By Any Means

hello fellow TV show addicts,

please excuse a little explanation at the beginning. this is the first time i feel obligated to write here on IMDb. For quite a while i am overall a little disturbed by the sometimes extreme ratings for shows here on IMDb. As if there were only tens and zeros out there. In my opinion one needs to learn to differentiate a bit in his life. To moan about an overall decline in values, the wasting of taxpayers money and other exaggerated, demagogic ranting just because of a TV-show? Really? Over here in many of central Europe's other countries public service broadcasting is still your granny's TV. Limited to two Channels, broadcasting News, some decent reports and besides that mostly breakfast television, dusty whodunit repetitions and other things with a slightly relicish feel.

All that in mind back to topic:

This TV-show may not be another Luther, Sherlock nor any other high end, ingeniously plotted, exquisitely acted, overall gorgeous, critically acclaimed, kick-ass TV-marvel. but, does it need to be? does it want to?

i stumbled upon this new format by accident whilst looking for new things to watch. I liked the leading actor quite a lot on Luther, so i gave it a try. Thankfully before reading any reviews. A decent meal can leave you quite satisfied after a long day, doesn't it? And like that this show works for me. Yes, you can see right through the webbing of this show. The lead, the geek, the eye candy. Does a twist even deserve to be called a twist if you expected it right on time? rather not. The almost comical black and white views on good and bad.

But still, i liked it. I liked to be right. I liked getting nothing unexpected. I liked the boastful appearance of the characters. I liked the snappy comments and the predictable one-liners.

So if you're looking for something to clear your head, ease your mind or have a smile now and then. I encourage you to try it.

Not every nice evening has to feature a six-course dinner.

greetings from the deep south of Bavaria

This was the starting week for many series in USA and UK. Not any real diamond among them. Most of them are bad to mediocre but so far "By Any Means" is the worst.

There are many problem with this TV-series.

First and most important all the actors and actresses lack charisma. I don't know what they have done before B.A.M. but they are totally forgettable, performance wise, even their faces. The team of 3, have the usual snob/hype attitude, common in many series, but just doesn't suits them. No charisma at all.

Second and equally important the plot. Is about a "special team" and blah-blah, blah-blah, one of them is a hacker (!), the girl is the ...locks expert, the last one is the street smart and blah-blah, blah-blah, *YAWN*. And they will catch the bad guy in a mildly smart way.

Third the pace, editing, transitions between shots, photography, music and (obviously) directing are simply annoying. (If you now a things or two about editing there is something called "light spills" that is overused here.). To put it in 2 words: Poor execution.

There is an arrest (in the pilot) that introduces (kind of) to the team stolen directly from an Al Pacino movie were the criminals think they are going to participate in some sort of Sports event. I saw it and keep asking my self: Are these people the Special team? That's how uncharismatic they are.

Anyway this has nothing to do with other BBC series like "Sherlock" in terms of fun or intelligence and you can do perfectly well without it.

Overall: Better to avoid it. (Or you will lose 57' of your life)

Headed by a Miss G. Mckee a group of plucky young people bring "justice" to those previously denied it.

Actually the girl wants to just shoot them, but is told no we don't /can't do that sort of thing.

Why not? Oh yes, because then there would be no episode.

Of course the police can't win, the lawyers/criminal are too good, never make mistakes and of course there is the usual crooked cops helping the bad guys.

Of course after saying no we don't shoot people, later Plan B is said to be exactly that, kill him.

Our boys and girl bring down those nasty men . These clever youngsters use a lot of computers which of course involves "hacking".

By Any Means is a remake of Hustle with a slight alteration: they switched Hustle's con men who go after bad guys for a vague group of 'cops' who go after bad guys, and they have different actors.

It has the same writer and creator. The same core group of good guys who operate outside conventional rules. The exact same jump cut obsessed directing. The same desire to fool the audience with trickery. The same elaborate scheming. The attempts at being cool. The 'witty,' good looking protagonists.

And the same bad writing and sad storylines.

I really like Warren Brown, and I really like spy-style shows, so this one ticks a lot of boxes. I didn't know it was meant to be a comedy, so I guess all the laughs for me were genuine. It's a bit like Jonathan Creek crossed with Spooks, with all the hi-tech undercover save the day spy stuff laced with the light-hearted feel, and the 'how did they do that?' at the end.

Don't see why people should just flat out pan the show. If the actors had a laugh whilst doing it, good for them - can't do the serious roles all the time after all. It's light hearted, but that doesn't make it a waste of licence fee - I can think of a whole lot of other dross that wins that award hands down.

If it's not for you then fair enough, but that doesn't devalue the show for other watchers who are enjoying it.

I personally am hoping for another series or two.

Yes, honestly, who pays these guys to have them say the show is bad? I want a cut, because otherwise I'm giving it at least 7 stars.

I felt the need to come here and post this review after I saw that literally everybody on this page gave it no more than 2 stars. Come on people, how close-minded can you be???

The show is like a British version of Leverage, and it is great and funny. Charismatic actors, good solid scripts (it ain't Doctor Who, but it does a very good job) and a very nice atmosphere make from this recipe a very entertaining series.

Disregard the people crushing it with their comments. They're just very bored people who probably love to watch soaps and stuff.