User reviews

This five-part mini-series started superbly. A dramatic first episode, full of incident, laid out the main themes and built up the tension. The next two episodes maintained the tension, developing the near-future main storyline about a surveillance society and its impact on citizens. Robert Carlyle appeared (and disappeared), as threatening as only he can be and kept the excitement level high.

But then it faded away. The plots became too convoluted, with too many themes and unresolved or unnecessary twists – notably a scene where Carlyle creeps into a house and downloads a laptop. What was that about? And the final episode was so disappointing – it was as though the writer (Peter Berry) had only enough material for half an episode. So the pace slowed down, the increasingly unconvincing love story took over, with long, lingering and time-wasting glances, and the main surveillance theme sank under the weight of biological, genetic and political extra plots that led nowhere. It could have been a gripping thriller if it had been stripped down to a feature-length film but in the end it only left the feeling that five hours had been wasted. And this is despite excellent performances, particularly by Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Carlyle and Geraldine James - the script could not match their talents.

And it is not just because I am Romanian, either. I agree, the series is a bit slow at times; things happen that cannot possibly happen at others. But it is worth watching it till the last episode, which pretty much explains away most of the inconsistencies.

Saying anything about the subject would spoil it, so I'll just say this: I have a friend who despises all corporate or governmental attempts to control the individual. If he would have seen this series, he would have paced nervously the whole time, cursing as he walks.

It is medium budget UK/Romania coproduction about the perils of personal data processing in a not too distant future. Most of the things in the series is possible even now, if they would have more powerful cameras installed and a bunch of software analyzing every bit of data in real time.

Bottom line: definitely worth watching, as one of the few quality series that are also believable, make a point and are also dark not all about how to make the audience comfy in their potato couches. And if Robert Carlyle plays in it, it is a must see.

I really hate giving anything with Benedict Cumberbatch in it a 6, but this time I have to.

"The Last Enemy" has a brilliant premise that practically has happened - total information about everyone at all times in the UK. A mathematician, Stephen Ezard (Cumberbatch), who has been working ivory tower style in China, returns to England for his brother's funeral. There, he meets his brother's widow Yasim (the gamine Anamaria Marinca). In her unhappiness and loneliness, she reaches out to Stephen (it's Cumberbatch, who could resist) and he falls madly in love with her.

Stephen's ex-girlfriend works for the government and recommends him to help with a new information system, TIA (Total Information Awareness), the ultimate information gatherer. With the job comes the promise of funding his work. Stephen uses his access to TIA to investigate what happened to his brother.

Okay, that's sort of plot one. Plot two is a virus that's killing people in the middle east. It is impossible to discover the etiology of the virus because a) the bodies are destroyed immediately so no one can get a blood sample; and b) bioscientists are suddenly dying left and right.

My major problem with this series is that the writer waited too long to meld these two plots. The other problem for me was Robert Carlyle, an excellent actor, but was he a good guy or a bad guy? I'm embarrassed to say I never figured it out.

Otherwise, the story is chilling because it's becoming true. And the performances - Cumberbatch is perfection as a man forced into reality and absolutely terrified. I don't think I've ever seen a male character in anything act this frightened, but it is right on. He had great chemistry with Marinca, who did a fine job as well.

Definitely worth seeing, though your attention may drift from time to time. This could have been a fantastic miniseries if it had been put together just a little better. Very thought-provoking nonetheless.

You have to be focused/undisturbed/observant to watch this ( so far, I have viewed episode 1 only at 9pm). Up to par with all the other UK, BBC, PBS British mystery series .. etc. It re-broadcasts here in 2 hrs at 1am. So you can be sure that I will be tuned-in.

Like a good book, a second reading reveals twists, comments and turns of a phrase missed in the first reading. Looking forward to the other episodes (weekly here).

This is masterful, captivating, suspenseful and ladened with detail.

Little text is needed, the actors' expressions convey well the mood and foreboding of the events to come.

This series eclipses the violent/sadistic/illiterate/inane scripts we here are so often subjected to by the US media - British mystery remains unsurpassed; how can it fail ? It dominates.

