Amber [RTE] [** Spoilers **]

BabysCoffee

I have no idea what's going on......I'll be back tomorrow ;-)

ArtSmart

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Well, I won't be taking my opinions to twitter. As an RTE drama, it was all right - but no more than that. Deeply unsympathetic family, something horrible happens to them, they become even more unpleasant.
For the first episode, they should really have spent more time bedding down the characters. The action kept leaping in unuts of weeks - stopping just to let us witness a phone call, say.
I'll be tuning in tmw night but only because I'm expecting to have my mind blown by an amazing plot twist on Wed night...

Yeah, good luck with that.

I really despise shows driven primarily by commercial reasons.

like that muck called Lost and similar nonsense

expectationlost

article about how RTE made Amber but delayed it for years to balance their books http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/media-and-marketing/amber-resurfaces-as-rt%C3%A9-one-strips-mystery-drama-1.1656437

ArtSmart

expectationlost wrote: »

article about how RTE made Amber but delayed it for years to balance their books http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/media-and-marketing/amber-resurfaces-as-rt%C3%A9-one-strips-mystery-drama-1.1656437

from the article

Stripping is used by broadcasters whenever they want to build serials into “event” television. This works particularly well for shows that involve an element of mystery, as viewers don’t get a chance to lose interest in the resolution (or the lack of one, as the case may be). But it is also an appropriate tactic for the age of second screening. Fear of spoilers compels audiences to watch “live” rather than storing the whole series on personal video recorders and deciding at some later date whether or not to actually view them.


says it all really.

BabysCoffee

Most children that get taken in Ireland are abducted by family members.......if Amber was kidnapped by a stranger I'm not convinced its a realistic story that needed telling by RTE. Its not really representative of what goes on regularly in Ireland.....unlike the USA

ted1

BabysCoffee wrote: »

Most children that get taken in Ireland are abducted by family members.......if Amber was kidnapped by a stranger I'm not convinced its a realistic story that needed telling by RTE. Its not really representative of what goes on regularly in Ireland.....unlike the USA

So tell us where Philip Carins is.

ArtSmart

I can see the meeting now

Boss: "Let's not linger on the old fashioned nuts n bolts approach - the 'whodunnit' nonsense with its complex well crafted plot. Let's go with the 'the effect it had on each person's life approach'."

Drone: "Em, you mean pull a bait n switch, Boss?"

Boss: "Tut, tut, Drone. You really are so provincial, aren't you?"

BabysCoffee

ted1 wrote: »

So tell us where Philip Carins is.

* Cairns

I said "most"

I didn't say no children are taken by strangers

And what's to say Philip Cairns wasn't kidnapped by a family member

Also this case happened in 1986 - and I don't think there has been regular kidnappings in the intervening 27 years

expectationlost

ArtSmart wrote: »

from the article

Stripping is used by broadcasters whenever they want to build serials into “event” television. This works particularly well for shows that involve an element of mystery, as viewers don’t get a chance to lose interest in the resolution (or the lack of one, as the case may be). But it is also an appropriate tactic for the age of second screening. Fear of spoilers compels audiences to watch “live” rather than storing the whole series on personal video recorders and deciding at some later date whether or not to actually view them.


says it all really.

what does it say? do you reckon

ArtSmart

expectationlost wrote: »

what does it say? do you reckon

well, expecationlost, do you remember 'lost' and the expectation you might have had...

wait a minute-

expectationlost

lost

expectation--

is this some kinda joke???

expectationlost

ArtSmart wrote: »

well, expecationlost, do you remember 'lost' and the expectation you might have had...

wait a minute-

expectationlost

lost

expectation--

is this some kinda joke???

i do but my handle isn't about lost, its about the disappointment of adulthood

I havn't watched Amber, think delaying just to mess around with the accounts is a pretty crappy thing to do

ArtSmart

Well the excellent Training Day (9/10) is on at midnight, Tv3.

or...The Big Lebowski (10/10) on itv4 at 11:55

so all is not, em, lost.

CinammonGirl

The dad's business partner is Declan isn't he? He is a bit sus, Also why did the jouno want a spare key?!

Rookster

The mother goes off to a spa after the daughter is taken. Very realistic alright.

Radio5

Very poor overall.

No character development, no sense of who Amber is and why we should care about her or any of her family. No sense of their daily lives or them having any extended family aside from the granny.

