is illogical or unmemorable, while the direction relies heavily on countdown shots and overhead views of the base. The fifth episode improves, since the action is spread throughout rather than crammed into the final few minutes. But by then it’s too late, the war’s lost, the only paradox being the fact that you subjected yourself to five hours of this despite all the warning signs.

DVD extras:

Two short featurettes: “Prometheus Unbound” sees the director and production designers talking about the science lab set (the exterior is Manchester’s Imperial War Museum North, fact fans); meanwhile in “The Big Bang” we’re shown how they filmed the massive fuel tanker explosion from episode one. Dave Bradley