Enjoy !

Best Regards

This isn't the best of British TV. TLE is just "OK." Too long and too many storylines. They could have compressed 5 hrs into 2 or 3, and it would have been far better.

Now 2 episodes in and this show is really picking up pace. The first episode had the difficult job of setting up this complex story, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's great to see the BBC make some drama that challenges the viewers in the way that the best American shows do. The plot is complicated but I for one want to know where it's going.

The acting in general is excellent but special praise has to go to Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the socially inept Stephen to perfection. It is also good to hear Robert Carlyle's character get to have his share of dialogue after his silent opening episode as he is such a great screen presence. This is a slow burner, but none the less gripping for that, and I can't wait to find out where it's headed.

It isn't difficult to be paranoid about the intrusiveness of the computers, cameras and new ways of identification. The possibilities of misuse and control are immense. Ergo, comes this more than slightly disheveled and confusing TV mini series. It bombards us with gadgets and technical lingo, and unfortunately most of the time forgets about people and their motifs, what makes them tick and bleed. In this world in near future there is no way of escaping, our all existence is monitored and recorded, under the guise of anti-terrorism and state security.I do not disagree with the concerns of this TV show, for me the problem with it is that it does not manage to fully connect us or make us care for the protagonists. In the end it is like a cold video game for lonely souls not unlike most of the characters of this moderately successful endeavor.

I liked this mini-series. I wandered in looking for more of Benedict Cumberbatch's work after seeing his great performance in "Sherlock" (which I give 5 stars). This multi-episode story held my attention throughout, and Cumberbatch played well a genius astounded at what was unfolding around him. You can't look away from the screen though because they don't dumb it down for you. One must pay attention. Sure, there are definitely some holes in the fabric the filmmakers weave, and some thin spots you could easily rip wide open... but I am going thumbs up on the drama as a whole. I cared about the characters and what their ultimate fate would be.

Of far more importance however then the drama itself is the obtuse message delivered by the producers. We are on the verge of losing what remains of our personal liberty. The England painted by the film makers is not some maybe, kind of, far off 'Mad Max' could-be dystopian future. It is more of a 'Max Headroom' world that is looming up all around us. The world of The Last Enemy is just around the corner. In fact, we are at least half way around that corner. Much of the suggested technology appears to be here already (and micro-biologists ARE dying at an unusually high rate).

Many well-intended people --such as portrayed in 'The Last Enemy"-- think strong controls on the populace is a logical means of preventing terrorism and related crimes. History does not bear that philosophy out however. You can't gain freedom by removing freedom. Given the current state of the evolution of human consciousness, powers given to the Government are used. At first. Then they are mis-used. Then they are ab-used. Every single time. Treatments such as 'The Last Enemy' help point out the futility of 1984 style controls placed on the populace. Our best way out of the dilemma the world faces is instead through individuals raising their own consciousness. We MUST evolve or freedom WILL die.

btw - A title I can think of that might interest those who liked this film is the British political mini-series 'The Amazing Mrs Pritchard'. For those wanting to learn more regarding the themes presented in 'The Last Enemy' have an abundance of choices in video. Two that come to mind are the black dystopian comedy from Terry Gilliam 'Brazil', and the documentary 'Ayn Rand & the Philosophy of Atlas Shrugged'.

I went to this for Benedict in the first place, but when I finished I found that the story was more exciting. Very good plot, every things were quite confusing in the first few episodes, and I didn't understand the whole thing until the last one. There could be some improvements in the way they delivered the story to make it more clear and intense. You need to be patient to wait for 2 or 3 episodes to get an idea of what's going on because they've been laying too much clues around and not connecting them till the last sec. They also spent quite a few shots on drawing the social background. But towards the end it was irresistible to see where the characters will end up despite their struggles. And at the last few scenes I did get horrid, thrilling feelings that the story tried to create. It made me so disgusted about what's happening in that fictional world and that's why I found this series quite nice.

