MovieChat Forums > Mad Dogs (2011) Discussion > Anyone Else Not Feeling Series 2?

Anyone Else Not Feeling Series 2?


The second series is obviously not without *some* interest or merit (I like the flashbacks and the fleshing out of some characters and situations. The increasingly comedic elements have lightened the tone in places too).

At any rate, series two is to be credited for having an entirely different 'feel' to the first series. We can't accuse them of making the same show twice - only that there appears to be little reason for anyone to return here again.

Unlike the first series, there is very little in the way of mystery or intrigue, let alone a building of tension or menace. As importantly, there is no sense of disorientation or whether they can really trust the people they encounter.

I remember looking forward to each episode every week last year - which is not something that can said this year. Each successive episode decreases my interest in the show's characters and situations.

Three episodes in, and the story just seems to be going through the motions - the lads run here, and they run there with clear objectives in mind towards a recognizable (and not particularly scary) villain.


Unless something interesting (distinctive, surprising) happens in the final episode, the second series appears to be a complete bust.

I suppose what I'm saying is: there seems to be little point to it and I'm not sure why they thought they had another (third) series in them after this - let alone a female version in the form of the spin off Mad Cats.

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Don't agree at all. What is remarkable about Mad Dogs (and I've just finished series one and two, but haven't yet seen any more) is that it holds the same tone throughout from series one. Overall it's somewhere between way-out fantasy and the kind of stupid coincidences which might befall any guy spending a bit of time in a Med resort.

And that second reason - the sheer normality of the four guys caught in and ever worsening scenario - which I like and which allows the viewer to empathise. Cris Cole and everyone else are managing to tread a fine line, and so far (see above) have managed that 100pc. There are no *beep* macho heroics, the story is no more fanciful than happens in real life (real life can be very odd, too), each of the four characters is well-drawn and remains so. It is also, at times, laugh out loud funny, a damn sit funnier than all those synthetic, formulaic gross-out comedies Hollywood keeps churning out by the dozen.

I read that this was first pitched to the BBC etc, but they wanted so much control and so many changes that the production company feared it would be changed beyond what they wanted to make and so went to Sky who said go ahead. And that's great. a BBC etc would have been just more of the same old *beep* they insist on producing, each on a clone of the others. There is the same scenario in the US where cable and subscription channels such as HBO have changed the game completely by making the kind of shows NBC, CBS and ABC would not dare make for fear of 'upsetting the advertiser'.

Keep this one up, guys, you get my vote at the very least, but I'm sure that of many others, too.

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A friend insists that this season is really about a double cross - and so is working towards the 'twist' of having the local money girl betray the lads (he even thinks the hanging of her partner was staged).

What do you guys think? I initially thought possibly (when we first meet her and the guys are not sure whether they should be trusting her) but that makes no sense since they've trusted her and the car blew up...but maybe he's right.

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But we know it was the guy on the beach that set up the bombing. She also wanted to go with them to had the money over but Baxter said no.

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I think the point is that she's working with Mr Big aka ice cream man.

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I hope not cause then its just doing the same thing as the first season

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And it wouldn't be much of a surprise either - we suspected a double cross from the outset, and the 'twist' appeared to be that she was what she seemed.

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Ok, so the second season was a transitional season, and the 'twist' is that there appears to be no way out for the boys. Once they made their decision to take the money and run, they've found themselves immersed in quicksand.

Not a complete bust...just not all that interesting.

It will be interesting to see, though, what happens to them in (hopefully) the final season: will their friendship survive now that they've been forced into working off their karmic debt, who will live or die, etc?

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I agree totally with your post. seems like series 2 was made as a transition into series 3. I found that there seemed to be less of the dark humour in this one and more slapstick nonsense. I mean Tiny Blair was an inspired character and as for this costa del crime gangster, well that just doesn't wash. You would just phone Interpol, grass him up and be deported. He needed to be much more frightening. The writers could have annoyed people so much that we won't come back for series 3.

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I entirely agree. Aside from the backstory that gives us a slightly different light on events, there is nothing in Season 2 that is remotely necessary. After the Season 1 suspense/hysterical comedy of watching four essentially innocent men hiding bodies and panicking about what unseen forces are after them, we come down to money laundering, self-conscious quirkiness, an unbelievable romance (Really? Afternoon love when people are trying to kill you?) and a lot of long shots of cars on country roads. The only thing I truly enjoyed was Philip Glenister's beyond-despair Quinn facing off against David Warner in the trailer - and I was already tired of Warner doing yet another take on jaded evil. They should have wrapped it up with an extra episode in Season 1.

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I'm just gonna say it: John Simm sex scenes. Those alone made Mad Dogs 2 a winner. Looking forward to series 3 in April.

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[wicked wicked laugh] Oh yeah.

But really, I do watch this just for Glenister and Simm. It helps me relive Life on Mars. That show almost makes me desire amnesia so I can discover it again.

She doesn't leave evidence, just an evidence shaped absence - Luther

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