Highly Overrated But Still Good

An absolute waste of money

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

THE STATE WITHIN is a six episode series from BBC that has class, excellent writing, top notch acting and enough twists and turns of story line to keep the viewer on the edge of the seat for the six hours it plays. Written by Michael Offer and Daniel Perceval (who also directs 3 of the episodes while Lizzie Mickery directs 3 others) the script is tight, the pacing deliberately fast, and the insertion of new characters into almost every episode serves not as distracting but as additive suspense. Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs in one of his finest roles) is the British Ambassador to the United States. The series opens with the explosion of an airplane over Dulles International Airport in Washington DC and Brydon must respond to what appears to be a terrorist plot. But who is the terrorist and who is the country behind the plot? Brydon is supported by his undersecretary Nicholas Brocklehurst (Ben Daniels, also wholly convincing in a tough role) and they must face the US government in the person of Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner (Sharon Gless, proving that she is a fine dramatic actress) and her undersecretary Christopher Styles (the always superb Noam Jenkins). There are clues that unravel slowly, fingers that point to a small Middle Eastern country, currently beset by political problems, not the least of which involve American corporate gains. Informers and witness are knocked off right and left and there are intelligence issues in both the British and the US camps that play on the concepts that Warner is financially involved in the plot and Brydon is compromised by a relationship that is related to the little country's dilemma. It is a rush to the finish to resolve all the subterfuge and it is played out very well by a large cast of excellent actors. One comment should be made about this BBC production: as opposed to films made in this country: there is a frank and well acted same sex encounter between Brocklehurst and Styles in the first episode that sets the pace for the tenor of the story. No items of personal business are left unnoticed in this manipulation of information and the extremes that can be taken. While it is a suspense thriller, there is a lot of space for very real interpersonal relationships to unfold. Highly recommended entertainment, with special kudos to BBC for having the courage to explore topics so stringently avoided by American films. Grady Harp

This thriller can be described as "24" without the action but with the same wonderful twists and turns. Not until the fourth episode you get some sense what the story is about. Of course the plot seems far fetched. But if you look at Bush and his policy it suddenly is closer to home than you imagine. It is also obvious that this series is some sort of protest or at least criticism against US policy regarding terrorists and the death penalty. (The attention this sub plot got was gripping drama at best. Excellent performance by Lennie James!) We get some insight what a British ambassador does and needs to do in order to maintain his position. Jason Isaacs who is most famous for portraying villains is wonderful and amazing as the main character. Tough,diplomatic,a man of action and not afraid to show his compassion and emotion. He really shows it all. What more do you want. Good performances,intriguing plot and solid entertainment! I hope we will see more of shows like this in the future.

Seconds after taking off from Washington, flight 113 to London explodes over the city, causing loss of life in the sky and on the ground. Outgoing UK ambassador to Washington Mark Brydon is on the ground when it happens and witnesses first hand the tragic events. US Secretary of Defence Lynne Warner is giving a speech at a business event and is rushed away when she learns of the "attack". A former UK ambassador to Turkistan criticises the US and UK for ignoring human rights violations there. A military training exercise in Virginia sees a solider dead, stripped of ID and dumped in a river. A British prisoner on death row sees the hours ticking away on his appeal. The news that flight 113 was bombed by a British Muslim sees the Governor of Virginia rounding up British Muslims in his state. Meanwhile in Washington, Brydon's attempts to minimise the political fallout sees him drawn into a bigger conspiracy than he could have imagined as connections between the bomber and US interests in Turkistan come to the fore.The first episode opens quickly, matching the dizzy speed that the camera moves around, with a bomb bringing down a passenger plane. This opening looks to grab you and hold you because the writers know that they all viewers are going to be thrown into the middle of a lot of detail and be asked to keep up with it even though the connections will not start coming together for an episode or two (baring in mind this only was six episodes long). Obviously I didn't know this at the start and I confess I did find the first two episodes to be demanding of attention without giving a lot back. However sticking with it does see all the pieces fall into place in a rather convoluted but engaging web of twists and developments. The conspiracy is sadly believable and the series builds a plot that 24 would be proud of – albeit with a bit less action.The delivery is solid and enjoyable with an intelligently building narrative that does reward paying attention. Aside from the early plane crash grabbing attention, there isn't 24 levels of action and some viewers may find it quite talky but the series doesn't seem concerned with this – to its credit. The whole production looks professional and expensive but at times the shaky camera-work is a distraction – in moderation it isn't a problem but some episodes felt like it had been filmed during an earthquake! The narrative does have one glaring problem within it and that is the issue of political bias. If you are right-wing and believe that the Iraq war was right and that it was all about WMD (or regime change or whatever the official reason is as you read this) then you will probably hate this series because the whole plot is essentially a very unsubtle parallel with Iraq (in regards US going to war obviously – the whole "fabricating the war thing is total fiction!). As a bit of a liberal, this element didn't bother me that much but at times it was all a bit obvious and unimaginative in regards the underlying ideas.The cast is a strange mix but mostly pretty good despite some of them betraying the limited budget of the piece. Isaacs runs the show and he delivers a solid leading man who holds the attention well. Below him the biggest name is Sharon Gless; she is OK but somehow she doesn't convince in her role. Ben Daniels is as good as Isaacs in his rather shadowy role. O'Reilly is very so-so while James and Pearson were surprise finds in supporting roles. The rest all do well enough in their various characters as this isn't a story that asks a lot of depth from the supporting actors so much as it asks for solid turns.Overall then a pretty enjoyable and engaging conspiracy thriller. The cast are mostly good and work well with a script that rewards paying attention with a satisfying story. The basic idea is a bit obvious and will annoy hawks with its obvious political bias but mostly it should be good enough to please casual viewers as long as you don't expect it to be action packed and contain all the gloss and budget of 24 (for example).

With so much over-hyped mediocrity about we often here claims that programmes get better with every episode - but in this case it really is true! Absolutely riveting stuff this. Tightly scripted, lots of characters with ambiguous motives, very little is cut and dried, but with still enough "boo hiss" baddies to satisfy. It's not very often we get to see a political thriller where anything could happen, to any of the leading characters, at any time and this helps to build on, and at least maintain, the tension and sense of threat throughout.Only into the third episode, but this is already a classic. I really hope it doesn't peter out or cop out towards its conclusion. But I have a funny feeling it won't disappoint. The only reason this didn't get a 10 from me is because I've not seen it all yet.