The cast was good. All actors/actresses were delivering fantastic performances. (And I am more than happy to see what a brilliant job that Benedict did in this).

Overall, don't expect this show will be witty or delighting or full of fun. It followed the George Orwell "1984" and in a sense, dull, but still alarming. In my view it was unnecessarily lengthy, but not intolerable. So if you are after some kind of serious drama on political conspiracies, this one worth a try.

Given its cast of A-list actors, I was surprised that I had never heard of this 15 year old series before. Once I began to watch, I understood why. While well-acted and produced, the tone was so consistently dark, and the plot so fuzzy, I was regularly struggling to figure out what was going on. It strove to be clever and wound up being confusing. It strove to be enlightening and wound up being depressing. It was hard to empathize with or root for the characters because it was hard to figure out who the good guys were. The real protagonist of the drama was the police state. The series took pains to show us the dangers of the surveillance state, but then offered no solution. The show wasn't terrible, but it was quite a waste of computer and medical jargon.

This is definitely worth watching if you are a fan of George Orwell's famous novel "1984". The series takes on much of the same material and ends in an equally depressing way. So if you are not bothered by the lack of a happy end, go ahead and watch this. Aside from the frustrating story, this does include some fabulous acting, though. Benedict Cumberbatch gave an Oscar-worthy performance. He really did all he could with his - admittedly - rather badly written character, Steven Ezard. It was very hard to emphasize with Steven because he was so unpredictable and not all of the inconsistencies could be chalked up to his mental state. But BC managed to draw you onto his side, at least. The script itself has some confusing dialogue and takes a long time to explain what was actually going on. It's okay that you have to keep guessing who's on what side but the key elements of the story and the main parties should have become clearer a lot sooner. Still, the time to review the series' issue is certainly here. Public surveillance and monitoring of individual citizens is not a distant vision any more like it was for George Orwell. It is very real and present at this date. Just think about smartphones. Or credit cards, bonus club cards,... Let's not even start with CCTV! We really ARE just one small step away from the scenario in this series and that is a system to combine and cross-reference all the data gathered through the various monitoring tools. If something like that would be found you'd be just where "The Last Enemy" begins. So, the series might be founded on frightening fiction that will probably become fact really fast, but it still should have ended on a more uplifting note. I do hope our future is not THAT bleak.

This is a superb conspiracy thriller series (5 hours) set in the immediate future, about the threat we all now face from the surveillance society, where there is no privacy left at all. In this series, a chilling new British surveillance system called T. I. A. (for Total Information Awareness) is being launched by the British Government, so that everything about everybody can be known by the Government at the click of a mouse. Since Britain is already the most monitored society on earth (one CCTV camera for every eleven people, for instance), it was correct to make the British Government the villains of this series, as their present mania for total surveillance is well known to everyone, and already surpasses anything the Stasi could ever have dreamed of, and in any case the current British Government is only supported now by about 15% of the population, and everybody is waiting for them to be thrown out in 2010. Whether the new Government will then dismantle any CCTV cameras is another matter, but at least ID cards will be cancelled and the DNA database of innocent people and children will be ordered progressively destroyed, though that process will take many years. In this series the lead character is played by a bumbling, goofy, indecisive and wimpish Benedict Cumberbach, who portrays a young mathematician who has won the Field Medal in mathematics (the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize) for a brilliant theorem. His former girlfriend is now the minister introducing T.I.A., and she wants to recruit him to speak out on its behalf. This involves his having access to its workings. He has an older brother whom he barely knows, and with whom he has never had friendly relations. This brother is in Afghanistan, where he is apparently killed by a bomb. However, this brother, played by Max Beesley, has not been killed after all and returns to Britain under an alias to investigate who tried to kill him. It is all connected with those scheming pharmaceutical companies and a devilish Government plan to inject nano-technological identifiers into the bloodstreams of everyone on earth for universal ID card readouts by detectors on every street corner. Lots of people get killed, because control freaks enjoy that. Meanwhile, the brother's beautiful and mysterious wife, played by the fascinating Anamaria Marinca (one of those rare girls who commands attention even when shorn of her hair to an alarming degree, so that if she were less alluring she would look like one of those girls who had their heads shaved at the Liberation of Paris for sleeping with the Nazis), falls for Cumberbatch. This is the one thing that is really hard to believe in the series, because Cumberbatch could not be less appealing to any gal, I should have thought. But there is no accounting for taste or for casting directors. There is a mysterious man played with intense menace by Robert Carlyle, who when he finally speaks turns out to have an impenetrably think Scottish accent. The minister ex-girl friend also has a strong Northern Ireland accent. Certainly every attempt was made to ensure that this series could not possibly sell in America, as no one there could conceivably understand a word several of the regionally accented actors say. I suppose this is what is called 'the multi-accentual society', guaranteeing that no one can understand anyone else. Maybe it is the only way to defeat mass surveillance, if you speak in an incomprehensible accent. Eva Birthistle is superb as the chirpy but chilling minister, and old pro Geraldine James (who has never failed to deliver) is utterly terrifying as a behind the scenes power-wielder who guards the gates to the Prime Minister's office and is capable of anything. It is all thoroughly convincing and gripping stuff. It is very much an edge-of-the-potato-couch experience. And it is really important, as the message is loud and clear and everybody needs to hear it, so tell all your friends.