The Gardai took the laptop day one, no mention of it since despite the fact that most teenagers seem to live on their computers these days.

Ambers parents were present when her friend Jenny was being quizzed by the Gardai ? Not too realistic I would have thought.

HeidiHeidi

Radio5 wrote: »

Very poor overall.

No character development, no sense of who Amber is and why we should care about her or any of her family. No sense of their daily lives or them having any extended family aside from the granny.

The Gardai took the laptop day one, no mention of it since despite the fact that most teenagers seem to live on their computers these days.

Ambers parents Gardai were present when her friend Jenny was being quizzed by the Gardai Amber's parents ? Not too realistic I would have thought.

FYP. Even more unrealistic!

Can't believe (if it's true) that this has been sold/shown all over the world - it's very average, if I'm being very nice about it. Love/Hate it ain't!

Ash.J.Williams

characters - awful
dialogue - awful


but will give it a chance...

ted1

Rookster wrote: »

The mother goes off to a spa after the daughter is taken. Very realistic alright.

it was several days later, i'm sure she needed pick me up. try to take her mind off it.

Mr Freeze

I'm going to go against the grain here and say, well I liked it. And will watch it tonight, looking forward to it.

I Heart Internet

The story is...fair and the format is good - covering a lot of time in one episode and then doing something similar from different angles on the other nights.

But problem number 1, which there's no getting around, is that ALL of the characters are thoroughly unlikeable. We are given no reason to like them/warm to them/sypathise with them in any way whatsoever....and I'm including Amber herself in this! So all in all, I'm not very interested in what happens any of them. Dialogue very wooden in parts too.

But, heh, I'll prabably still watch to find out where she's gone to.

Ceist_Beag

My take on it so far is that we probably shouldn't judge the show until all 4 episodes are aired. It moved ahead so far last night that the next few episodes must be back filling a bit on the timeline so I expect there to be quite a bit of back and forth between Day 1 and subsequent days in order to keep people guessing. So far we see the journalist friend of the mother as someone a bit suspicious and the guy in the prison cell must come into the story somewhere along the way - the rest is all a bit vague right now but I expect a bit more detail will be added tonight.
So whilst I didn't really enjoy last nights episode I'll hold off until it is over on Wednesday before making my mind up on it.

AnonoBoy

Seems like it could become something interesting.

There's lots of 'why did that happen?' or 'what about that?' questions being asked but it's deliberately being done like that. The show is going to retrace the same path over and over from other points of view so expect to get details filled in as the episodes unfold.

Going to keep watching myself.

Ned Dennehy is in danger of getting typecast as a sex offender type. He turned up in Luther playing a similar role not too long ago.

Mick Murdock

I Heart Internet wrote: »

The story is...fair and the format is good - covering a lot of time in one episode and then doing something similar from different angles on the other nights.

But problem number 1, which there's no getting around, is that ALL of the characters are thoroughly unlikeable. We are given no reason to like them/warm to them/sypathise with them in any way whatsoever....and I'm including Amber herself in this! So all in all, I'm not very interested in what happens any of them. Dialogue very wooden in parts too.

But, heh, I'll prabably still watch to find out where she's gone to.

Very good summation. Symapthy vacuums the lot of them!!

I Heart Internet

My own gut feeling on what happened (I haven't seen it so not a spoiler)............


















.....is that she's been murdered by the granny with a parsnip.

Gadgetman496

Will we know what happened to her by the end of episode 4?

Skid X

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Will we know what happened to her by the end of episode 4?

Google it if you want to know. We don't want to hear the plot before we watch it.

DeepBlue

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Will we know what happened to her by the end of episode 4?

I suspect it will be a bit like The Fall last year i.e. no real resolution and we never find out what actually happened.

Still I think the family dodged a bullet with Amber going missing. She seemed like a right little madam and would probably have caused 10 times the upset and upheaval if she'd actually stayed around for the rest of her teenage years. :pac:

walshb

I tend to agree with a lot here. The characters are just too wooden. No charisma, fun or likability. It leads the viewer to "not care" what happens to Amber.

lac007

The actress playing the Mother is terrible, Fair city type actress.

coolhull

This is not a spoiler but. . . .








I think it was Professor Plum, in the bathroom, with a corkscrew.