MovieChat Forums > Waking the Dead (2001) Discussion > 5:5/6 'Subterraneans'; poor plotting or ...

5:5/6 'Subterraneans'; poor plotting or savage editing? (SPOILERS)

posted 13 years ago by wordcraft
5 replies | jump to latest

I enjoy the series, but have been watching it (YLE, Finland) in a format that may not ultimately do it great justice.

Rather than in the original "consecutive nights, 2 x 58 mins" version, each double episode is screened as one, with a total run-time of 98'. Even allowing for savings on credits at each end (and possibly a "recap of what happened yesterday"), it does not add up to 116 minutes.

The approach is of course is more satisfying in that you get the full story at one sitting, but I suspect the necessary post-editing by the broadcaster makes for some clunky plot-development.

If anyone has the full version, I'd love to know, for instance, how in "Subterraneans" a man who claims to work somewhere but appears not to have any gainful form of employment whatsoever is able to buy a rather nice house in Surrey and support his wife and child for 12 years. Taking £16,000 off a friend "to invest" will meet a few gas-bills and buy him some time, yes, but not very much, and it will certainly not buy him a desirable detached residence.

Either the screenplay has a gaping hole in it, or the necessities of meeting a 100' slot have caused vital details to be edited out.

This is by no means the first time I've felt: "Well, that was pretty good, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense that [insert glaring plot anomaly here]".

Please tell me "the real thing" hangs together better.

[–] Craigix 13 years ago

A while since I've seen it but didn't he get the money by burning his parents house down and killing them?

His attempts later at petty fraud were when his funds were running low.

I liked this story, seemed more believable than many others.

[–] wordcraft 13 years ago

Ah, the blessings of a decent life insurance policy. Yes, now you come to mention it, the fire and the parents' death do ring bells, but I don't recall any reference to "massive insurance payout", and in any event this all took place years ago when the killer flunked medical school. He's been doing very nicely in a des. res. in Sussex (with no income) since then, and it's unlikely in the extreme that a policy on the torched house and the parents would keep shelling out and keep him in readies for groceries and electricity bills and a new car all those years...

But thank you for jogging my memory. I'll give them a C+ for plotting instead of a D. :)

[–] gailandzoo 12 years ago

I was baffled by the extra person killed in the cage. He admits the murders but that one seemed tacked on when Boyd was getting his confession. Did I miss something?

[–] TravisTheSky 8 years ago

I know this post is ancient. For anyone reading in the future:

One victim was killed quickly and the second was held captive for several weeks until he died. The first was a young man who worked at a car dealership. The "doctor" had a brief platonic 'affair' with a young woman from the dealership. Out of jealousy, the young man wanted to tell the doc's wife that her husband was cheating. Blood found all over the killer's kitchen floor suggested that the man made his way there, and met his death.

The second victim merely saw the "doctor" when the doc was meant to be away working in another country. Instead of making an excuse, the killer kidnapped him.

--------------------
remember: tv is called PROGRAMMING, items of news are STORIES

[–] andrew_gilfrin 10 years ago

Dragging this up from the past, but you might be interested to know that this story was based on real events. So while it might seem one of the more outlandish ones it's actually more real that you might think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Romand