After one episode I probably won't bother watching more, watching all these people acting with all their might makes me tired.

However, one thing really puzzles me: the idea that the concept or even the exact NAME is original. As a matter of historical fact the US was developing an actual comprehensive DB on all citizens in the 1990s literally called "T.I.A.", except the "A" stood for "Access" instead of "Awareness", if memory serves.

The actual program was abandoned as being "too intrusive" but there is a lot of information that the program was simply adjusted and renamed.

It's weird to watch a show that presents something that existed 20 years ago as fanciful or futuristic. TIA was old even BEFORE Snowden.

Because I have the part of a tali ban there, "Dark Glasses". Was working with David Harewood in the movie. Wore the infamous Bin Laden cap, and dark glasses. .doh. Clean-up operations, . .corpse dispatchers. . Filming it was such a great experience with Director Iain B MacDonald. Very hot weather, up there in the mountains. The crew was great and had a wonderful time there. Never met Robert Carlyle on set (because we had different filming locations and schedule, even though we where connected in the movie, through communication stuff, I mean a cellular phone..I missed the opportunity to talk to Max Beesley about his part in "Torque". He was too focused on his role and didn't dare to bother him. Was just curious. .don't know if I'll ever get a copy of this episode. Just let me know if Episode 3 is coming.

Thanks,

Dark Glasses

I loved this show so much. It has suspense and romance and betrayal. It has Benedict Cumberbatch in it for goodness sake. It will rip out your heart and make you wanna cry ( I know I did), but you will enjoy the experience. This is one of the most brilliant works I have seen in a long time and I recommend it fully and completely. The Actors do an amazing job and even I loved how mysterious the plot was. Even when you have all the pieces, nothing is as it seems. There are plot twists every few minutes and as an avid suspense film watched, the fact that I couldn't guess the ending was brilliant. I loved this show, every second of it.

Even though this miniseries is 16 years old, the scenarios it presents are within the realm of possibility in today's world. Not wanting to actually give any real consequential plot, I must say this series of 5 episodes reminds me a bit of the "Left Behind" series of books which were, of course, based on the book of Revelation in the Bible. Not to say there is any aspect of religion contained therein, but the ability of certain groups to believe they are wiser than all others and know what is best for any and everyone, whether just plain folks agree or not. Kinda terrifying, in my opinion. And based on "This is being done for security." As always Benedict Cumberbatch gives an amazing realistic believable performance. I would not be surprised to find the basis of this story is happening somewhere today.

This is the same, formulaic, paranoid, dystopian crap that's done over and over, but with a different McGuffin.

Cumberbatch, is as always, excellent, but can't save the general unoriginality of this thing.

Really sorry I rented the first DVD, will not rent any more of it.