Hopefully I'll be wrong but, having seen the lengthy preview on tonight's Crime Thriller programme on ITV3, The Interceptor looks a pretty tame version of The Wire.
Worst of all. the producers talked it up without having the decency to credit what seemed to be their progamme's obvious inspiration.
So it is not a bit like THE SWEENEY,TARGET,GANGSTERS,SOFTLY SOFTLY TASK FORCE ,MIT or any other British cop show made since the 1960s?
(Sorry I am an old guy and I recall TARGET a long forgotten series was based on a regional crime squad targeting big crime figures.)
Everything is influenced by everything else,would THE WIRE have ever existed without HILL STREET BLUES or NYPD BLUE,or HOMICIDE LIFE ON THE STREETS?
I'm an old guy as well ib! I watched the programmes you mention, but I wouldn't group them together as 'more of the same'.
The US shows you mention were, to me, a progression of sorts: Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, Homicide, The Wire.
I hope I'm wrong about this new show and it turns out to be great, I need a decent gritty crime series to watch. But that little feature I referred to didn't promise much I'm afraid.
It wasn't inspired by The Wire, it was inspired by the book The Interceptor.
shareThe book published in 2010, 8 years after The Wire?
Is that you Cameron, author of The Interceptor? Whether or not, I hope the series turns out to be a classic.
I based my original post solely on the piece in the Bradley Walsh hosted crime fiction programme on ITV3. Yours may well turn out to be an altogether different beast, but I thought The Wire should have got a mention maybe?
Best of luck with it anyway. I'll be watching and hoping. And kudos for the work in your proper job, judging by the Amazon blurb.
Thanks! The book was written 2008-2010 at a time when I'm pretty sure I'd never even heard of the wire. The book is 99% true, so not inspired by anything David Simon has done. Absolutely loved the wire and the corner but the interceptor book is just about a few years in the middle of my career. The book 'inspires' the TV show and the storylines are a mixture of based on fact & complete fiction!
shareI wish my career had been interesting enough to write a book and a TV series based on just a few years of it!
I see it's being previewed on BBC at the moment, so best of luck with it.
I'm watching it now and it has a 90's feel to it reminiscent of The Knock
shareI'm watching it now and it has a 90's feel to it reminiscent of The Knock
shareIts nothing like The Wire. The publicity from the BBC compares it to The Professionals and Spooks. Its nothing like that.
I remember Target. The Beebs answer to The Sweeney.
Its that man again!!
Feels like a weak-sauce WIRE to me. The drug game, burners, surveillance, ragtag team of cops, scores to settle, etc.
But, it's just so meh. The acting is meh, the characterization is meh, the chase/action sequences are half-assed and corny as feck, the storyline is like wuh!?
It just a lot of smoke but no fire. Pass.