Amber [RTE] [** Spoilers **]

Patty O Furniture

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

It was such a load of pretentious shyte, I half-expected this caption to appear at the end of it:

It would be quite apt, as she had a fascination with the sea & had enough of her parents & joined the mermaids.

Mr E

Still enjoyed it (but I seem to be in the minority). It dug itself into some narrative cul-de-sacs, but it was still compelling viewing.

Was it arrogant of the showrunners to assume it was going to be commissioned for a 2nd series, or was it always going to be a one-off series with an ending open to interpretation? Could the writers have been David Chase fans?

Happyman42

Mardy Bum wrote: »

They don't really. A cliche would be if we were told the ending or given some very nice characters whom we are to feel sorry for. A shallow plot would be one that pandered to the audience. The audience is left with unanswered questions similar to what happens in reality reminiscent of Friel's Faith Healer (obviously no where near as good, but similar in content and structure).

The father was a cliche, as was the mother and a whole wealth of the cast.
Not one character revealed anything much about themselves after episode one = Shallow.
The pretention that you don't have to do this in 'serious' drama is just that, pretentious.

And then you bring Faithealer into it...shame on you!

P_1

Having watched it I don't get the vitriol about it. The only nitpick I have about it is that it seemed almost as if they tried to cram too much together into too short a timeframe (screentime wise). Good premise but let down by some fairly shoddy execution.

JohnFalstaff

Mardy Bum wrote: »

They don't really. A cliche would be if we were told the ending or given some very nice characters whom we are to feel sorry for. A shallow plot would be one that pandered to the audience. The audience is left with unanswered questions similar to what happens in reality reminiscent of Friel's Faith Healer (obviously no where near as good, but similar in content and structure).

I don't know why you're defending this so vociferously. Overall it was a poor production. If the script had any of the depth you're claiming it had, it certainly wasn't reflected in what we saw onscreen.

The camera work, editing, acting, music - all so pedestrian. The ending, and the series, could have worked if the production lent itself toward a more open-ended, elliptical style.

As it was, it looked like cheap soap-opera and the audience expected handy resolution at the end.

Godge

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The vast majority of people who watched the show have been sucked in by RTE’s marketing of the show and missed out on the writer’s intent. The writer has said in an interview that the story was inspired by the disappearance of a friend. The friend had been spotted on CCTV near a pier but his body was never found to this day. He didn’t really elaborate on that but it seems that it was thought to be a suicide and it was very unexpected.
He wrote the show in the immediate aftermath of the incident. He also talked about the fallout the incident had on those closest to his friend. RTE has marketed the show as a whodunit/Where’s Amber story which I believe is contrary to the writer’s motives as he is trying to examine the effects of a disappearance which has no resolution on a family and others e.g. suicide, deportation, madness, romance, despair, acceptance etc.
The show charts the development of the characters from a number of perspectives with the most prominent role given to the father followed by the mother, followed by the son and then you have Charlie, the prisoner, the journalist etc. The camera angles used to film are sometimes shot from a first person perspective and some scenes are repeated from different angles (at first I thought this was just filler) which drives home this point. The layered form adds to the theme as the audience are given the chance to examine the character’s development as time passes.
Interestingly, Amber’s disappearance is purposely filmed from a long distance to emphasise the lack of connect between her and the audience; when she meets the Goth guy we can’t properly hear what she says for example and we never learn anything about the Goth as no character provides his name. There are many hints that it she may have committed suicide. Her family are very unstable. We see her mother likes to party in the first few scenes. Her father is a philanderer and egotistical. She has a fascination with mermaids and the daughters of the air. There are various underwater shots and also her bedroom is underwater. However, there is also plenty of evidence that she did not commit suicide. She only got off at that stop because she missed the earlier stop etc. Now, this may seem like a contradiction but it fits perfectly with the theme again. No one knows what has happened to Amber (we as an audience have the story pieced together by the evidence found) therefore there are a multitude of possibilities and we never get a first person perspective from her like we do the other characters. The shaggy dog storylines with Charlie and the prisoner are vital to the examination of the fallout of the disappearance.
The show has not been about what happened Amber, it has been about the fallout as a result of the disappearance e.g. Dad becomes a “hero” by saving girl but is not allowed see his son, detective gets promotion, mother finds new man, manga boy and Amber’s friend meet etc. The audience are left unsatisfied similar to the family in real life which I believe was a brave move as the writer decided not to pack the show in a nice little package and put a bow on top. People expected a nice, simple whodunit (even though there are already plenty of these types of boring, conventional shows on TV already) but there was a lot more than meets the eye to the show in terms of its form and content.

