Chris Ryan's Strikeback

All the characters in it have only appeared in the one novel written by Chris Ryan, I doubt they could carry the story on to another series unless Ryan was able to write a sequel.

They could base any new series on his first 4-5 books which all feature the same character. The Kremlin Device and 10th Man Down would make a brilliant series.
 
Im off to watch the final 2 episodes. Haven't been able to watch this till now. But first Ill carry out the chore that is watching the penultimate episode of flashForward. At least watching Strike Back straight after will make my evening end on a good note!
 
I don`t agree!! the unit was an excellent show that should never have been axed. i am enjoying strike back though and richard armitage is great. i wonder if he`ll be a future bond?
 
Bloody daft. Why didn't the women just steal his phone and text the vote in themselves? They stole the jeep from them, after all.

I've watched some of this series and it is reasonably enjoyable in a brainless video game kind of way but the "plot" has more holes in it than Andrew Lincoln's character had at the end.

If Collinson killed the 3 soldiers using Porter's UMP, what difference did it make when a bullet from the same weapon was recovered from the third soldier? How was this knowledge used to blackmail Collinson? Also, if Collinson was redeemed at the end by sacrificing himself, how can Porter use the information to clear his own name without speaking ill of the dead?

If Sky have the budgets available to do this kind of drama, they could at least get someone to write a decent script instead of adapting the kind of drivel that Chris Ryan "writes". It was, however, good to see a military drama that doesn't have to use North Wales as the setting for everywhere from Zimbabwe to Eastern Europe and even better to see a quality cast instead of the embarrassing line-up in Ultimate Farce.

Of course, the combat scenes are straight out of Commando comics with Terry Taliban unable to hit a barn door at 5 metres while our heroes unerringly slot the ragheaRAB out to 300 metres, often with unstocked AK47s. Having said that, it was unlucky for Ewan Bremner's character that the only sniper in the entire Taliban rocked up at the RV and shot him cleanly through the head from c100 metres with a single shot from an assault rifle.
 
After a pile of American nonsense that stretches 24 episodes into countless series and boring us all to tears at the same time, this was blooming refreshing.

Lots of action and story wrapped up in 2 hours, what more could you want.

I cheered every time another fundamentalist was dispatched to his 50+ virgins.

Good macho bullshit fun.
 
I quite liked it. Felt a bit strange with the 2 actresses from "Mistresses" in it. Then Tariq from Eastenders turned up and I said "oh no"! I then expected Dot Cotton to be in the next scene :o
 
Because they had no evidence until then?
Presumably the bodies of the deal soldiers left behind were never recovered. Only the third soldier still alive had the evidence inside him.
 
Forgot this was on - just "acquiring it" and gonna sit down to watch it tomorrow! Not many seem to have watched this judging by the little activity on here!
 
Having seen all of Strike Back, and despite the climax to the background story, I still find myself saying, where is the rest!! Against my expectations I have thoroughly enjoyed this and I hope they have not established two terrific characters like John Porter and Layla and this is all there is.

Yes, you can find faults with it, but it is only meant to be an entertaining action drama and won't ever accurately represent the conditions and conflicts portrayed. It is perhaps because they have achieved a decent level of realism in some respects, that the lighter, meant to be humorous moments, and the necessary licence taken so our hero does not get killed, might sometimes seem a bit daft.

To my way of thinking, from the casting of Richard Armitage as John Porter through to the production choices re filming and locations etc, it has been done extremely well, with realism enough to make for interesting characters and relationships, plenty of tension, and plenty of action, and I want to continue on the ride.
 
"story wrapped up in 2 hours" - it's got 4 more hours to run!

And it was absolute rubbish. Chris Ryan will be crying in his weak lager. there isn't an OUNCE of character development compared to the book, and the book is a lighweight read at best. Unimaginitive direction, massively leaden dialogue from once-quite-good writer Jed Mercurio, terrible over-exposition, inaccurate uniforms, crap costuming....oh I could go on. Just awful.
 
That particular Iraq story was wrapped up in 2 hours. Next week looks like some tin pot African country gets a taste of British steel.:D

I love independent cinema to a point and wordy dramas but once in a while it's nice to kick back, shut the PC nonsense in the cellar and enjoy a good old shoot em up.

The main character and the plot reminded me of George Clooney in The Peace Maker, another super human soldier taking them all on.

Surprised that it was penned by Jed Mercurio. I have worked with him on another project that was shelved but I really enjoyed his hospital drama "Bodies".
 
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