Paradox [DVD]

I gave this four stars because to be honest I really enjoyed the concept and execution of the series on their own terms. As well as appreciating the edge-of-seat tension that is ramped up through each of the episodes, for me, "Paradox" treats the whole business of seeing/changing the future in a more sophisticated way than FlashForward has done up to now. The moral, ethical and practical conundrums of playing with destiny are always central to the story. Dr King very pertinently asks, at what must be the half-way point of the series: "Which is the bigger risk - do something, or do nothing?", and DI Flint's holy grail of a "victimless crime" soon turns out to be a poisoned chalice. The main characters may start off as a frankly unlikeable, annoying bunch, but we do see them all being deeply affected by the extraordinary dilemmas presented by the images that are so bafflingly served up to them, and thus they all become much more interesting as the series progresses.

That's the good stuff. The negative aspect, as pointed out by a previous reviewer, is the undeniable fact that we only get HALF a story. Without giving away the specifics, at the series' conclusion we have three of the four main characters in deep trouble and then, as a parting shot, a tantalizing hint as to where the images MIGHT be coming from. And that's it, end of. Writer Lizzie Mickery must be furious, she had apparently set the story up to run over two, possibly three seasons, and now it appears that this one season is all the BBC is prepared to give us.. It gives me no incentive at all to invest time and attention on future BBC drama series, and as a result, I can't give this DVD the five stars which its fascinating premise and exciting execution probably deserve. To me, it's still a work in progress. I can only urge you to watch "Paradox", enjoy it and wonder what might have been! (Oh, and if Ms Mickery ever fancies turning her screenplay into a novel to explain it all...)

Paradox was a good and inteligent British Science Fiction series and was well recieved. It has themes already explored in other Science Fiction series but there is a mystery as what exactly is going on. And we never get to find out because the BBC decided to axe this series after only a few episodes. There was a lot of potential wasted because of that decision. But of course the BBC are more interested in giving us decades of Casualty and Holby, endless cookery programmes, un funny new comedians, mind numbing reality shows, programmes with the same predictable plots and faces and the usual brain washing tripe. Why would we want something different to that?.
Like a simular show from the mid 1990s "Crime Traveller" that also was clever, inteligent, had hints of time travel and was also axed, this series has some good use of the science fiction genre. The BBC showed that they still have a set agenda of "what we like" even in 2009.
This is a good mini series that hopefully is safe on DVD.

On paper the concept sounds good. Paradox has much in common with series like CSI, New Tricks and Waking The Dead, only the clues are available to the team before the event occurs in the form of images relayed from space by a satellite. There's an unexplained sci-fi element, but it all sounds almost plausible.

So the team faces dilemmas like should they/shouldn't they try to manipulate events, save lives, break the law, that kind of thing. And they don't always succeed, which is a novel twist. Sometimes they are just too late to prevent disaster, sometimes powerless to act, other times they achieve their goal with unforseen consequences. This creates much tension within the team which often boils over and sadly sometimes becomes less convincing than images from the future.

Which brings me on to the less successful aspect of the series, the actual realisation. The acting is not the best, the characters not as believable and realistic as they should be (easy to forget they are police officers, they seem all too willing to commit crimes), and the scientist geek character and shadowy MOD figures are walking clichés. That said the supporting guest characters are usually very good and believable.

I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives. It's thought-provoking entertainment, not in a "is time travel possible?" kind of way, that isn't central to the series, but in a moral issues "should I kill one to save ten?" kind of way. So if you like things like CSI and a bit of sci-fi nonsense you might like this. I'd certainly watch a second series.