I see what you are trying to do but are you related to someone who is on the show?

(1) The writer's intent is irrelevant if it has to be explained to anyone. It obviously failed if the audience missed it.

(2) It was awful television - it was no Twin Peaks, no Lost, no anything decent and had more plot-holes than Fair City. And if you have those plot-holes the audience picks up on them and makes the writer's intent irrelevant.

(3) Tidied up, shortened, and made more snappy, it could have worked as a movie for a film festival but not for mainstream. I think the writer thought he struck gold getting RTE to finance it for four hours.

(4) The last episode was particularly bad. What day was it when he tried to go to Ukraine? Unbelievable that we had a day for everything else up until then.

(5) All stories have an ending. So does real life. You could only end that story in the way it did by showing what happened to all of the characters in the long-term - see the last episode of Six Feet Under for an example.

bluemagpie

There was nothing to suggest suicide except for people reading too much into what wasn't there... It wasn't clever, it was a useless ending leaving the possibility of a 2nd series open.

Thoie

If she got off at Laughanstown, having missed the last stop, why was her bag found at Cherrywood? I thought they lived in Sandyford/Leopardstown (not near the Carrickmines stop), in which case she'd gone 3 stops too far (15 minutes) while looking for her phone.

Even if Carrickmines was her stop, it's at least a 30 minute walk from Laughanstown back. The next Luas would have been a max of 10 minutes away, plus a few minutes to go back one stop - less than half the time it would have taken to walk.

Overall, argh.

teddyhead

Somebody has got to do an edit of the lost phone scene from episode 3 , with canned laughter and the music from Curb your enthusiasm.It would be priceless.

sweetie

lads it's grand, I know where she is. She just got lost in hollister.

emanresu esrever

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The vast majority of people who watched the show have been sucked in by RTE’s marketing of the show and missed out on the writer’s intent. The writer has said in an interview that the story was inspired by the disappearance of a friend. The friend had been spotted on CCTV near a pier but his body was never found to this day. He didn’t really elaborate on that but it seems that it was thought to be a suicide and it was very unexpected.
He wrote the show in the immediate aftermath of the incident. He also talked about the fallout the incident had on those closest to his friend. RTE has marketed the show as a whodunit/Where’s Amber story which I believe is contrary to the writer’s motives as he is trying to examine the effects of a disappearance which has no resolution on a family and others e.g. suicide, deportation, madness, romance, despair, acceptance etc.
The show charts the development of the characters from a number of perspectives with the most prominent role given to the father followed by the mother, followed by the son and then you have Charlie, the prisoner, the journalist etc. The camera angles used to film are sometimes shot from a first person perspective and some scenes are repeated from different angles (at first I thought this was just filler) which drives home this point. The layered form adds to the theme as the audience are given the chance to examine the character’s development as time passes.
Interestingly, Amber’s disappearance is purposely filmed from a long distance to emphasise the lack of connect between her and the audience; when she meets the Goth guy we can’t properly hear what she says for example and we never learn anything about the Goth as no character provides his name. There are many hints that it she may have committed suicide. Her family are very unstable. We see her mother likes to party in the first few scenes. Her father is a philanderer and egotistical. She has a fascination with mermaids and the daughters of the air. There are various underwater shots and also her bedroom is underwater. However, there is also plenty of evidence that she did not commit suicide. She only got off at that stop because she missed the earlier stop etc. Now, this may seem like a contradiction but it fits perfectly with the theme again. No one knows what has happened to Amber (we as an audience have the story pieced together by the evidence found) therefore there are a multitude of possibilities and we never get a first person perspective from her like we do the other characters. The shaggy dog storylines with Charlie and the prisoner are vital to the examination of the fallout of the disappearance.
The show has not been about what happened Amber, it has been about the fallout as a result of the disappearance e.g. Dad becomes a “hero” by saving girl but is not allowed see his son, detective gets promotion, mother finds new man, manga boy and Amber’s friend meet etc. The audience are left unsatisfied similar to the family in real life which I believe was a brave move as the writer decided not to pack the show in a nice little package and put a bow on top. People expected a nice, simple whodunit (even though there are already plenty of these types of boring, conventional shows on TV already) but there was a lot more than meets the eye to the show in terms of its form and content.

