Silent Witness

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Very traditional said:
It’s like they’re making it in to a soap rather than a drama - I don’t care about Jacks niece or Velveys background or Nikki and jacks relationship, I want the crime stories!
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That's been my thoughts pretty much since Thomas died. When he died the Lyell lost a focal point then when Clarissa left it was game over - having Clarissa with Max was actually a good move as they worked in the same industry and he could help so the story was never lost by Max being in an episode.

Now though, it's like five separate characters entangled who just meet at the Lyell. Jack stomping all over the place in a mood and out solving crimes. Whilst his niece has showed up and is now pretty much working in a pathology lab without any sort of clearance, doing work on social media that the police will have been doing. Velvy and his family. Nikki and Jack's relationship that nobody cares about and pretty much forgets for most of the episode until he becomes ultimate Action Man protective over her and Gabriel who isn't anywhere near as good as Thomas.

I have to say I don't mind Velvy, it's the niece and Gabriel and Nikki & Jack's relationship that ruined it. I thought when Simone was on those final few episodes last season that it was going to stay that way and get much better, I can't believe how much it's declined since.
 
I agree with all these statements, I still watch it but the storyline gets lost in all the personal drama with the characters now. The rich family in this week’s episode were all unbearable I kinda trailed off in second episode and nearly missed whodunnit lol.
 
I've enjoyed this series more, and the stories each got better with the last one the best. Not as good as it used to be but miles better than last series with the one story arch
 
For some reason Silent Witness passed me by for years. The first series I watched was the one where Thomas dies. I liked it so went back to the beginning. It gets steadily worse. Now Nicky seems to act like a sixth form head girl, Jack is presented as a cool maverick (how can you be a maverick CSI??) and the plots are like something from the first term of a scriptwriting course.
 
Mark81 said:
I've enjoyed this series more, and the stories each got better with the last one the best. Not as good as it used to be but miles better than last series with the one story arch
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I agree with that, definitely better than the last series. I was disappointed when Adam left after a couple of episodes as most representation of Chinese people on British TV is still of attractive young women in relationships with white men - but fair enough if they needed someone to fill in for a short time. But with Thomas, Clarissa, him, and Simone all leaving in rapid succession it feels like a revolving door. Gabriel is OK but has had very little to flesh him out and while I like Cara, she feels redundant now the initial storyline with is-she-isn't-she-really-Jack's-daughter is over
 
I enjoyed this weeks episode a lot more than the others. However there’s far too much filler in each episode with their lives and not the crime.

And I hate all of these interactions between Jack/Aoife/Cara, the sign language just loses the focus of the episode and makes me switch off completely. I have no idea who thought this would be entertaining to viewers but it’s really not and takes up half an episode in meaningless conversation about their personal lives.
 
I hate the expression but it feels that it’s ‘gone woke’: each episode seems to pick an of-the-moment topic to focus on - Only Fans/Social Media exploitation, mental load of motherhood, climate change - but covers it in a really cringey, clunky way.

The new characters just seem to have been brought in to tick a diversity box (Nikki just invites Gabriel as someone she’s had barely any contact with professionally and personally to apply for a job as the new boss of the outfit?!) as has adding in Cara as a permanent character, who as someone has said is allowed to hang out in what should be a highly restricted area getting involved in solving cases.

One of the areas that the writing falls down is making the way characters speak believable, particularly young people. It’s like the writers are totally out of touch with that.

I miss the drama caused by plot twists as more evidence is found out. Recent episodes have been more predictable than Scooby Doo.
 
Clickbait said:
I hate the expression but it feels that it’s ‘gone woke’: each episode seems to pick an of-the-moment topic to focus on - Only Fans/Social Media exploitation, mental load of motherhood, climate change - but covers it in a really cringey, clunky way.

The new characters just seem to have been brought in to tick a diversity box (Nikki just invites Gabriel as someone she’s had barely any contact with professionally and personally to apply for a job as the new boss of the outfit?!) as has adding in Cara as a permanent character, who as someone has said is allowed to hang out in what should be a highly restricted area getting involved in solving cases.

One of the areas that the writing falls down is making the way characters speak believable, particularly young people. It’s like the writers are totally out of touch with that.

I miss the drama caused by plot twists as more evidence is found out. Recent episodes have been more predictable than Scooby Doo.
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I completely agree, Clickbait. It's just become like another soap with the obligatory social messages messing up the scripts. I don't know what the viewing figures are like now..Maybe it's still a popular show but I've given up on it after watching it for years and enjoying the storylines and characters.
 
It’s a little bit of a revolving door of ‘woke’ characters, you’ve had Clarissa - visually disabled, she left you get Cara - deaf and Adam who is POC. Adam gets killed off after what two stories? (Didn’t really see the point of his character like either keep him for the season or not at all) then Simone (POC and gay) comes in who I actually really liked (for only really one season). Now we have Gabriel (POC) who I don’t really get why he’s here and Velvy (Jewish) who I do quite like. It just all seems a little forced and as much as I believe that representation is so important in the media, why are these characters changing so often? It’s now the Jack and Nikki show with the background characters. I enjoy the show but bringing in these ‘main characters’ for a series or two then them leaving with no explanation does anoy me. Like where did Simone go? Where did Matt (Nikkis boyfriend) go? Unless they get killed off you don’t really ever get a clear explanation now.
 
user12342626367374 said:
It’s a little bit of a revolving door of ‘woke’ characters, you’ve had Clarissa - visually disabled, she left you get Cara - deaf and Adam who is POC. Adam gets killed off after what two stories? (Didn’t really see the point of his character like either keep him for the season or not at all) then Simone (POC and gay) comes in who I actually really liked (for only really one season). Now we have Gabriel (POC) who I don’t really get why he’s here and Velvy (Jewish) who I do quite like. It just all seems a little forced and as much as I believe that representation is so important in the media, why are these characters changing so often? It’s now the Jack and Nikki show with the background characters. I enjoy the show but bringing in these ‘main characters’ for a series or two then them leaving with no explanation does anoy me. Like where did Simone go? Where did Matt (Nikkis boyfriend) go? Unless they get killed off you don’t really ever get a clear explanation now.
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Clarissa was a real character imo, not just a disability. She was witty, had a strong personality, and while her disability was sometimes incorporated into the storylines (such as when she went undercover in a home for the disabled and was scared about what might happen to her if she needed care in the future) it wasn't always the focus of her character. And she was straight (whereas her actress is gay irl) so they didn't try to make her exactly like the actor or tick every box. With other characters coming in since then, they have not stuck around long enough to really establish them so they feel more like tokenism. IIRC Simone was written out as moving to the Caribbean to care for her nieces who were now orphans but Matt just ... never returned? Pretty sure Nikki had at least one other guy in between him and Jack but there have just been so many.

Velvy is OK but an example of taking things to the most extreme/soapy. Having a character who is Jewish and it comes up at relevant points is one thing. Having a character who is Jewish and from an unusually strict, fundamentalist background and he ran away and is racked with guilt and his wife won't let him see the kids is OTT especially when the focus is supposed to be on the case and not the characters' personal lives
 
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witchofwestbyfleet said:
Clarissa was a real character imo, not just a disability. She was witty, had a strong personality, and while her disability was sometimes incorporated into the storylines (such as when she went undercover in a home for the disabled and was scared about what might happen to her if she needed care in the future) it wasn't always the focus of her character. With other characters coming in since then, they have not stuck around long enough to really establish them so they feel more like tokenism. IIRC Simone was written out as moving to the Caribbean to care for her nieces who were now orphans but Matt just ... never returned? Pretty sure Nikki had at least one other guy in between him and Jack but there have just been so many.

Velvy is OK but an example of taking things to the most extreme/soapy. Having a character who is Jewish and it comes up at relevant points is one thing. Having a character who is Jewish and from an unusually strict, fundamentalist background and he ran away and is racked with guilt and his wife won't let him see the kids is OTT especially when the focus is supposed to be on the case and not the characters' personal lives
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Oh yeah in regards to Clarissa I know she was much more, I really enjoyed her character and that didn’t feel forced. The point I was trying to make was since she left (and was the only ‘diversity’ on the show) they have felt the need to fill the ‘diversity’ but it just seems abit half hearted as they replace these character so often so you can’t create a connection to them. It would have been better to bring in two new main characters once Clarissa and Thomas left and kept them since. Not a revolving door of background characters to Nikki and Jack. The show focuses too much on Nikki and Jacks personally lives, the thing with Velvy I’m quite enjoying and I liked simones back story likewise with Adam but it’s like once you get to know them in an episode you don’t need to again and that’s the issue bringing in new characters
 
user12342626367374 said:
Oh yeah in regards to Clarissa I know she was much more, I really enjoyed her character and that didn’t feel forced. The point I was trying to make was since she left (and was the only ‘diversity’ on the show) they have felt the need to fill the ‘diversity’ but it just seems abit half hearted as they replace these character so often so you can’t create a connection to them. It would have been better to bring in two new main characters once Clarissa and Thomas left and kept them since. Not a revolving door of background characters to Nikki and Jack. The show focuses too much on Nikki and Jacks personally lives, the thing with Velvy I’m quite enjoying and I liked simones back story likewise with Adam but it’s like once you get to know them in an episode you don’t need to again and that’s the issue bringing in new characters
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I agree. I guess the current plots are not necessarily more far-fetched than they used to be (the one where Nikki's boyfriend was killed by his ceiling being booby-trapped with sarin or something was ridiculous and that was back in the Harry days so long ago) but the heavy push to explore "issue"-led storylines, and constant background cast changes is definitely hurting the show
 
right so….the chief police woman Bridget wasn’t that corrupt after all?? And we never found out why bill was so tit at his job? We were thinking he was deliberately skewing results because of some corrupt blackmail plot being run out the police station…but it ended with him just being tit? Overall it was a better episode, but still holey 😅
 
ChampagneBox said:
right so….the chief police woman Bridget wasn’t that corrupt after all?? And we never found out why bill was so tit at his job? We were thinking he was deliberately skewing results because of some corrupt blackmail plot being run out the police station…but it ended with him just being tit? Overall it was a better episode, but still holey 😅
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Agree. It comes to something when *that* was the best episode of the series.
 
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