http://kimolsen.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/funny-pictures-bored-cat.jpg

hawkwing

I wish the baby threw everyone down the drain.Did someone tell them to make it longer or something with all of the repeated,pointless parts that all meant nothing in the end?Deep down you wondered would there be a conclusive ending and feared that there wouldn't but it was still hard to believe when it happened-kind of like watching titanic and the film stopping as they were about to hit ice--what was the point in bothering..:(

skippy15

Regardless of the educational element in giving us the effects of a dissapearance, I feel robbed.
Wanting some sort of ending, meant to be entertainment not this crap.
Dear RTE FCUK you, you owe me four hours!

Ash.J.Williams

Lol inviting the son around for din dins with a hooker

Eight Ball

Terrible show. Terrible writing. Terrible acting.

Please RTE stop making rubbish like this.

Ash.J.Williams

Wonder who is angrier tonight Pete Townsend or Google.

Delta2113

More damage done to RTE - no wonder they held off for so long showing it - cant believe BBC4 are going to show this.

I feel like its my duty to warn the uk not to bother watching it. I wish I hadn't bothered but I fell for the hype.

Tinie

Pappacharlie wrote: »

Sure a load of crap worse than twin peaks many moons ago. Absolute tripe!

Twin peaks is a legendary show. Once you understand it and get the style of the show.

MilanPan!c

Someone please explain it to me in a few sentences so I know what everyone is on about

Delta2113

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Lol inviting the son around for din dins with a hooker

- Yes that made no sense.

Mardy Bum

Delta2113 wrote: »

- Yes that made no sense.

I think its pretty clear he was seeing/using her for a while. She arrived at the end with a bottle of wine to see him but he gave her a short shrift.

teddyhead

Mardy Bum wrote: »

I think its pretty clear he was seeing/using her for a while. She arrived at the end with a bottle of wine to see him but he gave her a short shrift.

Yes , that was a particularly complex and intense scene . Very moving. What about the chinaman who walked himself into a whole heap of trouble in a hilarious fashion? What was the subtext of those shenanigans ?

Ash.J.Williams

Ha ha Christy moore was one of his suspects

Ash.J.Williams

I actually enjoyed that... Wonder where she went?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I enjoyed it, but that's definitely the minority opinion.

What I've enjoyed even more is the reactions of the viewers and how enraged most people are - the amount of sh*te that your average joe will sit through and something a little left field comes along and people are wishing 4 hours of their lives back. While we're wishing for time back, I wish I could get back all the hours of soccer matches I've had to endure over the years (note: I only watch Soccer socially, usually at the pub and there's pints involved, it wouldn't be my first choice) and the game ends in a bloody draw... talk about no flipping conclusion...

teddyhead

CaptainNegative wrote: »

the amount of sh*te that your average joe will sit through and something a little left field comes along and people are wishing 4 hours of their lives back.

Dont you mean a little tedious,lazy,overhyped and badly written ?

CountryJoe

That was quite poor. So many unanswered questions. Im assuming the writers felt that it would add an air of mystery, but it came off as being quite lazy.

teddyhead

CountryJoe wrote: »

That was quite poor. So many unanswered questions. Im assuming the writers felt that it would add an air of mystery, but it came off as being quite lazy.

Im assuming the writers assembled a load of scrappy half formed ideas from their bedroom floors and thought they could cobble something together for the suckers at RTE.

Shint0

teddyhead wrote: »

Yes , that was a particularly complex and intense scene . Very moving. What about the chinaman who walked himself into a whole heap of trouble in a hilarious fashion? What was the subtext of those shenanigans ?

Was the parallel that he, himself, was also 'missing'? We see him ringing his mother and telling her that he was in Ireland even though he had been here for a few years. So his own family were in the same situation as Amber's family, not knowing where he was and this is what compelled him to try to help her family yet putting himself at risk of getting caught.

teddyhead

Shint0 wrote: »

Was the parallel that he, himself, was also 'missing'? We see him ringing his mother and telling her that he was in Ireland even though he had been here for a few years. So his own family were in the same situation as Amber's family, not knowing where he was and this is what compelled him to try to help her family yet putting himself at risk of getting caught.

Hmm , maybe. More realistically , he would have burned the phone or gone straight to the cops.
Given that child abduction and god knows what are far worse offences to be implicated in than visa transgressions.